Beatha's Story
Beatha Mukantambirwa looks younger than 16, but the time she spent in the refugee camps in Zaire has matured and hardened her.

She needs that maturity now. Her parents are dead, and she is both mother and father to her baby brother Habimana and 12-year-old sister Christine.

They got separated on the trek home; Save the Children social workers have just found Christine and brought the family together again. On the journey home, Christine sat down for a rest at the side of the road. When she looked up, her relatives had moved on - something that happened to lots of children.

Now Beatha has other things to worry about - reclaiming her parents' house and land. "When I came back from Zaire, the first thing my grandmother said was that I had to go and live in my parents house," says Beatha. Under the present law, widows and women in general can't inherit land. The genocide has left many households headed by girls and women. So thousands of families have lost their land rights.

This thought was nagging Beatha's grandmother, Taciana Kanyange, which was why she quickly sent Beatha back home to Musasa commune (or district), just outside Kigali. "Their father was my last born," says Taciana. "Now that all my children are dead, my grandchildren are all the family I have left. Now these children are home on their own land, I can die with confidence. I'm very happy. They are here to take care of their land, and when 1 die they will bury me." But it's not that straightforward. Beatha found Damascene Namajimana living in her old home with his wife and three children. Undaunted, she moved in with them.

Says Damascene "I have been living in this house and cultivating the land for nearly two years, but I have no right to it. The government says we have 15 days to leave; we'll be gone by then." But what will he do? "I have no land of my own. My parents' land is too small to share. I'm building a home for my family on another piece of vacant land; I've been told that the owners died in Zaire." Beatha is confident that Damascene will honour his word and leave. "We will manage," she says. "We'll cultivate the land to survive."

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