To drive the message home, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) is using the national primary schools Music, Dance and Drama (MDD) final competitions to rally parents and create awareness among them about the benefit of registering their children for the national identity cards.
Ms Daisy Katorobo, the NIRA Communication Officer, says through the enchantment of songs, poems, drama, creative dances and traditional folk tunes, these young performers will convey the significance of NIN registration and the fight for malaria in a compelling manner.
She says being the main sponsor of the event, NIRA realised that the participating school choirs will deliver their message to the communities well.
Ms Katorobo says NIRA has got a big mandate including registration of adults, children, death registration and adoption orders which made them decide to convey their message through MDD festival having realised that children are powerful communicators in the community.
She adds that when these children sing about birth registration, the message is captured much better than when NIRA officials stand up in front and give a long speech as to why it is important.
Audio: Katorobo on children as powerful communicators (English)
Pupils perform at the national primary schools MDD competitions at Duhaga Girls Primary School in Hoima City. (Image: Calvin Wembabazi/Kazi-njema News)
The Communication Officer calls upon parents and guardians to support NIRA activities in championing the NIN registration for children.
The Hoima Resident City Commissioner, Mr Badru Mugabi, appeals to head teachers, school choirs and everybody to make use of the message as a mobilisation tool to embrace registration that is being showcased as a vital civic responsibility.
He says the children are not basically performing for recognition as the best choir but to mobilise Ugandans for a specific NIRA’s registration campaign.
Audio: Mugabi on a mobilisation campaign (English)
The Hoima City Deputy Mayor, Ms Sylvia Nalumaga Balyesiima, speaks at the opening of the national primary schools MDD competitions at Duhaga Girls Primary School in Hoima City on Monday, August 28, 2023. (Calvin Wembabazi/Kazi-njema News)
The Hoima City Deputy Mayor, Ms Sylvia Nalumaga Balyesiima, urges the people of Hoima to embrace the NIRA campaign, discouraging them from rushing for registration for birth certificates when there is only a need for the service.
Audio: Nalumaga on birth certificates (Runyoro/Rutooro)
John Kyabona, the Chairperson District and City Education Officers of Uganda, urged local governments to aid the young ones in their MDD bias through facilitating the choirs since it is expensive to train on their own so that they are promoted to greater heights of their talents.
He regrets that there are some schools that qualified for national competitions having performed well at regional level but could not make it to the zenith due to financial hiccups.
It is on this background that he urges the government to give much more special attention to co-curricular activities especially MDD that has proved to be a source of employment with its income earning consequences.
Audio: Kyabona on co-curricular activities (English)
“As we are in Hoima there are local Governments which have failed to present the students to the event due to lack of financial support, though they had participated at the regional level and had succeeded,” he said.
A total of 86 schools are participating in this year’s national audition held in Hoima city under the theme: “My NIN, My Birth Right” contrary to last year when only 56 schools participated in the event.
The competitions that began on Monday, August 28, 2023 will end on September 3, 2023.
Kampala Road primary school won last year’s edition held in Kyotera district.
