Rwanda

Background

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Rwanda is still affected by the lingering impact of the 1994 genocide. The numbers of orphaned children and the proportion of child-headed households are high. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, making natural resources scarce; more than half of the nation’s population is comprised of children.

Issues facing children in Rwanda

• About 810,000 Rwandan children have been orphaned, in part due to the genocide. More than 100,000 children live in child-headed households.
• Infant and maternal mortality rates, already among the highest in the world, have increased since 2000. Malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory infections and HIV/AIDS are the primary causes of death.
• Malnutrition affects nearly a quarter of all children, and is responsible for 40 per cent of deaths among children under age five.
• Approximately 250,000 people ages 15-49 have HIV/AIDS. Children have very little access to anti-retroviral treatment.

Activities and results for children

• The government has passed a National Policy on Orphans and Vulnerable Children, establishing a framework for protecting these children. The plan was is now being implemented throughout the country.
• UNICEF and its partners provided emergency assistance – clean water, food supplementation, immunization, tents and more – to thousands of women and children, most of them Tutsis, fleeing violence in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
• Thanks to vaccines procured by UNICEF and its partners, immunization rates for hepatitis, measles and polio are all above 90 per cent; tetanus has been eliminated. A vitamin A supplementation campaign reached 97 per cent of children under age five.
• To prevent malaria, 44,000 insecticide-treated bed nets have been sold at subsidized prices to pregnant women and children under age five.
• UNICEF supported clinics that have counselled more than 30,000 pregnant women on ways to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to their children. The government hopes to extend this training to every hospital nationwide by 2008.
• The Rwandan government plans to spend nearly $1 billion to increase rural access to safe water and sanitation over the next 15 years. UNICEF and its partners are helping to build reservoirs, pipelines and latrines.
• Eliminating school fees has increased primary school enrolment and completion rates. A catch-up programme has been instituted in three provinces to help children who were previously excluded from school. A ‘Child-Friendly School’ model has been adopted nationally and will be applied to more than half of all schools in the coming year.