Kayonza’s Silent Crisis: School Dropouts,Drugs, and Rising HIV Risks Among Youth

Kayonza, Rwanda in Karubamba, a lively trading center tucked within Rukara sector of Kayonza district in Rwanda’s Eastern Province, an unsettling truth hangs in the air. Residents here speak in hushed tones of a growing crisis threatening their youth: alarming school dropout rates, widespread drug and alcohol abuse, and unprotected sex driving up teenage pregnancies and HIV infections.

A cycle of youthful mistakes repeated

Ntawiha Adolphe, known locally as Patrike, maneuvers his motorcycle taxi through

Karubamba’s dusty streets. Looking back on his own teenage years, he admits he once walked the same troubled path.

“I started having sex early, had children with two different girls. Later, raising them alone forced me to change,” he says. “But here in Karubamba, drunkenness and sexual recklessness are everywhere among the youth.”

Patrike is brutally frank about what he sees as inevitable.

“HIV is bound to spread here. Young kids drink cheap local brews, take drugs, and then have unprotected sex without a second thought about condoms. Local leaders just watch. If only higher authorities stepped in to change things.”

Young mothers pay a heavy price

Mukanziza Belancila knows the pain all too well. Her daughter became pregnant at 17, dropping out of school.

“So many kids here leave school, start taking drugs, and get pregnant. The boys deny responsibility. That’s how HIV is spreading,” she says, shaking her head.

She recalls young men from the village who have already died of AIDS.

“They left infections behind with people we do not even know yet. It’s deeper than we realize.”

Lost dreams, lasting stigma

Irimaso Clementine, another resident, became pregnant at 19 and was forced to abandon her education.

“I tell other girls not to make my mistake. Even if you do not catch HIV, having a baby before you are ready ruins your future. After giving birth, I had to struggle alone. Now people gossip, say I must have HIV, and avoid me because I’m poor,” she shares.

Just a few kilometers away in Kabuga village, Nyiraberwa Jeanne, only 20, is already a mother of three — and living with HIV.

“Men kept promising to marry me but disappeared after I got pregnant. The last one infected me. Thankfully, doctors are monitoring my baby, and he’s on treatment that could keep him HIVfree,” she says, adjusting her youngest child on her back. “But my family and neighbors avoid me. I tell girls: do not fall for sweet talk. When problems come, you’re left alone — with babies and diseases.”

Parents and poverty in the spotlight

Some elders in Karubamba are quick to acknowledge that parents bear part of the blame.

“Some parents don’t care. A child drops out, they say nothing. They wake up in bars, stay there all day, come home drunk, unaware how their children even spent the day,” one elder remarks.

Large families without the means to support them also fuel the crisis.

“When a girl is hungry, a boy gives her money, she ends up pregnant or with HIV. If kids weren’t reckless, how would HIV even reach them?”

A public health knowledge gap

Nyirinkindi Aime Erneste, an employee at the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) in the HIV prevention division, responsible for awareness campaigns, outlines the measures to help residents of Rukara sector fight against HIV, especially since they have

shown

Nyirinkindi Aime Erneste, a behavior change communication officer with the Rwanda

Biomedical Center’s HIV division, says Rukara lags behind other areas in understanding HIV.

“Many here can’t even explain basic facts about HIV. We’ve started programs to change that, and after this visit, we’ll keep working with local health teams to ensure residents get the right information,” he says.

Data paints a stark national picture

A 2019 survey by the Rwandan government, PEPFAR, the U.S. CDC, and Columbia University’s ICAP revealed that young women aged 20-24 were three times more likely to be living with HIV (1.8%) compared to young men in the same age group (0.6%).

A community at a crossroads

Kayonza’s situation underscores how poverty, parental neglect, substance abuse, and misinformation collide to drive early pregnancies and rising HIV risk among youth.

The voices from Karubamba reflect a generation quietly grappling with intertwined health and social crises — and highlight an urgent call for continued education, stronger community responsibility, and targeted interventions that give young people real hope and safer choices for the future.

By Isabella Iradukunda Elisabeth