Pray for These People

The people of Rwanda. Here are a few facts to help you pray with compassion and understanding in the next few days......

Praying tonight that God gives me a deep love for the people of Rwanda.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

information used from unicef

Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world. It ranks 158th out of 175 countries listed in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index:

• 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
• 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 percent 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.
• 8.9 percent of the adult population is HIV-positive.
• 2000 women - many of whom were survivors of rape - were tested for HIV during the five years following the 1994 genocide. Out of these women, 80 per cent were found to be HIV-positive. Many were not sexually active before the genocide.
• 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 areorphans.
• 88 per cent of women have to walk for more than one hour to reach a health facility.

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was a truly traumatic and horrifying event. It was one of the most brutal acts of murder ever committed.

• Over the course of 100 days from April 6 to July 16 2004, an estimated 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide.¹ A recent report has estimated the number to be close to 2 million.²
• During this period of terrible slaughter, more than 6 men, women and children were murdered every minute of every hour of every day. This brutally efficient killing was maintained for more than 3 months.³
• There are between 300,000 to 400,000 survivors of the genocide.⁴
• Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 100 days of genocide.⁵Up to 20,000 children were born to women as a result of rape.⁶
• More than 67% of women who were raped in 1994 during the genocide were infected with HIV and AIDS.⁷ In many cases, this resulted from a systematic and planned use of rape by HIV+ men as a weapon of genocide.⁸
• There are 10 times as many widows than widowers – almost 50,000 widows of the genocide.⁹
• Nearly 100,000 survivors are aged between 14 and 21, of which 60,000 are categorised as very vulnerable.¹⁰
• 75,000 of survivors were orphaned as a result of the genocide.¹¹
• Of those that survived the genocide over half the children stopped their schooling, because of poverty.¹²
• 40,000 survivors are still without shelter, many whose homes were destroyed in the genocide.¹³
• 7 in 10 survivors earn a monthly income of less than 5000 Rwandan Francs(Equivalent to 8 (eight) American Dollars)

Comments

[Prudence]

This is so heart breaking. I was unaware of the magnitude.