Two training courses on civil registration were organised within the BRAVO programme! in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, involving 120 civil registry officers in the province of Nampula (the most populous one in the country) and representatives from all the provinces of Mozambique.

The courses offered useful tools to work better serving the citizens: a study and a comparison with the legislation in force in other countries around the world on the subject of birth registration, deepening of national regulations, archiving and proper record keeping, raising awareness and informing families, professional ethics and service culture.

In addition to the texts and handouts produced for the courses, every civil registry office of the country, both in town and in the countryside, was given a copy of the Civil Registry Code, the law that regulates the registration of births and all other civil registration acts in Mozambique. The fact of having the texts that regulate the operation of the offices and that guide the operators in the preparation of documents also helps in the most remote districts to properly exercise the complex system functions at the service of everyone. The training courses sought to enhance the human and professional resources of the country, making them better suited for the challenge of enlargement in the number of registered citizens and of the service stabilisation in a rapidly changing country.

Now the strengthening of the civil registration system is an important priority for Mozambique, that the BRAVO Programme! supports in various ways to ensure the universal and free birth registration for all.
One of the participants in the training said: "Through this training I've become a competent agent and I think I will be able to perform my mission calmly. I leave here very well trained. From now on, I will fight so that everyone is registered and so that  the people of my village become aware and do it".

At the end of the courses, the diploma awarding ceremony took place, at which the Deputy Minister of Justice wanted to be present congratulating each of them personally and recalling the challenge of the civil registration for the development of the country and the great cooperation established with the Community of Sant'Egidio, which, in 2010, signed a major agreement with the Ministry of Justice for the implementation of BRAVO! in Mozambique.

The courses, which were given thanks to the support of the German association, Kindermissionswerk-Die Sternsinger, are part of the campaign of free late registrations that the BRAVO! programme started in two districts of the Nampula province two years ago. Within the program, mobile registration teams were created to go from village to village to ensure the birth certificate for all those who had not been registered yet. The new members are, above all, children: up to now those under 18 accounted for 80% of the newly registered members. Now everyone can go to school and be better protected against any form of exploitation.
On leaving for their own cities, all the participants greeted us hoping that next year tto there will be a new training session.