Recent years have seen a growing recognition of the importance of educating adolescent girls, not only because it will provide them with bankable skills, but also because there is no surer way to alleviate poverty and advance a country’s development. A UNICEF programme is providing vulnerable girls like Hamamatou Omarou, 15, with a scholarship that provides a stipend to their families or host families, and gives a nominal amount to the girl herself. So far the results have been encouraging: all of the girls who have received the scholarship have stayed in school and have moved on to higher secondary school.
