A birth certificate at last Man says he is one step closer to dream job

Back in April, Junior Paige was finding it difficult to get a job because he did not have a birth certificate at the time. However, he is now a happy man, as he now has the precious document after being assisted through the National Identification System (NIDS) project which is being run out of the Office of the Prime Minister. NIDS is currently providing birth certificates free of cost to Jamaicans who are not or only partially registered before officially starting the programme next year.

Speaking with THE STAR, Paige, 23, said that he is elated to finally receive the document because he had been unable to get his dream job without it since he was never formally registered at birth.

WANTED TO BE A SOLDIER

“Mi feel like my life has just began because without a birth certificate, mi can’t do nutten, mi can’t get no work, and mi can’t get fi go di army,” said Paige, while noting that he has always wanted to be a soldier.

And despite being a bit scared about his decision to come to the media initially, he said that he was happy about how everything worked out.

“I was a bit nervous, mi nah lie. Mi bawl da day deh when mi see it publish. Mi couldn’t believe say a really me, but I am happy with how it work out,” he explained.

Paige, who didn’t know his biological father and who only learnt that he was not registered a few months before his mother passed away in 2016, was even contacted by a woman who believed that he was her son who went missing 16 years ago.

He agreed to do a DNA test to satisfy the woman, but he said that she did not reach out to him after they met.

“From the day I did meet her, I never saw her again,” he said. “Everybody (family) was cussing and a say things that were not be said, but everything up and running with them now.”