Parents have been urged to step up efforts in nurturing and protecting the girl child in the country.

The call was made, on Wednesday, by the Henriette Umulisa, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, at a media conference called to brief journalists on this year’s "International Day of Girl Child” celebrations.

The celebrations, due today, will take place in Rwamagana District under the theme, "For a bright future, I choose to protect my life.”

"The girl child more than ever faces difficult challenges and it’s up to us parents, to take the responsibility to nurture them. There are parents who can’t talk to their daughters about sexual matters and that puts them at a great risk. In the old days, that was the role of aunties but due to our history, some girls don’t even have families.

So, it’s up to us to take up that responsibility because they are our children,” she said.

Among the questions that Umulisa fielded, was the issue of abortion.

She highlighted circumstances under which abortion is accepted under the Penal Code and the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women.

In Rwanda, abortion can be procured under certain circumstances such as rape, if the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life, if the pregnancy is a result of incest or forced marriage. But this has to be certified by a competent court or recommended by a medical doctor.

Any other abortion outside these conditions is a crime and can also be harmful to the mother, Umulisa said.

She stressed that it’s important to have discussions with girls at all levels so that they can avoid unplanned pregnancies and also to protect them from sexual abuses such as rape.

Umulisa added that in cases of rape, government is in the process of establishing a deoxyribonucleic acid clinic (DNA), which will ease the process of testing the authenticity of a baby’s real parents.

Combating challenges girls face

Josiane Umutoniwase, the secretary-general of Rwanda Girl Guides Association, said they are taking measures that can reduce the challenges faced by today’s girl child.

"We have a programme known as +12 where we initiate conversations between parents and their daughters.

Some parents might lie to them about certain things but we don’t want that. So, we help them to know how to talk to their parents and how parents should communicate with their children on sexual matters,” she said.

Umutoniwase cited a mentorship programme that encourages girls who are relatively of older age to talk to their younger sisters.

She noted that it’s easier for them to open up about sexuality while talking to other girls more than they are willing to open up to their parents or guardians.

According to the 2014/15 Rwanda Demographic Health Survey, 7 per cent of young women aged 15-19 have already began childbearing. Six per cent have had live birth, and 2 per cent were pregnant by the time the survey was being conducted.

However, the survey notes that the government has taken steps to improve the legal and institutional framework for the protection of the rights of children.

Some of the campaigns conducted to raise awareness include Anti-Teenage Pregnancy, Family Promotion, Sixteen Days of Activism, Anti-Gender-Based Violence and the newly launched He-for-She campaign, among others.

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