Children Assist Birth Certificate Procedures
After school, a girl named Lidia and some of her friends walked around the village. They knocked on the door of every house, greeted the owner, and then told them the purpose of their visit that day. Lidia wanted to record whether every child in the house already had a birth certificate and Child Identity Card (KIA). "Lidia wants all my friends and children in this village to have birth certificates and KIA because this is their right," she said. Tenacious and diligent, Lidia managed to collect data on children who did not have authentic identity documents that should be mandatory for every Indonesian citizen. She used this data to strategize the making of birth certificates and KIA for children in her village in Sekadau District.
Lidia, who is currently the Chairperson of the Village Children's Forum, initiated a series of activities. She found it difficult for parents to process their children's birth certificates and KIAs due to the complexity of filling out the forms and the distance from their homes to the Disdukcapil office. Therefore, she and other members of the Children's Forum planned a socialization on the process of issuing birth certificates, and then organized registration in the village. In this activity, Lidia and her friends were in charge of assisting the process of filling out forms and completing files.
Not only that, Lidia also escorting the process until the files were handed over to the village government and processed by Disdukcapil. As a result of Lidia's efforts, the number of children with birth certificates and KIA in her village has increased by 15%. The percentage achievement was also accompanied by an achievement for Lidia herself. "Lidia feels happy because here Lidia can learn a lot, especially to be a good leader. The good thing is that other friends are very open minded, although sometimes there are differences of opinion," she said.
In the future, Lidia still wants to continue and ensure that children who have been registered can immediately receive these two important documents. Some documents are still in the process of being issued. However, after completing the handover of all the documents, Lidia has concerns about the issue of stunting and child marriage in her village. With the skills she gained from this activity, Lidia and the members of Village Children’s Forum want to target other urgent issues. Because through this activity, Lidia herself realized how big the role and participation of children in empowering the village. How children are actually able to contribute and make efforts to the wellbeing of other children's lives.
In addition, parents, village government, and community leaders also increasingly understand how a child can knock on the door of their hearts to continue to take an active role. Children are no longer objects in the community, but subjects who are empowered, abled, and strived for the fulfillment of their rights.
"I am proud I can do something like this," Lidia concluded.
Author: Mariana Kurniawati (Communication Executive)
