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Rwanda: Kigali City
In Rwanda most cities are still young and small when compared to other cities. Yet the challenges facing urban families are multiple and increasing.
Housing: Traditionally, it is the practice in rural areas for young men who want to start a family to be given a plot by their father on which to build their house. In the city, plots are governed by law according to the city map. People can’t build anywhere and anyhow. A few businessmen are investing in the building industry. They are building estates for the working class to rent or buy. Renting a house has become very expensive, let alone buying one. In Kigali, some people take the opportunity during the night to put up a house with very cheap materials with the risk that when discovered the house can be destroyed without any indemnity. For all these reasons, people keep postponing marriage because they are not able to rent a house. Because Kigali City Authority want a clean city, some old and unfit buildings are condemned and families are requested to move to a new location with new and unknown neighbours. They are given compensation but not enough to buy where they would like to live.
Education and Child Care: The cost of education keeps rising and less and less urban families are able to pay for their children’s schooling. There are no public schools. The ones that are less costly are jointly governed by churches and the Ministry of Education. Both parents have to work hard in order to be able to pay for their children's school expenses and small children are left in the hands of a house girl or a house boy. Recently there have been cases of child abuse by these house girls and house boys, yet mothers are not able to give up working in order to care for their children.
Most jobs are becoming competitive in Rwanda. Someone who is not a university graduate is likely to lose his/her job even if she/he has long experience. This threat has meant that many have gone to evening classes to upgrade their education. Thus children are missing parental care because the parents are working hard, preparing for a brighter future for them. Of course at present the children are suffering. Without parental monitoring they are exposed to all sorts of influences from peer group and older children playing in the street. In the past, the grandparents and the extended family would be a solution for child care, but often people have left their extended family to go to the city. People are busy with their own concerns and they don’t have time to build relationships so that there is no one nearby whom they could trust with their children.
The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Kigali, through its Mothers’ Union, set up a crèche to welcome small children and to offer them care and education. Many parents were released by this initiative to do their job and to study. Churches and other Christian organisations are organising meetings to create awareness among parents on issues like family planning, childcare and to encourage people to set up cheap places as children’s play grounds. Children and Youth camps, organised by Scripture Union and some churches, help address the problem of pupils’ occupation during school holidays. There is a need for more such initiatives in Kigali City.
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