In April 2025, at the ages of 37 and 52, these two women received their first birth certificates ever and applied for their first ID’s!

The 37-year-old MH was born on a farm near Durbanville and she had a stamped document proving that the farmer’s wife had tried to register her birth when she was 2 months old. However, something went wrong and the proper document stayed with the family instead of being submitted to Home Affairs.

At some stage she and her mother visited Home Affairs a few times, but the process was not completed.

She came to ID-Help in May 2024. Home Affairs Bellville found her old late birth registration file from 2016, but she basically had to go through the whole process again. We assisted her to obtain new supporting documents for herself and her 2 young children from the hospitals where they had been born, and from the first school that she had attended.

In November 2024 they finally submitted all these documents.

By February 2025 the verification of the documents was complete and in March they attended the panel interview for late registration of birth. In April she received the phone call to collect her first birth certificate ever, and to apply for her first ID immediately!

During June, she should receive her ID as well as the birth certificates for her two youngest children. They will start their school careers with formal identity, which she was denied for so long!

She also has an eldest daughter who matriculates at the end of the year, who will soon also have her first ID – essential when applying to study or for formal employment!