An example to follow

During support activities for socio-cultural associations Hann, Senegal, and collaboration with them around such issues like cleaning the Bay in occasion of World Oceans Day 2014, we ran into a serious problem of dropout youth. Our support activities to acquire birth certificates and proper registration for young people therefore continue since June 2014 in the fishing community of Hann.

As a reminder, through the various activities we have undertaken in recent years, including pilot activities with schools for the Nansen Project of FAO and the continued support of schools involved in this, and particularly mobilising around World Oceans Day, our local team found that challenge persisted in the communuty. The parents face major difficulties to obtain a birth certificate for their children.

This impacts negatively on their schooling and effectively prevents continued enrollment. Several young people were unable to make the transition from primary to secondary school and are forced to stop at the CM2 level. Thus our local team provides support of two types in order to gradually solve the problem.

First, we have provided a recording station, information on rules and some small tools for recording at three focal points in the neighborhoods of fisherfolk in Hann. Second, upon identifying 138 cases in the first 45 days, the local team was the intermediary between the community, the National Directorate of Civil Status and the court. The latter two are the bodies authorised to issue the relevant documents.

We have so far settled a dozen cases (9 of whom are girls). The young people involved have been back to school in October 2014. The collaboration between Mundus maris and various associations of the community is made possible thanks to the commitment and availability of young Abdoulaye FALL, responsible for overseeing the registration of cases at the local level.

Concerned parents deserve as much continued support as possible to obtain the necessary documents and allow the resumption of schooling for their children.