The New York Times reported today on a new study by Tulane University on rural Rwandan orphans aged 12 to 24 caring for others in child-headed households. Their findings are compelling:

• 40% said life was meaningless
• 76% said their community rejected orphans
• Over half suffer from depression
• 77% are Subsistence Farmers
• 93% had less than six years of school
• Almost half had eaten only one meal a day in the last week

The study concludes that the number of Rwandan orphans “overwhelmed” the capacity of the country to adequately take them in and “large-scale interventions would be necessary ‘if the next generation of youth is to thrive.’”

The full study, from The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is here.