What is the value of a birth certificate? After reading the lead story in THEThursday Star, one can say it is as important as breathing is to life as, without it, one will find it hard to live.

The story told of a man's quest to get a birth certificate lasting 14 years. According to the article, the man has had to pass on several opportunities because he did not have the important document.

What is worse is the fact that the Registrar General stated that the situation was being handled wrongly, and that the real process would have required him to speak to a supervisor who could initiate the correct process.

It is quite sad that something that should have taken him a few weeks maximum has taken 14 years, and what was being done all along was wrong.

Because he did not have the birth certificate, the man's education had stopped just when it was really set to begin. He has had to pass up a chance to own a house and delay his plans to get married.

How unfortunate that it took an article about his problems to finally get someone to assist him and tell him what he really should have done. There must be other Jamaicans having similar problems, who are suffering because they have no birth certificate but do not know the way to get it.

The Registrar General's office might consider doing a public education campaign on the issue so that no more Jamaicans would have to suffer the same way the man did.