Garu (UE/R), Sept. 28, GNA - Obaatan Mobilization Against Poverty (OMAP), a Ghanaian NGO Wednesday presented a scholarship package to a brilliant orphan at Garu in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region. Master Yakubo Adams, 15, a form one senior high school student, who had almost dropped out of school due to the lack of funds to pay his fees appealed to the OMAP for help, while it was working with women groups in the area.

Mrs Naana Kittoe-Manful, President of OMAP, while presenting GH150 cedis being school fees and cost of books for this academic year, promised to pay the boy's fees throughout his high school years and even beyond, if he qualified to any tertiary institution. Speaking at a ceremony to announce the package and to present some item to the women groups, Mrs Kittoe-Manful said OMAP had been working in the District for the past two and half years and within the period, it had trained a blind woman to use the kente weaving loom, which now provided her with a living.

She said OMAP had also provided funds for the women's groups in Tempane, Zesere, Worikambo and Denegu, all in the Garu-Tempane District for farming and other income generating activities. Mrs Kittoe-Manful explained that the aim of the NGO was to empower women to be economically self-dependent through vocational training and awareness creating programmes and added that her NGO was building a vocational centre for the women and a day-care centre for their kids at Denegu.

She said the sod for the project had already been cut and the foundation work was on going. Mrs Kittoe-Manful expressed regret over the plight of women in the country, particularly, those up north and said: "I'm very grateful to the NPP government for passing the Domestic Violence Bill into law in Ghana."

Mrs Kittoe-Manful, a Ghanaian resident in the USA said, she wanted to share the little that God has given her with unfortunate mothers and sisters in the north. Receiving the package on behalf of Master Adams, Rev. A A Yakubo, retired minister of the Assemblies of God Church in Bawku, thanked the President of the NGO for her kind gesture towards the poor boy and appealed to her to extend the good work that her NGO was doing to other children, for there were more brilliant children in communities with similar conditions. He used the opportunity to appeal to the government hasten the distribution of aid to the victims of the recent flooding of the area, as to some, their survival depended on it.