The young people who work in the Mining Company of Precious Stones in Rwinkwavu Wolfram Mining in Kayonza District say that they are worried that the increase of AIDS may be high because they have to wear condoms at their workplaces.
When you talk to the youth who work in the company, they tell you that they are having difficulty finding condoms and they are worried that it will make it difficult for some of them to avoid the AIDS epidemic.
Jean de la Paix Hafashimana says that young people face many trials that can cause them to contract AIDS and asks that condoms be brought closer to them.
He says: “You see here we get a lot of money, sometimes I see because of many tests and you find that I am going to drink it so I would be infected with AIDS”.
Hafashimana continues: “When I want to solve a problem, I use condoms, but there are people who can’t remember to use them. They used to give us condoms here, but now it’s been 5 months and they don’t bring them anymore.”
He concludes: “We ask that they bring us condoms here and give us time because sometimes you go to the Boutique and run out, it would help us even more”.
Josiane Yihimpundu also says: “I ask my fellow youths to go through the Health Counselors and give them condoms instead of engaging in unprotected sex because we work here, they don’t get these condoms because we don’t have them”.
She concludes by saying: “I have been here for 7 months but since I arrived I have not seen any condoms. If you encounter a problem and need to have sex, you may be infected. I would like to advocate for you. There is a box for someone to take because there are those who are ashamed to go and buy it. in boutiques or going to health counselors which would cause them to get infected”.
Representative of Rwinkwavu Wolfram Mining, Eng. Elmogene Tuyishimire says, “Condoms are provided at the Rwinkwavu Health Center, the doctors encourage people to go and get us, and we encourage the staff, no, they don’t bring us here when we need them to go to the Health Center”.
He concludes by saying: “Here the workers work six hundred thousand per month, it is a lot of money that can make you engage in prostitution. What I would ask is that the condom should be brought back, but there should still be time for people to talk and be reminded that it is important to avoid it.”
Anastase Ntawiringira, Deputy Director of the Rwinkwavu Health Center, who is also at the HIV/AIDS Care Service, says: “What we have not done yet is to take condoms so that we can send them to the people in the quarry, but every other area (site) is has a representative so that those looking for condoms can find us there”.
The director says that they are facing the challenge of having condoms that are carried by children who go to play football, but he assures them that they are going to find a way to get condoms to those who work in Agaciro mining.
The Mayor of Kayonza District, John Bosco Nyemazi, says that they are going to check the problem of condoms that are not readily available and see how it can be solved.
He says: “Condoms are not readily available, I don’t know what happened, but it is a problem that we can check and find out what it is, but what we know is that these services to help young people prevent AIDS, such as giving them condoms, are available, but the measures are ongoing”.
Rwinkwavu Wolfram Mining is made up of 200 men and 20 women between the ages of 16 and 30, each of whom can be paid 600,000 Rwandan francs per month.
Figures from the Rwanda Statistics Institute for the year 2022 show that the Eastern Province has 942,370 young people, while in Kayonza District there are 120,691 boys, 59,127 girls and 61,564 girls between the ages of 16 and 30.
In this district, there are 654 people taking antiretroviral drugs at the Rwinkwavu Health Center, not including pregnant and lactating mothers.
Gaston Rwaka
