Success Stories

Ghana

“I like school a lot and want to become a nurse,” says Asonah, an AGSP scholar in Ghana.

Asonah Nma is a second grade student at the Vea Primary School in the Bongo District in Ghana. When she was younger, Asonah was stricken with polio which left her handicapped. Her father is a farmer and her mother, a trader, occupations which are held by the majority of people in this part of the country. Bongo District is one of the most deprived districts in Ghana sharing its borders with Burkina Faso in the north. Asonah's family is very poor and with four other siblings in the family, there isn't much money to spare. With annual family incomes of less than $40 and a literacy rate of 30%, children here who find themselves able to attend school are fortunate.

Asonah is one of these fortunate girls. Chosen to be an AGSP scholar through a transparent, participatory process done in her community, Asonah is very excited to be part of the program. “I like school a lot and want to become a nurse. For this, I have to work very hard. I was given a bag, pencils, books, uniforms, and a bicycle which my brother rides me to school on. These things encourage me to come to school every day,” says Asonah. The Headmaster of Asonah's school, Mr. Patrick Ababisa is very happy that the AGSP is implemented in his school. “Without this support, some of the girls would have left school. Bongo district is much in need,” says Mr. Ababisa.

The Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP) began in Ghana in January 2005 and has given over 3000 scholarships to date. With a goal of retaining girls in school, each scholarship covers essential items that a girl in either primary or junior secondary school would need to be able to attend school for each academic year. These include school uniforms, books, school supplies, shoes, food for school lunches, and in some cases, bicycles. A program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the AGSP aims to support girls through at least four years of their education. AGSP scholars are selected by a committee consisting of traditional leaders, district health and education personnel, NGO staff, and other community leaders who review applications and interview girls from the community along with their parents/guardians.

Liberia

Deborah Bondo is an 11-year-old student living in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Just as she was about to start primary school, Deborah's father died. “My mother was left alone to care for seven children, but this didn’t stop my mother from sending me to school,” she says. Deborah began school, but there were many challenges; one month she would be in school while the next she would be driven out of school because her mother could not pay her school fees.

During the 2004-2005 school year, the Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP) began working with the Maggie Lampkins Institute, a school in Deborah's community. She was one of the fortunate girls selected as a scholarship recipient by the AGSP. Scholars are selected by the community through a systematic process for identifying girls most in need.

Deborah's school fees and school supplies, such as books and pens, are supplied by the project. “I count myself blessed. I now feel joy because I can continue my schooling uninterrupted,” she says. The Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program is supporting Deborah's mother's desire to educate her daughter. This ambition is not often seen in mothers who have lost their husband’s financial support. Deborah's mother’s dream of having an educated daughter and Deborah’s dream of becoming a nurse is supported by the AGSP, which is being implemented by the Children Assistance Program in Liberia with support from World Education and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Deborah is now in the sixth grade and doing well in her classes. “I am very proud of Deborah for all her hard work,” says Deborah’s teacher.

Speaking with dedication and confidence, Deborah says, “When I become a nurse I will devote my time to saving the lives of mothers and fathers so I can save other children from the experience I had when I started schooling.”

Mali

“I knew that as a beneficiary, I would receive all the materials necessary to improve my studying conditions,” says Badji, an AGSP scholar.

Before the Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP), 11-year-old Badji Traoré was following in the footsteps of her older sister. Badji explains, “My older sister went to school through sixth grade, but then dropped out because she was not encouraged by our parents.” After the fourth grade, Badji dropped out of school because she had too many responsibilities at home which left her with little time to study. She would often help her mom sell small condiments door-to-door or at the market. Badji did the laundry and cooked, which sometimes meant she had to go to the fields to look for firewood. At the time Badji only had two textbooks at home — reading and math — which she shared with her brother. Living in a rural village without electricity meant that Badji had to go to a friend’s house to study because her family only owned one lamp for everyone’s use.

Today, Badji is in the sixth grade at the Sidi Mahmoud School in Timbuktu, Mali. This is her second year as an AGSP scholar. Badji's school was one of 118 schools in Mali selected by the community to participate in the AGSP. The program has provided her with books, notebooks, school uniforms, geometry supplies, pens, a slate, and a school bag. She also participates in remedial classes and study groups designed specifically for AGSP scholars. When asked how she feels about the AGSP, Badji says, “When I learned that I was at a school benefiting from the AGSP, I was very happy. I knew that as a beneficiary, I would receive all the materials necessary to improve my study conditions.”

She continues, “It is because of the scholarship that I was one of the top three students in my class both last year and this year.” At home, Baldji now has more time to study because her mother was sensitized by AGSP’s partner NGO staff on the importance of balancing chores and school work. Local women who have completed their schooling have visited Badji’s school to encourage the girls to study and to stay in school. Badji says, “Both in school and at home, people appreciate me because they see the efforts I put into school. I will take the seventh grade entrance exam at the end of this school year. I will do all I can to pass the exam because staying in school is my dream. When I grow up, I want to become a doctor so that I can save many people's lives.”

To date, over 14,000 scholarships have been awarded to girls throughout Northern Mali.

Senegal

“I want to be the president of Senegal,” says Mansata, who is able to continue pursuing her education thanks to AGSP.

When asked about what challenges she and her classmates face in getting an education, 16-year-old Mansata Balde speaks of poverty and early marriage. “I have friends who have already been married off. Their parents can't afford to send them to school and when the opportunity for marriage comes up, parents often think that it is the best option,” she says. As her uncle, Bokar Balde, explains, “If your child has a scholarship, you, as a parent, have no economic barriers to educating them. If they don’t have a scholarship, you have to budget for their school supplies and often you don’t have enough to support them adequately. That is when marriage, in the father's eyes, becomes a better option.”

Mansata has been an Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship recipient for 3 years and is currently in ninth grade in the town of Bagadadji in the Kolda region of Senegal. Mansata lives at home with her extended family, including her parents, uncles, aunts, siblings, and cousins. In addition to helping with household chores, Mansata helps her younger siblings review their homework daily. Even before she was an AGSP scholar, Mansata helped her siblings so that they too could be successful in school.

The most important part of the scholarship package, according to Mansata, is the textbooks. Books are expensive in Senegal and the AGSP provides scholars with books on math, history, geography, science, physics, English, and even dictionaries. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Mansata says “I want to be the president of Senegal.” She goes on to say that, “If you are a scholar, you are independent. You can learn anything you would like to learn, you can do any school exercises you would like to do. You can know things that your parents never knew.” Just like Mansata, there are currently 420 other girls in the Kolda region and more than 1,200 additional girls in Senegal who will continue to study and have more opportunities to avoid early marriage in large part due to the support they are receiving from the AGSP.

World Education, in partnership with Organization for Training and Support to Development (OFAD), has been implementing the AGSP in Kolda. Since the program's inception, over 1000 scholarships have been distributed in the region. This support has provided the girls with much needed scholastic supplies such as books, school fees, and meals. The AGSP also supports extra classes for scholars, providing them with academic assistance outside the regular school day.