Abused and dumped: The pain of Rwanda’s underage mothers

By Elias Hakizimana.

The teenage mothers number over 17,000. Most are from the poorest backgrounds. Most are abandoned by the men who got them pregnant. Many are suffering with trauma and stress.

Those are some of the harrowing results of a nationwide study on teenage pregnancy released recently in the Northern Province city of Musanze.

The study was carried out in 2017 by Reach Children Rwanda, Rwanda Religious Leaders Forum and the Rwanda Gender Monitoring Office (GMO). The study says the figure for 2018 could be even higher.

Under Rwanda law, any person who engages a child below the age of 18 in sexual activity commits the crime of defilement and is liable on conviction to life imprisonment with provisions.

Not surprisingly, many civil society organisations (CSOs), faith-based organisations, and government agencies in the country are angry about the “17,000 children.” They want concrete action to be taken to stop the negative trend which endangers the lives of both the teen mothers and their children.

They are angry that while all the surveyed teen mothers aged around 16 years old and their children are currently being exposed to harsh conditions of life, the men responsible for their plight are roaming free without being held accountable for their actions, according to the authors of the report.

Of the 17,000 teenage mothers, only about 800 or 5% receive any support from the fathers of their children. About 23% or 3900 of the teen mothers do not know the fathers of their children. This is possibly because, according to another study carried out by civil societies and Human Rights Watch, up to 9% of all teenage pregnancies in Rwanda are result of sexual violence, including rape.

The researchers interviewed 818 teen mothers under18 years old from 52 sectors in 10 districts, including Bugesera, Rwamagana, Kamonyi, Huye, Nyamasheke, Karongi, Gicumbi, Nyarugenge, Kicukiro and Gasabo.

Their report indicates that 64% of the teenage mothers are enticed by money. This is mainly because they are from poor backgrounds.

Another batch are not guided properly by their careless parents (13%), and others lack knowledge on reproductive health with 9%, while 5% are from families embroiled in dispute-driven families.

It was revealed that 88% of victims do not get support from the perpetrators and 99 percent of victims do not get any legal support in regard to the unwanted pregnancy.

Some are repeat victims since 10% have two children and 1% has more than two children. Up to 89% of the surveyed teen mothers have one child.

While speaking at the launch of the report, Musanze Vice Mayor in charge of Social Affairs, Marie Claire Uwamariya, said her district recorded about 724 teenage pregnancies last year.

“This means that 724 children gave birth to other children,” she said, adding that the local government currently has 1,448 children who need socio-economic integration.

“We are trying to look for support from partners to address the issue,” she said and added that the district had put in place interventions to reverse the trend.

Call for action.

Paul Jabo, the Executive Secretary of Northern Province, castigated irresponsible men who take advantage of poor teenage girls and then abandon them after discovering that they are pregnant.

He called on religious based organisations to intervene and help the community.

He said families need to embrace their responsibilities to their children and religious organisations need to fight vices like drug abuse among young generation.

He also said that it is wrong to engage children in child labour and appealed to members of the community to report abusers.

Cartas Mukandasira, the deputy chief gender monitor in Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), noted that children and youth represent over 60% in the country’s population.

Mukandasira said they need to inherit better values and life away from child labour, sexual abuse, early pregnancies, and other forms of child abuse.

Bishop John Rucyahana, the chairman of Rwanda Religious Leaders Forum (RRLF), said perpetrators of sexual crimes against children should be reported so that they are prosecuted.

He challenged church leaders and parents to play big role in ensuring peaceful families, educating children and imparting good moral values to their children; and also urges them report perpetrators so that they are prosecuted.

“Some of the children are being affected by trauma and stress caused by their parents’ conflicts in home,” he said, “I ask churches to take action and, together, we work to stop these disasters.”

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