300,000 children in homes without adults

An estimated 300,000 children living on their own in homes without permanent adult supervision remain among the most vulnerable people in Rwanda, a UNICEF official said on Tuesday. “They lack family support and are fending for themselves. Most live in appalling conditions,” the official told IRIN. “Often, the household head is over 18 - maybe 20 or 21 years old - but that doesn’t make the children living there less at risk”, he said. In 90 percent of cases, the households were headed by either a girl or young woman, without a source of income. While the situation was a direct result of the 1994 genocide, there was concern that the number of child-headed households in the country was now increasing due to the impact of HIV/AIDS, he added.

UNICEF and its NGO partners were currently providing assistance to only a segment of the child- and youth-headed households in Rwanda, the official said, adding that a recent US $1.4 million contribution from the UNICEF national committees of the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland would be used to increase the number of children reached. “Their future is very bleak, and that’s why they require continuous support from governments and the international community,” the official told IRIN.