From our archives. Published on 27.03.2011. Dates, figures and circumstances refer to this historical account.
Why this project?
Rwanda: background and historical situation
This historical rationale draws on UNICEF information from May 2007 and other sources quoted in the original article. Its statistics and descriptions belong to that period.
The situation described in the report
Rwanda was still living with the effects of the 1994 genocide. The number of orphans and the proportion of households headed by a child were high. As Africa’s most densely populated country, it faced particular pressure on its natural resources. More than half of the population were children.
Problems affecting children
- About 810,000 Rwandan children had become orphans, some as a result of the genocide. More than 100,000 others lived in households headed by other children.
- Infant and maternal mortality, already among the highest in the world, had increased since 2000. Malaria, diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and HIV/AIDS were the leading causes of death cited.
- Malnutrition affected almost a quarter of children and accounted for 40% of deaths among children under five.
- Almost 250,000 people aged 15 to 49 were living with HIV/AIDS, and children had very limited access to antiretroviral treatment.
Existing responses
As the number of abandoned children and young people grew, many NGOs, mainly foreign organisations and Rwandan organisations led by foreigners, responded by creating residential institutions such as orphanages. At first sight, this seemed the best solution. Yet these institutions required substantial funds and depended directly on outside support.
What would happen if that funding stopped? The original account says the question was often avoided. It describes orphanages as already overcrowded, citing Nyundo, designed for 300 children but accommodating more than 800 at the time, in extremely poor sanitary conditions.
The report also points to factors that could weaken outside assistance: the crisis in Europe, declining grants to Northern NGOs and reduced donor interest, which it partly attributes to concerns about some organisations’ reliability. It warns that large-scale support for expensive institutions could disappear sooner than expected.
Lessons from Rwanda’s past
With the number of orphans creating an unprecedented challenge across Africa, Rwanda’s experience could provide lessons for other countries. Despite an exceptionally high proportion of orphans, it had developed practical responses that others might adopt.
The report describes many Rwandan orphans living with siblings on family land without adult supervision. It links this to the genocide of 1994, whose killings and mass displacement traumatised children on a scale it compares with the Holocaust of 1940 to 1945.
Hundreds of thousands of children who survived the killings and abuse were left without parents. Their parents had been murdered, or families had become separated during the mass flight to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The problem continued rather than receded because so many adults were affected by AIDS. In this part of the original account, 613,000 children under fourteen are described as orphans, with an estimated 101,000 children heading around 42,000 households.
Children as young as nine were taking responsibility for their families and working to support younger siblings. Adults could exploit their vulnerability, demanding manual labour for a little food or, worse, sexual favours.
Since 1994, growing numbers of children had lost parents to HIV/AIDS. Many were not in school or did not eat regularly, leaving them exposed to exploitation and abuse. Their childhoods had been cut short and their futures severely undermined.
Isolation creates despair and insecurity
To grow into adults able to help rebuild their country, children needed affection to heal psychological wounds and guidance through childhood and adolescence.
Older children in particular could become disillusioned and lose faith in the future. The article quotes a thirteen-year-old caring for four children who told World Vision: “I think I am useful to them, but for me it is too heavy a burden. These children I look after may become clever by going to school, but I will become nothing.”
A 2001 government and UNICEF study found that three out of four AIDS orphans were isolated within their communities, and one in five was mistreated by other children. In 2001, UNICEF established a support system asking adult neighbours to volunteer to care for children.
Mentoring helps children cope
Each volunteer mentor learns that children have rights set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. These volunteer “mothers” and “fathers” visit morning and evening to make sure the children are well, offer guidance and help them solve problems.
In a pilot project in the hills around Kigali, 670 mentors provided trusted adults to whom orphans could turn, helping them learn to trust others again.
The article tells the story of eighteen-year-old Mukomugenza Kesitima, who was caring for seven younger siblings after her parents died of what she described as an unknown illness. For two years, neighbours acting as mentors had supported the family.
“We were very unhappy because we were alone and nobody helped us,” she said. “But our new parents gave us a lot of good advice and showed us what to do.”
Mentoring offers a double benefit. By encouraging neighbours to help one another, it rebuilds social ties in communities devastated by genocide. It also gives children something money cannot buy: a sense of belonging to a family and a community.
The government’s response
The following information in the original article was drawn from a speech to Rwanda’s Commission on Children’s Rights. The policy’s purpose was to protect the wellbeing of orphans and other vulnerable children.
To guide protection work, the National Policy for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children identified fifteen categories:
- Children in child-headed households.
- Children in foster families.
- Street children.
- Children affected by armed conflict.
- Children in residential care centres.
- Children in conflict with the law.
- Children with disabilities.
- Working children.
- Children subjected to sexual exploitation or abuse.
- Children affected by or living with HIV/AIDS.
- Children living in prison with their mothers.
- Refugee or displaced children.
- Children of single mothers.
- Children from destitute families.
- Children who marry before reaching adulthood.
The policy also set out ways to reduce vulnerability wherever possible. It called on communities to take responsibility for children rather than rely on institutional care, to prevent children becoming separated from their communities and reduce the numbers placed in institutions.
The government also sought to support child-headed households through food assistance, housing and, particularly, psychosocial advisers.
For children in foster care, street children and those in centres for unaccompanied children (CENA), Rwanda adopted the principle “CHILD = FAMILY”. Children must enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms just as adults do. To live a healthy life, they also need a family environment that helps them access education, primary healthcare and their other rights.