Gender-based Violence Support: Where Identification, Birth Documents Don’t Exist!

During the tour of Littoral and West Regions from October 18-22, 2021, members of a joint United Nations and European Union team discovered the daily challenges faced by Internally-displaced People, IDPs. The first objective of the trip was to assess the impact of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA Cameroon ECHO-supported project running from December 2020-April 2022. It seeks to assist Gender-based Violence, GBV survivors of the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions.

The visit was also to identify potential synergies and complementarities between the newly approved UNICEF project and UNFPA’s project. Also financed by ECHO (the European Union’s humanitarian wing), UNICEF’s project will focus on child protection, education and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH activities. Meanwhile, the delegation was informed that most IDP women and young girls are not identified because they lack official papers. Like the National Identity Card and birth certificate.

“They fled the crisis in the North West and South West Regions in such hurry that there was no time to take along official documents. Some never had birth certificates before. While others lost their papers when their homes were destroyed. As a result, it is difficult to enrol such children in school or register them for certificate examinations,” a humanitarian worker in Bafoussam in the West Region explained.

She appealed to stakeholders to ensure that IDP children receive an education. “We tried to help some children to acquire birth certificates, but found out that it costs at least 15,000 FCFA per child! How can poor, desper...