Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) indicates that 4 per cent of young women and 8 per cent of young men aged 15-24 had sexual intercourse before age 15. For young people to be engaged in sexual relations at this age is linked to different factors such as lack of enough sensitisation on sexual and reproduction health, limited parental involvement or a lack of it thereof. Among other factors, is the issue of poverty, which is also said to be the major cause of cross generational sex, especially on the side of girls, all of which is said to increase the rate of HIV among youth. Poverty as the main driver for cross generational sex was echoed by Norman Manzi, Founder of Dream Village, an organisation that aims to reduce new infections, stigma and discrimination among young adults and youth living with HIV, saying that young people want to live a life they cannot afford themselves, something that pushes them into such acts. “You will find an 18-year-old girl sleeping with a 45-year-old because he has been able to work and has acquired some level of wealth that he uses to lure the girl. She will surrender to sleep with him to get the money she needs,” he said. Manzi finds this to be a circle of events, where HIV transmission is made easy, because most of the young girls have partners of their age and if they are infected with the virus, they can easily transmit it to their young partners. “The youth need to understand that life is not all about giving yourself out. You may pass through a lot but there is always a way out.” Though there is no scientific research yet that can establish cross generational sex as the cause of the high transmission of HIV among young women and older men, Dr Eric Remera, Research and Database Registry officer at RBC, said it is among the factors. “Based on realities on ground where by at 15 years, an adolescent is sexually active and at has at some point had sexual intercourse, there is likelihood that they may have older sex partners as well,” he said. Remera however explained that the high prevalence among old men is not necessarily due to new infections, but rather that they were infected at a younger age and have aged with it. Reverend Canon Antoine Rutayisire, of Remera Anglican Church, is of the view that once a young girl takes the path of sleeping with older men, it is due to poverty in most cases. “They have regarded sex as an easy thing to do nowadays and you can’t just stop them,” he said. However, he insists on the role that should be played by parents to teach young people about sexual matters and prevention of HIV. From the latest Rwanda Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (RPHIA), the prevalence of HIV among adult Rwandans (15-49 years old) is at 2.6 per cent, as that of those between 15-64 years is at 3.0 per cent. In Rwanda, the average period that one spends on HIV treatment is 15 years, as per RBC data, and with good adherence to treatment, 95 per cent of patients cannot transmit the virus.
