Youth in Rwanda death from HIV/AIDS have left over 95,000 Rwandan children and youth orphaned. Prior to colonization, the Rwandan education system was unstructured. German colonized the country but was quickly replaced by Belgium who redefined many Rwandan systems including education. Catholic missionaries who had arrived in Rwanda earlier than German colonizers had set up some missionary schools to educate Rwandan youth and the Belgian colonizers continued to allow the Church to do educational work. Belgium created schools of their own between 1923 and 1925 but all were closed before 1929. Belgium instead gained indirect control over missionary schools. When Rwanda gained independence
Youth in Rwanda students. The probability of death for males and females before reaching 15 years old is 23% and 19%, respectively. Youth, in general, experience much of the same health problems as adults in Rwanda. Communicable, or infectious, diseases constitute 90% of health complaints. Malaria remains the highest risk of mortality in Rwanda but has seen a sharp decline in cases and mortality. Between 2001 and 2007, malaria's lethality fell from 10.1% to 2%. Smoking and other forms of tobacco use is increasing within the country for young people. 24% of secondary students smoked in 2004 according to a World Health Organization