RGD’s Mobile Teams in Corporate Area Sept. 11-19 for Official Naming of Children

The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) will be posting its mobile teams in sections of the Corporate Area between September 11 and 19, to facilitate the official naming of some 6,761 children whose names are not on their birth records.
Through the RGD’s ‘Name the Child’ project, 18,000 children islandwide who were born between January 1, 2003 and August 31, 2004, will be able to have their names officially registered.
Parents whose children were born in Kingston and St. Andrew may visit the Pentecostal Tabernacle at 72 Wildman Street on September 11 and 12 and the Merl Grove High School, 77 Constant Spring Road on September 12 and 14.
On September 13 and 14, the team will also be at the Fellowship Tabernacle Church, 58 Half-Way-Tree Road as well as the New Life Assembly of God, 148 Constant Spring Road and the Tarrant Baptist Church, 51 Molynes Road on September 15, 18 and 19. Customer Service Representatives will be in place from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at all locations.
In order to facilitate smooth registration, parents are being asked to take along a valid form of photo identification for the mother and father. This may be in the form of a passport, voter’s ID or driver’s licence. They will also need to take the child’s immunization card along with the child’s christening or baptismal record (if applicable) and a completed Certificate of Naming.
Speaking with JIS News, Civil Registration and Marketing Manager, Dr. Damian Ffriend, explained that the RGD was in the process of delivering certificates of naming forms to the mothers of these 18,000 children.
He said that the parents should complete the form with the correct spelling of the names and present this to the Representative at the specified locations to complete the naming process.
In cases where the particulars of the father are to be added, parents should also take along a completed Status form, which should be signed and sealed by a Justice of the Peace.
The total cost for the transactions is $2,600 – Late Entry of Name fee of $2,000 and the Addition of Father’s Particulars fee of $600. Under this project, parents will be asked to pay $500 to process the application.
Dr. Ffriend pointed out that a birth certificate would be prepared and delivered to the parents within six weeks.
Clients are being urged to visit the locations that are specially established for the ‘Name the Child’ project, as the RGD is taking the service to the areas closest to the mothers who need to name their children on the birth records. The RGD is reminding the parents of these 18,000 children, that they need not attend the Twickenham Park office or any other RGD Regional office to submit the forms and have this process completed.
The new customer service thrust being undertaken by the RGD comes in the wake of an announcement by Minister of Health, Horace Dalley at the opening of the RGD’s Portmore Pines Regional Office in August.
Mr. Dalley said that the Government would assist to underwrite the cost of having the names of the 18,000 children entered on their records at a value of more than $24 million.
The project is being conducted in 34 locations across the island over a five-week period.