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REPUBLIC OF RWANDA MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, INFORMATION AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS National Policy for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children Rwanda, 2003  TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE………………………………………………………………………………….….1 1. INTRODUCTION 2 2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT 4 3. PRINCIPLES OF THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD 6 4. ORPHANS AND OTHER VUNLERABLE CHILDREN IN RWANDA 8 4.1 Definition of orphans and other vulnerable children 8 4.2 The situation of orphans and other vulnerable children 8 4.3 Categories of vulnerable children 8 5. GENERAL POLICY 10 5.1 Vision 10 5.2 Mission of the Government 10 5.3 General Objectives 10 5.4 Constraints 11 5.5 Opportunities 12 5.6 Strategies 13 6. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES 14 1. Children living in households headed by children 14 2. Children in fostering care 14 3. Street children 15 4. Children living in centres 16 5. Children in conflict with the law 17 6. Children with disabilities 18 7. Children affected by armed conflict 19 8. Children who are sexually exploited and/or abused 19 9. Working children 20 10. Children affected/infected by HIV/AIDS 21 11. Infants with their mothers in prison 22 12. Children in very poor households 22 13. Refugee and internally displaced children 23 14. Children of single mothers 23 15. Girls who are married before their majority 24 7. STAKEHOLDERS AND MEANS 25 8. LITERATURE, REPORTS, DOCUMENTS 26 PREFACE A child is a gift of God to its parents, a precious companion to its brothers and sisters, a continuity of its family and the future of its country. This beautiful human being, cherished and fragile, should be protected and grow up in an environment that is favourable to its moral, intellectual and physical development. In many countries, and above all in the poorest of them, the majority of the children will never have known this blossoming, which is nevertheless their full right. The Rwandan child has experienced suffering due to bad governance, which has ch