World Vision International found that 95 percent of the orphan households interviewed felt that they were denied equal access to the same health and education benefits as other kinds of families. Girls heading these families, according to the survey, fear sexual exploitation as well and worry about the lack of automatic inheritance rights for women. A bill granting property rights to women was passed recently by the Rwanda Parliament. Although the government has a policy of placing orphaned children with families, which Rugelinyange said is good, only a few families can afford to take in more children. At Gakoni in Umutara prefecture the Adventist Union operates an orphanage that is home to about 150 children.
Children live in families of eight with an adult who fills the role of a parent.
The church also runs a primary school at the orphanage that welcomes children from the neighborhood. The Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination in Rwanda, opened an orphanage it calls Nazareth Town in Mbare in 1998. The home cares for 300 orphans and operates a school for children ages seven through 12. While churches in Rwanda had begun to address the problem of AIDS orphans before the 1994 genocide, about 50 church leaders met in 1998 to discuss the AIDS epidemic and how to fight it. But they acknowledged that they were ill-equipped for the task and asked World Relief for training and guidance, said Clive Calver, World Relief president.