In Acord Newsletter Issue 2: June 2001

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Article 2:

Quarter of a million of Rwanda's households headed by children

Since losing his parents, he has had to look after his younger brothers and sisters, and like the hundreds of thousands of other orphans of Rwanda's child-headed households, he can hardly make ends meet. His community regards him as neither a child nor as an adult and provides him with practically no social support. He and his siblings are, for the most part, marginalised and forgotten.

This new social phenomenon is one of the many consequences of the tragic events that have shaken Rwanda since the 1990s. Research undertaken by ACORD, funded by the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Trust, estimates that a staggering 257,000 of Rwanda's 1.7 million households may currently be headed by children and that almost all of the children became heads of households in the 1990s. Only two per cent of the children interviewed took on this responsibility in the 1980s.

The ACORD study targeted 24 communes with an estimated 257,539 households and found 13% to be headed by children - 33,480 families in all. 2,411 children heads of families participated directly to the survey. The number of boys was fractionally higher than the number of girls and over three-quarters had one to five siblings under their care.

AIDS is a major cause
Children in Rwanda become lone heads of household for a range of reasons. Many took on the responsibility in the 1990s after losing their parents during the genocide and massacres. Others took on the responsibility after their parents were detained in prison but most are forced into it due to so-called `natural causes’ usually related to AIDS.

Hardly making ends meet
Child-headed households face huge material problems. Less than two-thirds of the children interviewed in the ACORD study live only off agriculture and less than a third are students or are unemployed. Of those surviving through agriculture, most subsist on less than one hectare of land, around a third own less than half a hectare and a quarter have no land at all, which forces them into working as labourers. Half of the households barely earn 1,000 FRw (£1.59) a month, while under a fifth earn 1,000 to 2,500 FRw (£1.59 to £4) a month.

Poor health and education
Almost all of the children interviewed can barely read and write, having had no education beyond primary school. Many have been forced to leave school to find work in order to meet their younger brothers' and sisters' basic needs, though many make a substantial effort to ensure that their siblings continue their education.

With no one to turn to or anyone to look after them, health has become a major concern. The children often fall ill because they are undernourished and overworked. As they grow weaker they become less productive which in turn makes it almost impossible for them to pay for their medical treatment.

No social support
The plight of Rwanda's orphans is further exacerbated by the almost complete lack of social support they receive. Increased poverty and the animosity resulting from the genocide have eroded any sense of solidarity within their communities and in most cases they are completely ignored by the rest of the community. They are often neglected and abandoned by their relatives, they have no family to turn to when they need social, economic or psychological support and they are often in conflict with their neighbours or relatives over the management of their parents' assets. Overburdened by work, they have no time for leisure or other social activities with their peers and many run away.

Child heads of households and their dependants often feel frustrated by life. Crushed by poverty, they feel inferior to their contemporaries who live with their families, especially those who are at school. They are excluded from all forms of social, community or political life and have no shared forum through which to express themselves and to build on their strengths as a group and be heard. They feel embarrassed because of the state of poverty in which they find themselves and keep away from family or social events such as weddings because they have no decent clothes to wear or present to give.

Condemned to silence
They and their dependants are often exploited and abused and are affected by rape either as victims or witnesses. In many cases, they are condemned to silence, with no one to defend them.

The stress they experience also leads to low social cohesion within the household. Despite their status as heads of households, older children, especially girls, lack authority over their younger siblings. Internal conflicts are also commonplace, with arguments over the management of resources.

Few future prospects
Due to their ongoing insecurity, both as individuals and as a group, they have few future prospects. Some girls enter prostitution to provide food and pay for school fees or medicines for their younger siblings and young children hire themselves out as labourers but are paid half the adult wage. Some girls never marry for fear of leaving their siblings behind while many boys who get married give little consideration to their siblings’ future. Most of the children have no ambitions, unable as they are to think about school, marriage or leisure.

Current rehabilitation or development programmes in Rwanda do not take child-headed households into account.

Based on the results of its research, ACORD is drawing up a programme proposal and will seek funding to support Rwandese children under 18 who act as heads of households.

To support this work or to order a copy of the research report, please contact ACORD florencek@acord.org.uk

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