About Rwanda
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It is difficult to contemplate how any country could sink so far into genocide that over three million of its own children are left orphaned or vulnerable, however that is exactly what happened in Rwanda in 1994. A former German colony, Rwanda became under the control of Belgium after the First World War and became independent in 1962.
As with other emerging independent African nations politics was divided into tribal factions and following the assassination of President Habyarimana in 1994 mass slaughter led to the killing of an estimated half to one million Rwandans, the equivalent of one in five of the entire population.
Despite this bloodbath, Rwanda is now respected as one of the most stable African nations. Yet the mass genocide of the early 1990s has deeply scarred the nation.
Today in this country that has ninety per cent of its people engaged in agriculture and with few natural resources, there are still around one hundred thousand children working on the land to achieve some form of living without adults around them to guide and assist or free them up so they can attend any form of education, so vital to their future.
Aid programs for children in Rwanda are focussed on providing these children with educational resources as well as training, education and counselling. Counselling as many young people were forced to commit atrocities during the genocide and witnessed events that no child should ever have to see as well as suffering from imprisonment.
The government of Rwanda is now committed to a peaceful existence and is working with other countries and organisations to build a better future, however there is still much to do, and most of it can only be achieved with external aid.
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