What you need to know

• More than 137,000 children in Lanao del Sur, Philippines, don’t have a birth certificate.
• Without a birth certificate, a child can’t attend school, because the document is required for enrolment.
• Many families lost their children’s birth certificates while fleeing a civil war that broke out in 2017. Other children have never been registered.
• Cost is one of the biggest barriers to birth registration.
• Through free community registration drives, Plan International and our partner MARADECA are helping children in Lanao del Sur obtain birth certificates. Since last year, more than 400 children have received birth certificates, with another 500 expected this year.

Asliah has waited years for this day.

Balancing her seven-month-old daughter, Nadjat, on her lap, she leans over a stack of forms at a community birth registration event run by Plan International in Lanao del Sur. If everything goes well, Nadjat and her three siblings – Hamdan, 7, Imran, 6, and Samarah, 4 – will finally receive something parents might take for granted: official proof of who they are.

Asliah’s daughter Samarah sits nearby with a neighbour. Around them, other parents wait their turn, clutching documents and talking quietly among themselves.

For years, this moment felt out of reach.

“I got married when I was 14,” says Asliah, 36. “I was in love. I’m an only child, so I wanted a big family.”

Now she has eight children.

Her husband couldn’t find work in their lakeside community of Lanao del Sur and moved to the capital, Manila, in search of opportunities. He takes on odd jobs and sends home about 1,300 pesos (about C$30) when he can. Asliah uses the money first for rice and fish for her children. What remains must cover everything else their family of 10 needs.

“Sometimes you have to borrow money from neighbours,” Asliah says. “But all they can say is, ‘Sorry.’”

Education at risk

Asliah’s first four children – Mohammad, Gadah, Norhidaya, and Tamem – were born in a hospital in Manila, where home birth isn’t permitted, and they received their birth certificates free of cost. Her younger four children were born at home in Lanao del Sur.

The nearest hospital is far away, and travelling there would have cost money she didn’t have. “There are so many steps [to getting a birth certificate through the local civil registry office]. I’ll have to pay 150 pesos (C$4) upfront, then wait and come back,” she explains. “We don’t have enough money, so even a small amount feels like a big expense. I have just enough for my children, so I can’t set aside any for birth certificates.”

Years passed. Her children grew older. And with every passing year, Asliah worried more about what would happen when they were ready to enrol in school. “When they go to school, the first thing schools ask for is a birth certificate,” she explains.

Then she heard about Plan International’s free birth registration event.

“I was so happy,” says Asliah. “When a child has no birth certificate, it feels like something is missing. It’s like she still has no name.”

Asliah isn’t the only parent in Lanao del Sur facing this challenge. Across the province, more than 137,000 children don’t have birth certificates. Some were never registered. Others lost important documents while fleeing Marawi City during the violence that followed the 2017 Marawi siege.

Last November, Plan International Philippines and partner MARADECA brought the registration process into the community, allowing families to complete the paperwork close to home and free of charge.

Plan’s goal is to reach 8,000 children across two communities in Lanao del Sur in the next five years. Last year, more than 400 children received birth certificates, and the aim is to issue 500 more this year.

At the event, Asliah bends over to review the forms while baby Nadjat squirms in her lap. By the end of the day, she hopes her four youngest children will finally have something their older siblings received years ago: a birth certificate bearing their names.

Why women choose home birth

Noraima, 25, and her husband attended the same registration event to register two of their four children, six-year-old Farsana and two-year-old Arham. Both children were born at home and didn’t have birth certificates.

Noraima’s eldest daughter, Norsaima, was also born at home, shortly after the 2017 Marawi siege, when fighting between government forces and ISIS-linked armed groups displaced hundreds of thousands of people across the region.

For families like Noraima’s, the years following the conflict were equally traumatic. “I remember my mother-in-law asking me, ‘Where are you going to give birth?’” Noraima says. “I told her, ‘At home.’”

Home births are common in Noraima’s community. Sometimes families can’t afford the cost of traveling to a hospital. Other times, the reasons are more personal.

“I didn’t want to go to the hospital because I wasn’t comfortable with strangers being present during such a private moment,” Noraima explains. “But my third baby [her son Sainoden] was large, and we had to go to the hospital in an emergency.” (Because Sainoden was born at the hospital, he was issued a birth certificate there.)

One of Noraima’s sisters-in-law, Rohanisa, is a midwife and says some women choose to give birth at home due to tradition. “Our grandmothers and mothers also gave birth at home,” says Rohanisa. “Sometimes women feel embarrassed, but cultural practices also play an important role. When a baby is born, midwives say prayers in their ears for prosperity.”

After Norsaima was born, Noraima was able to secure a birth certificate for her through the local civil registry office. “It was difficult, because I had to save money for transportation and fees,” she says. “After visiting the registry office, they told me to come back after one or two months.”

Today, Noraima, her husband, and their four children share an unfinished two-storey house with his eight siblings and their families. Each family lives in a single room. Her husband earns what he can as a fisherman, with most of his salary going directly to food.

Even though Noraima understood the importance of her children having a birth certificate, the cost of transportation and administrative fees to obtain them lost out to the family’s more immediate needs. “When you only have enough money for rice, that’s what you spend it on,” she says.

Today, her daughter Farsana should be in Grade 2. But without a birth certificate, she couldn’t enrol in school on time and has fallen behind her peers.

For families like Noraima’s and Asliah’s, obtaining a birth certificate for their children means they’ll now be able to enrol in school.

“I wasn’t able to finish my education and couldn’t find a good job,” says Asliah. “I told myself that education is important for my children. They need to finish school so they can stand on their own and get good jobs.”

A birth certificate can mean the difference between being able to enrol in school and being turned away. Through our Community Partnership with Girls program, Plan International works with community partners in the Philippines to bring birth registration services closer to families, helping remove barriers such as travel costs, registration fees, and long journeys to government offices.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Why do children need a birth certificate to attend school?

A birth certificate helps prove a child’s identity and age, which schools and daycare centres require for enrolment.

2. Why are so many children in the Philippines lacking birth certificates?

When a child is born at home, parents must register the birth with their local civil registry office. For low-income families, registration fees and transportation costs can make the process difficult. The 2017 Marawi siege created another challenge, displacing families and causing many to lose important documents, including their children’s birth certificates.

3. Why do some families choose home births in the Philippines?

Distance, cost, and cultural traditions can all influence where a woman gives birth. Some mothers also prefer the comfort of home and the support of family members and trusted midwives.

4. Can children born at home get a birth certificate?

Yes. Children born at home can still be registered and receive a birth certificate through their local civil registry office – at a cost that many families cannot afford.

5. How is Plan helping children obtain birth certificates?

In Lanao del Sur, Plan International and local partner MARADECA are bringing free birth registration services closer to families. More than 400 children have already been registered.