Binga — WITH his wife seated on the carrier and their one-year-old son on her back, Honest Mudenda (28) cycled 10 kilometres on a perry bike to register a birth certificate last Wednesday, a two-hour ride through dense forests lined with all manner of wild animals found along Lake Kariba.
Only those who witnessed the couple's smiles would understand how something so ordinary, so simple for most urbanites, can make a villager in far-flung Siamusanga, Binga happy.
The Mudenda family is one of many villagers in "hard to reach areas" that have benefited from a Civil Registration Department (CRD) led, Swedish government-funded and UNICEF-supported initiative to register birth certificates, national identity cards and death certificates.
Wearing brightly lit smiles, Mudenda said they were confident the certificate would change fortunes for their baby.
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They live at Mujere Fishing Camp, some 198km from Binga Centre, on the shores of Lake Kariba, where internet is a luxury, radio signal is yet to reach and Zambia is a herd man's whistle away.
That Siamusanga is hard to reach is not up for discussion.
Elephants roam freely on the shores of the mighty Lake Kariba, and leopards and lions are not a rare sight too deep amongst the Tonga-speaking communities there.
"I never believed that one day my child would have a birth certificate. A lot of people in our community do not have these documents because there is nowhere to get them and Binga Centre is too far for them to travel to," said a visibly happy Mudenda.
"There is no transport to get here from the fishing camp I work at, I for one used a bicycle to get here with my wife and child on the carrier, cautiously riding through forests which are usually full of wild animals.
"We hope this programme continues so as to benefit more people; if it is possible, they can actually visit our camps too."
Before the satellite registration centre was opened, villagers had to travel 183km to Binga Centre, a distance that would be short were it tarred.
It is, however, a gruelling seven-hour drive, and costs no less than US$15 when using public transport, which is a fortune for simple fishermen.
The only public transport they know of is a ZUPCO bus that plies their route twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, and even then, it does not get anywhere near Siamusanga. Its route ends about 60km from Siamusanga, at Chunga Growth Point.
39-year-old Norah Mende, who proudly brandished her fifth child's new birth certificate, called for authorities to consider building a registry office closer to their remote villages.
"The process is so smooth, I now have my son's birth certificate, have changed my ID and gotten my picture taken," said Mende with a giddy laugh. She walked four kilometres to the centre.
"This facility should not leave this area because a lot of people do not have these documents and without it, we have to go to Siabuwa or Binga. Our children need these documents to attend school and write examinations, now consider that children are born every year."
Binga, just like Mwenezi, is considered a hard-to-reach area, where villagers and animals share resources, clash often, and far more depressing, where basic services are hardly accessible.
There is 150km of partially tarred road between Cross Dete (along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway) and Binga, most of which is a strip of a potholed former road.
The place is so far flung, Zambia could easily have claimed it and most Zimbabweans would not know of it.
Up until the Zimbabwean, Swedish governments, and UNICEF's recent intervention, tens of thousands lived and died without having procured a birth certificate or national identity document, not for a shortage of need but access.
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"This is part of a broader programme that the CRD is embarking on in collaboration with UNICEF, where we are going around eight rural provinces of Zimbabwe targeting hard-to-reach areas to issue birth, death certificates and national IDs," said Christina Chikerema, the CRD's Deputy Registrar General in Charge of Operations.
"By targeting hard-to-reach areas, we are ensuring that we leave no one and no place behind. So far, we have been to Chikombedzi (Masvingo Province), Mhangura (Mashonaland West) and Mangwe (Matabeleland South).
"Our partnership with the Swedish government and development partners such as UNICEF is very key in this programme."
Traditional leaders also have been roped in the drive that has seen them taking on the responsibility to teach their communities on the process, encourage them to take identity documents and also register births that occur within their areas.
