Kalsagri, (UWR), May 16, GNA- Thirty-six girls from the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions (three Northern Regions), were on Thursday awarded scholarships for excelling in the 2006/2007 Basic Certificate Education Examination (BECE).

The girls who scored between aggregates six and 15 were selected from World Food Programme (WFP) assisted Junior High Schools (JHS). This brings the total number of jhs girls from the three Northern Regions who had benefited from the package to 59.

The WFP, companies and philanthropists gave the scholarships that ranged between 300 Ghana cedis and 400 Ghana cedis. Ms Trudy Bower, WFP Representative in Ghana, told Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the scholarships would encourage beneficiaries and other students to learn hard.

She said the WFP believed that girls' education and women empowerment was critical to lifting societies out of hunger and poverty. Ms Bower said "During my 20 years of working with WFP, I like others have come to realise that the face of hunger is often the face of women and children.

She urged district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to enact byelaws against cultural practices, such as betrothal and early marriage which were inimical to girls' education and development.