Rwanda: Children still face many challenges despite efforts for improvement

The celebration of the Day of the African Children (DAC) on 14 June marked the beginning of a two-week national campaign to reflect and take action against all undercurrent negative perceptions and practices impeding the rights of children.  

This year’s national campaign theme, “Ndera Neza Nkure Nemye” (Parent me well and I will grow well), expresses children’s candid request and amplifies their voices, calling on parents, caregivers, community at large and policy makers to reconsider children’s situation in the society.  The impact of proper parenting cannot be over emphasized, as it has long term effects on the child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. 

Children are still forced to miss school, repeated absence and even drop out completely to support their parents in domestic chores or work to contribute to family wellbeing, often due to poverty and vulnerability. 

“I live with my mother and my young brother and sister in a rented house; our dad had problems with my mum and left home.  We have no other source of income except occasional petty jobs of my mum.  I’m doing this to search for any valuables that I can sell to get money to buy food [… ]  How can I go to school hungry, without uniform or scholastic materials?”, said Yves, a 12-year-old boy, recently as he was scavenging for empty bottles in domestic waste bins in one of the suburbs of the City of Kigali.   

Engagement in paid activities exposes children to risks such as missing school registration, dropping out, substance abuse and becoming easy preys to different kinds of exploitation.       

“We request for every child to be protected and access education.  Some children are still on street, abused physically, subjected to hard labour, sexually assaulted.  Some suffer from hunger while others are rejected by families”, a call of Adelphine Niyokwizerwa, 16 years old, during the official celebrations of the DAC, in Rusizi, western Rwanda.

Physical and humiliating punishment remains one of the degrading practices that continue to resist efforts aimed at promoting child-rearing in a protective and nurturing environment. It is still widely accepted as a method of disciplining children within families and often perceived as a way to groom them into responsible citizens, capable to face challenges of the future.

According to a UNICEF Child Protection Situational Analysis in 2024[1], sixty percent of boys and thirty-seven percent of girls in Rwanda experience physical violence. According to the 2017 Violence Against Children and Youth Survey in Rwanda, half of children in Rwanda experience a form of violence in their life course while ten percent of cases of sexual violence occur within the school settings. 

The same study has indicated that for boys and young men, fathers were most common perpetrators of childhood physical violence, followed closely by mothers. Both male and female teachers committed physical violence against both boys and girls. A wide range of family members (including mothers, fathers, uncles and aunts) abused both boys and girls emotionally[2].

These forms of abuse and violence against children persist in Rwandan society despite existing laws prohibiting corporal punishment and the presence of government institutions tasked with child protection. The Day of the African Child provides an opportunity for all members of the society, including families, neighbours, teachers, and law enforcement institutions, to reflect on their roles and responsibilities, and to work collectively toward the total elimination of child mistreatment

“As it is an established fact that our adulthood is largely affected by our childhood experiences, we must do the needful for our children to grow in a compassionate, caring and safe environment.  Indeed, children face complex problems as a result of poverty, family conflict and neglect, displacement and refugee situations and increasingly, effects of climate change.  We all need to invest in future peaceful generations by protecting our children”, observes Jo Musonda, Country Director, Save the Children for Rwanda and Burundi.