Protect an orphan's property.

In many communities, when a parent dies the surviving child's property is not protected by a document that anyone can find. The land everyone knew was the family's, the home the child grew up in, the cattle, the small savings, the title that was "with an uncle" — these can be claimed, sold, or quietly absorbed by a relative or neighbour before a court, clan elder, or registry is ever involved. The child is often too young to speak for themselves, and the adults who would speak for them may be the same people in dispute.

The institutions meant to protect orphans — local courts, land offices, guardianship systems, child-welfare bodies, faith and clan structures, NGOs — can usually act only on evidence someone can produce. When the only record is memory and contested paper, the outcome depends on who is most powerful in the room, not on what was true. The gap is not a shortage of law. It is the absence of a clear, witnessed, retrievable record made before the death becomes a dispute, in a form a phone-and-paper household can actually create.

Many rural families and many orphans do not have a national ID card, and getting one can take years. PlenaProof does not require a national ID to make a declaration. A person can be identified by the people who know them — named witnesses, a community or faith leader, a school, a clinic, a savings group — recorded in the declaration. Where an ID, birth record, or land paper does exist, it can be referenced. Where it does not, the witnessed account stands on its own as a receipt of what was declared. PlenaProof is not an identity authority and does not issue identity; it records who vouched for whom, and when.

The declaration records the date the child is expected to come of age. When that time comes, PlenaProof helps the family make a handover receipt: a witnessed record that the property held for the child has been returned to them, or a record that it has not — which is itself useful evidence for a court, elder, or legal-aid clinic. The point is continuity: the same record that protected the child as an orphan becomes the record that lets them claim what was held for them as an adult. PlenaProof does not transfer title, register land, or determine who inherits; it documents the handover so the responsible institutions can act on it.

1. Find a quiet place with enough light to be seen and heard. A phone camera is enough.
2. Have the witness present — someone the community trusts who is not claiming the property.
3. State the date out loud, and where you are.
4. Say the child's name, and the names of the parent or parents who have died.
5. Name yourself and your relationship to the child, then ask the witness to do the same.
6. Describe the property clearly: the land and where it is, the home, livestock, savings, and any belongings that matter.
7. Hold up and read aloud any paper that exists — a title, a receipt, a letter — so it is captured on the record.
8. Name who will hold the property for the child, and who will watch and check it each year.
9. Say plainly that the property is held for the child, and the date the child is expected to come of age.
10. Ask the witness to confirm, in their own words, that what was said is true to their knowledge. Then save it.

Where implemented. Offline capture, automatic phone or paper handover, long-term storage, and any cryptographic anchoring apply only where those features are actually built and switched on for a given pilot. Treat them as planned workflow until a pilot confirms otherwise. Do not rely on this page as proof that any of those are live for you today.

Payment rails are not live on this page. Pilot pricing is shown for planning; no payment is collected here.

PlenaProof does not determine who inherits, who is the lawful guardian, or who owns a piece of land. It does not register land, transfer title, or issue identity. It is not a court, lawyer, land registry, notary, government office, probate authority, child-protection agency, or official evidence certifier. A PlenaProof receipt is not a court ruling and is not, on its own, legally binding or guaranteed to be accepted by any court, registry, or office. It does not rescue a child from harm or replace child-welfare services, legal aid, or the police. It does not provide legal advice. It records what was declared, by whom, and when — so the people and institutions who do decide these matters have a clearer record to work from.

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990)
• National guardianship, succession, and children's-court systems
• Customary and clan inheritance structures and elder mediation
• Land registries, title offices, and community land documentation efforts
• Legal-aid clinics, child-welfare authorities, and probate services
• Faith-based and community orphan-care networks
• Birth-registration and civil-registration (CRVS) programs

PlenaProof sits beside these. It complements official ID, registries, notaries, courts, and public authorities — it does not replace them.

• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General Comments on guardianship
• Bina Agarwal on women's and family land rights (A Field of One's Own)
• Hernando de Soto on informal property and documentation (The Mystery of Capital)
• World Bank ID4D and Land & Geospatial work; Klaus Deininger on land policy
• UN-Habitat / GLTN Social Tenure Domain Model and pro-poor land tools
• UNICEF and Save the Children guidance on orphans, separated children, and safeguarding
• The PLENA white paper Beyond the Will