OVER 800 residents including students and children in Mtwara District have been registered to receive birth certificates through a special campaign launched a week ago in the District.

The month-long campaign launched on October 30, this year aimed at registering and issuing about 5000 birth certificates to residents of Mtwara District, Mtwara Region.

District Registrar of Births and Deaths with Registration Insolvency Trusteeship Agency (RITA) Mr William Mugasha said yesterday that the residents were registered in various registration points set up in the District.

"So far we have registered over 800 residents including students in various registration points that we opened a week ago," he said.

Mr Mugasha said the campaign targets to register over 5000 residents, mostly students from higher-learning institutions, secondary and primary schools, as well as children due to start school next year.

He said RITA in collaboration with the Mtwara District office launched the special campaign with the aim to make the documents accessible and affordable to all residents in Mtwara District.

Mr Mugasha also pointed out that the campaign also aims at creating public awareness on the benefits of birth registration especially to parents.

"We are doing a sensitisation campaign to help the community understand the importance of securing birth certificates," he said.

Mtwara District Commissioner Mr Dunstan Kyobya said his office experiences challenges in handling cases of residents without birth documents, mostly students.

"The campaign is a golden opportunity especially to school students including those in higher institutions to ensure they are registered and issued with birth certificates," he said

The DC noted the agency in collaboration with his office have opened various registration points close to the community to reduce the cost of travel that makes registration prohibitively expensive.