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
Elections in Rwanda with chiefs and Territorial Councils electing the Superior Council member. Elections were held under this system in 1953–54 and 1956–57. The first direct elections were held in September 1961, with MDR-Parmehutu winning 35 of the 44 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Following independence in 1962 the country became a one-party state with MDR-Parmehutu as the sole legal party. General elections were held in 1965 in which Grégoire Kayibanda was re-elected President unopposed, whilst the party won all 47 seats in the National Assembly; in the presidential elections voters could vote for or against Kayibanda's candidacy, whilst in the National Assembly