Please Listen to me...

Searching in Zambia

Submitted by Margi

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My bmother was born in Zambia, and in an attempt to trace her, I phoned the Zambian Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The chap I spoke to said if I'd had my mother's date of birth it would be very easy - but depending on how common a name he was looking up it might take some time. (All I could do was give him a five year time band). I also in my fax asked if there were any details of my mother's marriage (as I have her married name as well), again a five year band and finally I asked if there was a register of my sister's birth (once again a five year time band). Certainly over the phone they were a lot more helpful than the Zim people, so it might be easier this time. Just as an afterthought - it has taken over a year to get hold of my birth certificate. The Social Welfare over here (UK) had to apply for Zim Ministerial consent for it to be released which was given. We then had to pay a fee of $10. Luckily there was someone from over here going out and she took a long list of names and quite a few $10 notes. Anyway the Welfare in Zim would only release the certificates to Welfare over here - so on receipt of the $10 they posted them over here in two batches - one batch went missing. Mine was in that batch! So then after another few letters from Welfare here to Welfare there they asked for the $10 all over again and said they would post the certificate over once the money was received. So finally I faxed over the letter from Zim Welfare and one from Welfare here to a friend of mine in Harare. She went into the office and was told the person dealing with my case was on holiday and nobody else could help! My friend left a message which amazingly enough resulted in a phone call to her. She then went back into the offices expecting to pay the $10 and be told the certificate would be posted - by some clerical error it was handed to her on Monday! So sometimes the system (such as it is out there) does work! Perseverence is all. NOTE: Margi has since found her Birth Mother! To read about this emotional meeting, click here

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