Economic life for many Hutu and Tutsi returnees is more difficult in Rwanda than it was in asylum. One third of all households are headed by women. Some 80,000 households are headed by children. A quarter-million or more children are unaccompanied minors. Tens of thousands of genocide survivors, predominantly women and minors, need special assistance.
Government officials monitor aid organizations closely.
Many aid agencies lack full confidence in the government's agenda. The ambitious plan, if implemented, would group Rwanda's overwhelmingly rural population into new or existing villages. Proponents contend the plan would improve land use, facilitate delivery of social services, and foster improved ethnic integration and security. Critics argue the plan is overly ambitious, poorly conceived, and is liable to produce forced relocations and new social tensions. That is, however, the task at hand in Rwanda.