INTERNATIONAL
Struggle for survival in child-headed households
Janine Umuhoza was seven years old in April 1994 when her parents
were killed during the genocide in which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis
and politically moderate Hutus died. On that fateful day, she bade the usual farewell to her parents
before setting off to school. Later, Hutu militiamen marched onto their
home compound and killed her mother, father and other members of the
family. However, her two younger brothers and two sisters survived. But
militiamen burned down their Kigali home and forced them to their
father's village property in the Bugesera region of Kigali-Rural
Province. As the eldest, and a lot sooner than she could have imagined,
she became mother to her siblings in a country fraught with danger at
the time. Now 17 years old, she still faces the challenges of providing
food and basic necessities for the family. /Each day presents us with difficulties,” she said forcing back her
tears, “It is too big a burden for me.”
In today's Rwanda there are at least 100,000 children like Umuhoza
heading some 30,000 households, according to UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF). Ten years after the genocide, there are households where the
age of the oldest child is 15 years and there may be up to five children
per household. Parents had either been lost to the genocide, to HIV/AIDS
or been imprisoned for genocide related crimes.
The challenges are enormous for these households where the head has
to provide food, medication and provide siblings with education.
For Bugesera's children the conditions are worsened by nearly two
years of drought in this part of the country. In addition to the food
scarcity, clean water is unavailable. The nearest source of any water,
which is normally drawn from nearby swamps, is now almost a 90-minute
walk from their homes.
Each child participates in fetching water, cooking and cleaning. Jane
Muhongayire of the Bamporeze Association, an organisation that helps to
mobilise resources for the children, said at least one child in each
household had to sacrifice their own education for the other siblings
because it was difficult to combine parenthood and school attendance.
Such are the difficulties for the heads of these household that some
have resorted to begging and prostitution to provide for their families.
Exploitation
The absence of an adult in the family has exposed the children to
exploitation by relatives or neighbours. They often provide cheap
labour, running errands, fetching water, carrying goods or working in
neighbours' gardens.
“These children are easily marginalised when it comes to allocation
of resources in society because they lack the adult voice to speak for
them,” Jose Bergua, a UNICEF child protection officer, said. He added
that children were also victims of property theft by their neigbours or extended families. Most children lack property ownership
papers and are unaware of legal provisions, at their disposal, to get
redress. Children in Bugesera told IRIN they had fewer guarantees over
land rights and other ownership than adult-headed households.
Assistance
Umuhoza has received a goat and chicken from the Bamporeze
Association. While the goat is yet to be sold, Umuhoza sells eggs and
chicks to buy household items. She also plans to sell the goat as soon
as it reaches maturity so that she can buys two kids.
Facilitated by UNICEF, the Bamporeze Association operates in one of
the country's 12 provinces. It provides a handful of children school
materials, and to others psychosocial care and income generating
activities. It also provides a small number of children training in
trades such as carpentry, metal welding and soap making.
“We try to make them feel part of the world and not isolated. But
even then, some of their needs cannot be entirely met,” Jane Muhongayire,
a member of the Bamporeze Association, said.
A recently adopted national policy for orphans and other vulnerable
children recommends that a system of community-based care and protection
for child-headed households must be set up to ensure their security from
abuse and their access to heritage. Such protection is even more
important now, given that the number of child-headed households is
likely to increase because of the high rate of HIV infections in the
country's adult population.
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
11 March 2004
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