Adolescent girls are among the most vulnerable populations in the countries of West and Central Africa. Niger is no exception. Most of the country’s daughters can look forward to a life spent in poverty in which 80 per cent will remain illiterate, 60 per cent will be married by the time they are 15, and half will give birth to the first of seven or eight children before the age of 18.
There is a way to break the cycle of poverty: education. To address this, UNICEF piloted a scholarship programme in 2010 in which 60 girls in four junior secondary schools received a scholarship that provided a stipend to
families or host families, and gave a nominal amount to the girls. All of the girls who received the scholarship stayed in school and are now completing higher secondary education.
The girl you will meet in the following pages, Hamamatou Oumarou, is one of these girls. This is her story.
