UNICEF is supporting a drive by the Liberian Government to register more than 70,000 children, whose births were not recorded during the Ebola crisis, leaving them vulnerable to marginalization and exclusion.
Birth registrations in 2014 and 2015 dropped sharply from pre-Ebola levels, according to the Ministry of Health data.
“Children who have not been registered at birth officially don’t exist,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Liberia. “Without citizenship, the children who have already experienced terrible suffering because of Ebola, risk marginalization because they may be unable to access basic health and social services, obtain identity documents, and will be in danger of being trafficked or illegally adopted.”
