Poverty among women usually takes a different facet from that of their male counterparts. In many instances, a good number of poor women resort to prostitution as a way of earning money to fend for themselves and their children.

Yet, in a country like Rwanda, prostitution can lead to appalling consequences, including murder and acquisition of deadly diseases such as HIV/Aids. For example, research shows that about 40 per cent of the country’s prostitutes are HIV positive.

Three years ago, more than 10 prostitutes were found murdered in guest houses around Kigali within a span of just a few months.

In Rwanda, abject poverty stands at 63 per cent, according to 2014 World Bank statistics. This means that life is precarious for many, especially women as they account for the country’s biggest number of the unemployed.

In Musanze village, Hands of Hope, a charity organisation that helps disadvantaged women and children to improve their life, has found out that about 75 per cent of women there are living below poverty line.

Harriet Ingabire, its founder, says the main cause is lack of confidence among Rwandan women who have for long been seen as “the weaker sex.”

“Women think they need a man to make it. Having lived with rural women for the past few years, I have realised that our society doesn’t respect women, which has affected their self-esteem,” Ms Ingabire says.

She also cites lack of education as a major driver of poverty among Rwanda’s rural women.

Hands of Hope supports children and teenagers by giving them life skills, pays school fees and buys learning materials for the schoolgoing children.

The initiative of the Musanze-based Red Rocks Intercultural Centre, Ms Ingabire and her team motivate and empower these children to give them hope.

“During holidays we teach them English and also offer them computer skills training. We also show them motivational documentaries as a way of giving them hope. We found out that many of these children have this mentality that they cannot make it in life because of their impoverished backgrounds, hence the importance of changing their mentalities,” she says.

Ms Ingabire also believes that, like children, help is also important for women because they are more vulnerable than men, especially in rural Rwanda where they are likely to be the ones caring for children.

“The men are selfish – at least most of them. Here I’ve realised that it’s women who work the most to fend for their families,” she says.

Women from around Nyakinama Village, about seven kilometres west of Musanze town, use facilities of Red Rocks Intercultural Centre to make baskets and other crafts for which Hands of Hope sources markets.

“They sell their products to tourists who visit Red Rocks and all the proceeds go to them. We have also given them land which they cultivate and we buy all the food from them,” Ms Ingabire says.

In addition, Hands of Hope has in the recent past helped villagers construct houses for the homeless.