March 2014:The unique initiative calls on people in Germany to lend their support to Plan's Count Every Child work by donating a fingerprint.
Since November, Plan Germany's Youth Advisory Panel and Plan Action Youth Group have been running activities to collect as many prints as possible. The final display will be handed over to the German government as a kind of petition to call for the realisation of universal birth registration within effective, comprehensive and rights based civil registration and vital statistics systems.
It all kicked off at a school in Hamburg with an event involving 400 students collecting more than 550 fingerprints on a large poster. But they weren't done there. The creative students posed together for pictures while all wearing large brown paper bags to symbolise being invisible and unregistered.
Many more events like this are planned across Germany in schools, universities and communities with the aim of raising awareness on the importance of civil registration systems.
Around the world, 230 million children under the age of 5 have not had their births registered. With a birth certificate a child has a legal identity and is more likely to be able to access services like quality education and healthcare.
“There is no reason why some children should not have the same opportunities and rights as others,” said Jonas, a member of Plan Germany's Youth Advisory Panel.
With a birth certificate children become officially legal... they can stand up for their rights, they can claim justice, they can change their lives
“With a birth certificate children become officially legal... they can stand up for their rights, they can claim justice, they can change their lives. We have to give children a voice.”
Since 2005, Plan has helped register 40 million children around the world and influenced laws in 10 countries so that 153 million can enjoy the rights to a birth certificate.