Saturday, July 19, 2014

Undocumented Children - Difficulties of Paperless Status



THE JOY IN THE CHARITY was that a young girl was rescued from the street, and from being trafficked. Over the years she did exceptionally well at school, her fees for care and education being paid for by a generous benefactor. Not only did she get through her education, she graduated from post-school training cum laude and got a job. 

Promotion
Then this intrepid little lady received a promotion which would entail travel to another country. 
Thereafter came the unbelievable disappointment; she could not accept the promotion as she could not travel. 
The reason why she could not travel was that she cannot be issued a passport. 
The reason why she cannot be issued a passport is because she does not have a birth certificate. 
In effect, she - this little lady with super sized talents, ability and chutzpah - is a non-person. 
Except that there she was, as large as life, in front of me. Very obviously, not a non-person at all.

Life dealt her shattering blows; she overcame every one of them. 
Yet, the very reasonable need to keep a responsible check on the movement of people has defeated her rise upwards from the streets of her youth.
She has not been trafficked and constrained by life circumstances to earn her living in the hazardous environs of self-sale with the financial proceeds going to others. 
She avoided HIV, brutality, unplanned pregnancy that sometimes come with unplanned and trafficked self-sale.
But she has been locked by her circumstances from the joy of personal fulfilment and development in career and life that many of us have always taken for granted.

As the daughter of parents who insisted on equal and the best education they could afford for both sons and daughters, the right to vote, the right to drive and the right to travel for all their children, I took these facts for granted. As my right. As the way the world is.
I now know that I am among the world's deepest privileged.
Ability to travel, to accept the opportunities that life brings, is the greatest freedom any woman or man can have.
It is the glorious principle of true democracy in action.

Documentation is lacking
Lumiere Charity has seen great strides in orphans and children being rescued from the streets, being well educated and making new lives for themselves. 
However, once the opportunity of natural movement and promotion beckons, the difficulty arises that birth dates are not registered; parents are not known; documentation is lacking. 
Health issues arise; admission to medical treatment naturally and reasonably requires a date of birth. Any application for a pension or social assistance which a citizen is entitled to often requires documentation; possibly a birth certificate; passport number; parents' names and surnames.

The difficulty in providing relevant and reliable documentation for vulnerable children and disadvantaged is not only one facing those working on the front lines of Charity; it is a worldwide phenomenon.
- For orphans
- For displaced persons
- For refugees from war
- For rescued child soldiers
- For children and mature adults rescued from trafficking
- For orphans whose parents emigrated illegally across borders and then died from their HIV status, leaving their little ones stateless persons.




Perhaps Divine Providence has led you to read these words. 
In the spirit of Lumiere, can anything be done to help?


http://www.ibtimes.com/speaker-boehner-backs-immigration-reform-bill-legalizing-children-1349965

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishops-immigration-book-praised-for-focus-on-family-unity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29&utm_term=daily+news

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