Needy Boys in Benin Now Benefit from USAID Scholarships
The USAID sponsored Ambassadors' Girls Scholarship Program (AGSP) has provided scholarships to girls in communities across Benin since 2004. Recently, the program decided to award scholarships to needy boys in the three northern communities of Bembèrèkè, Nikki and Djougou.
These communities have a large numbers of boys who were unable to attend school for many of the same reasons the girls, including being orphaned, having parents affected by HIV/AIDS, or being forced to work instead of attending school. In addition, as a result of programs to increase girls' enrollment (including the AGSP), boys' enrollment had declined and girls outnumbered boys in some schools. To provide needy boys an opportunity to attend school and to achieve a more equitable gender balance in the schools, the AGSP awarded scholarships to 1200 boys in these communities since 2007. The boys met the same criteria as girl recipients and received a school uniform, shoes, cold weather clothing, lunch money, a chalk board, a lantern, and school supplies.
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Scholars of Pedarou School in their new AGSP uniform hold high their lanterns. |
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