SOS Children in Rwanda

Rwanda in Central Africa is one of Africa's smallest countries but it is the most densely populated. It has few natural resources, and its landlocked position means it has little access to world markets, exacerbating its economic problems and resulting in it being one of the world's poorest countries.

In 1994, ethnic unrest erupted into a violent civil war in which more than a million people were killed in genocidal massacres. Much of the country's infrastructure was destroyed, further decimating the already fragile economic base and severely impoverishing much of the population, particularly women and children.

By 2001, more than 600,000 children had been orphaned due to the war, a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, and malaria, which until relatively recently was the leading cause of death in the country. Rwanda has one of the highest child mortality rates in the world (one in five children will die before their fifth birthday), and one of the world’s largest proportions of child-headed families. HIV / AIDS is one of four primary causes of death among infants and mothers, and UNICEF estimates that AIDS has orphaned at least 160,000 children - more than one-fifth of the total.

Kigali

We care for 416 children and 259 youths in our three SOS Children's Villages in Rwanda, and reach a further 11,300 children and adults through our nurseries, schools, medical facilities and community programmes. We began our work in Rwanda in 1978, building our first SOS Children’s Village near the capital of Kigali. As well as the 15 family houses and four SOS Youth Homes (where the older children take a stepping-stone to independence), SOS Children's Village Kigali has an SOS Nursery, an SOS Primary School and an SOS Medical Centre, all of which are used by families in the surrounding area.

In 1994, with the outbreak of the civil war, the charity set up an emergency home for children in Ngarama as a temporary home for children abandoned and orphaned during the conflict, as well as a feeding centre for refugee mothers and children. The SOS Children's Villages in Kigali and Gikongoro also assisted in the emergency relief programme, taking in refugee children and providing medical attention, as well as working with other charities to reunite children with their families.

To provide a permanent home for the children living in the emergency village at Ngamara, a new SOS Children's Village was established in 1997 in nearby Byumba, nearly 40 miles north of Kigali. The charity's Byumba Village has 15 family houses and three youth houses, a community centre, workshops and a sports ground. As there are no child-care facilities in the vicinity and the local school was destroyed during the civil war, a nursery and primary school have been built for the village children and the local community, and essential medical care, also not available locally, is provided by an SOS clinic which treats over 4,000 patients a year.

In 2011, a fourth SOS Children’s Village opened in Kayonza in the east of Rwanda to help deprived children in that region. The Village has 12 houses for 120 children, an SOS Nursery, an SOS Primary School and an SOS Medical Centre.

Aids Orphans in Rwanda

See also Aids Orphan Projects in Rwanda, Africa.

"Before I became an SOS mother, I was living in the east of the country, about 60 miles from the capital Kigali. On 7 April 1994 in the early hours, armed people attacked my village. I do not know how I managed to escape; some neighbours found me among the dead and brought me to a hiding place. I had to keep moving but it was hard, the whole city was barricaded with executioners at every barrier. There were corpses everywhere. The horror was terrifying.

“After the genocide I never had the courage to count how many of my family I had lost, but knew it included my baby who died while tied on my back, my elder son and his father, my brothers, my sisters and my mother. Some months later, to my great surprise, I found my small sister and my nephew who, as me, had also escaped from death. They were still very young and needed me to help them grow up. They became my new reason for living because I became a mum again.

"I came to SOS Children's Villages Rwanda in 1999, following a radio announcement for the recruitment of an 'SOS aunt’ (SOS family helper). I had no idea what my daily work would be as I had never heard about SOS Children's Villages before. The only thing that interested me was the fact that I would be engaged with children who needed a mum and this was sufficient to restore the necessary morale and force that I was looking for. I worked as an 'SOS aunt' for one year before being promoted to being an SOS mother. Today, I have ten children in my family house. The eldest is fifteen years old and the smallest five years old. All of them attend school. I take care of my children like all the mothers in the whole world. I love them and I listen to them. I try daily to give them the best education.”