KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) is inviting people with uncollected birth, marriage and death certificates to attend its Twickenham Park and Portmore offices in St Catherine on Friday, November 17, to pick up their documents.

The event, dubbed ‘Mega Outreach’, is being hosted by the RGD in an effort to remind people to collect their certificates.

RGD Marketing and Planning Manager Nicole Whyte explained that the outreach became necessary as many people have not returned for their certificates.

“Over the years, people have been applying for birth, marriage and death certificates that they have not collected. Sometimes, they don’t find the time to pick them up or they forget to collect them, so we are on a drive to get these certificates out,” she said.

She is advising that people who had applied and specified that they would pick up at the Portmore office should collect at that location.

Whyte said that people who are entitled to a free first birth certificate for their babies as a result of bedside registration are also being invited to pick up their certificates.

“As of 2007, we started bedside registration where persons were entitled to a free first birth certificate; however, many of these remain uncollected to date,” she noted.

Whyte added that it is important to note that the certificates will still be available after the Mega Outreach Day and there is no penalty for collecting thereafter.

The Mega Outreach is the first in a series of similar activities that have been planned in celebration of the 138th anniversary of the RGD.