Guiding the way toward the right to dignity

Profesor Marco Washik with his students.

“I’m Marco Washik, principal of Shimwikat de Tsentsakentsa School in the province of Morona Santiago. When an identification card team arrives, I’m responsible for working with the boys and girls of the school to see that their personal documents are in order,” says this professor.

“There are 51 children who are getting their identification cards for the first time and we have been on the road for 5 hours so that they can be taken care of today. I came ahead of the children to talk with the identification card team director and ask him to let us go first in line because it’s very costly to stay here overnight with the children. Their parents have placed their trust in us to help them all obtain their cards. I had a tough time with the parents because they didn’t have the financial resources to pay for this trip and because it would be difficult to feed the children. Even so, I made the parents understand and they realized the importance of obtaining this document, so they contributed for the trip here to Tuutinentsa, where the Civil Registry team will arrive.”

His concern grows as he walks around the office premises looking for the head of the team and sees lines of people waiting. He tells us: “The problem is that some children have a birth certificate and others do not. So those without birth certificates will have to be registered first, then request their certificates and after, obtain their cards. They were enrolled at the school without documents because as children they cannot be denied the right to an education, even though they do not have a birth certificate. Therefore, it is now my responsibility to see that all students have their legal documents so that they won’t have to face problems later on,” upholds this professor.

The National Program for Registration and Issuance of Identification Cards is carried out through mobile teams that travel to remote areas of the country to ensure that the right to be registered of every Ecuadorian child is complied with. Thanks to the use of satellite systems and power generation equipment, they can provide birth certificates and identification cards at no cost to children who have never been registered.  With this joint effort of the Vice Presidency of the Republic, Plan and other non governmental Organisations, professor Marco’s succeeded, because all his students were properly registered.

See some of the actions made by Plan in the Americas for the Universal birth registration

Back to the Americas home page