So, I’ve been doing a lot of research on street kid life in Rwanda lately for the documentary. Click the link above… but I’ll post below what I found interesting from the site:
- Rwanda’s population is young. Out of the 8 million people living in Rwanda, more than half are under 18years old.
- Rwanda has one of the world’s worst child mortality rates – one in five Rwandan children die before their fifth birthday. Malaria is the leading cause of infant and child mortality (29 per cent).
- 42 per cent of Rwandan children under five years old are malnourished.
- More than 400,000 children are out of school.
- Rwanda has one of the world’s largest proportions of households that are headed by children (i.e. children raising children) with an estimated 101,000 children heading up some 42,000 households.
- Between 9 and 13.4 per cent of 15 to 24-year-old females, and between 3.9 and 5.9 per cent of 15 to 24-year-old boys are HIV-positive.
- By 2001, an estimated 264,000 children had lost one or both parents to AIDS – representing 43 per cent of all orphans.
- 613,000 Rwandan children between the ages of 0 to 14 years old are orphans.
- 7,000 street children
- 3,500 children living in orphanages
- 1,000 children living in conflict with the law
- 60,000 children living with disabilities
- 120,000 working children
