The Bravo! programme initiated the first registration campaign for the population who fled the northern areas of Mozambique due to guerrilla attacks. Refugees from the province of Cabo Delgado arrived - often taking nothing with them - in the city of Pemba, which is now home to around 200,000 internally displaced persons hosted by families in different neighbourhoods.
The campaign started on 2 November 2022 and took place in the central and easily accessible neighbourhood of Josina Machel.
The people who received birth certificates come from four districts in the province of Cabo Delgado that were attacked severely by terrorists and from which so much of the population fled.
People have been queuing since early morning: everyone needs the birth certificate, to be able to recover the documents lost during the flee or destroyed in the many fires caused by the attacks. But above all, they need the certificate to be able to enrol their children in school. People speak Maconde or Macùa because Portuguese is not widely understood, even though it is the national language.
Many women and their children had never been registered but, thanks to the Bravo! campaign, they were able to receive their first birth certificate. Among the refugees, many had never even gone to school. Cabo Delgado province's illiteracy rate is the highest in Mozambique at 52.4 per cent, while it is 39.9 per cent nationwide.
In the first month of the campaign, 1,600 birth certificates were delivered. About half were first registrations.
Bravo! also started its registration activities in three maternity hospitals in the city of Pemba, so that mothers can immediately register their babies at birth.
