UNICEF is working in the following areas in Rwanda:

• Children raising children: UNICEF supports child-headed households by providing affected children with school materials, counselling, income generating activities and vocational training
• HIV/AIDS prevention: UNICEF’s work includes prevention of HIV transmission by educating young people, providing nevirapine (a drug that helps prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV) for pregnant women and lactating mothers and counselling for affected couples.
• Immunization:UNICEF interventions focus on the reducing the infant and under-five mortality rate and maternal mortality. Activities include: providing micronutrients and community-based nutritional surveillance and the providing safe drinking water.   
• Education:UNICEF supports both the regular education system and the “catch-up schools” designed to provide schooling to children who would otherwise be excluded from the education system. UNICEF also helps reintegrate these children into their communities.

Rwanda: facts and figures

Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world. It ranks 158th out of 175 countries listed in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index:

• 60 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.
• Rwanda’s population is young. Out of the 8 million people living in Rwanda, more than half are under 18years old.
• Rwanda has one of the world’s worst child mortality rates – one in five Rwandan children die before their fifth birthday. Malaria is the leading cause of infant and child mortality (29 per cent).
• 42 per cent of Rwandan children under five years old are malnourished.
• More than 400,000 children are out of school.
• Rwanda has one of the world’s largest proportions of households that are headed by children (i.e. children raising children) with an estimated 101,000 children heading up some 42,000 households.
• 8.9 per cent of the adult population is HIV-positive.
• 2000 women - many of whom were survivors of rape - were tested for HIV during the five years following the 1994 genocide. Out of these women, 80 per cent were found to be HIV-positive. Many were not sexually active before the genocide.
• Between 9 and 13.4 per cent of 15 to 24-year-old females, and between 3.9 and 5.9 per cent of 15 to 24-year-old boys are HIV-positive.
• By 2001, an estimated 264,000 children had lost one or both parents to AIDS – representing 43 per cent of all orphans.
• 613,000 Rwandan children between the ages of 0 to 14 years old are orphans.
• 88 per cent of women have to walk for more than one hour to reach a health facility.

Children at risk of exploitation

An estimated 1 million orphans and “other vulnerable children” live in Rwanda.  These children include:  

• 101,000 children heading up an estimated 42, 0000 households
• 7,000 street children
• 3,500 children living in orphanages
• 1,000 children living in conflict with the law
• 60,000 children living with disabilities
• 120,000 working children
• 300 infants living with their mothers in prison
• children affected by armed conflict (2,500 still in Congo)
• children who are sexually abused (unknown figures)
• children affected/infected by HIV/AIDS (unknown figures)

Sexual exploitation: There is growing evidence that many children heading households – especially girls – find themselves forced to perform sexual favours in exchange for money, basic goods or protection.

Lack of access to education: Discriminatory attitudes towards girls and lack of adequate sanitary facilities prevent some adolescent girls from attending school.

Sexual abuse: Growing evidence suggests that sexual abuse within the home has increased since the genocide.