One of our major achievements is the inauguration of 150 girls from Gombe state into our scholarship scheme. The girls were selected from various levels of education - primary, secondary, and tertiary. The scholars are called the "ADDA Girls". They were selected through a transparent and participatory process in collaboration with each ward's School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) members. We developed a selection criterion with the community, which we used to identify and select the girls. The criteria are as follows;
· Financial need, these are girls whose are families are struggling to meet the financial obligation required for the girls to attend school and are most likely to drop out of school without scholarship support.
· Previous academic achievement indicates the chance of successful completion of the girl receiving scholarship support.
· Heightened vulnerability, such as orphans, physically challenged, children living with HIV and AIDS, having disabled or sick parents, being too poor to support the girl-child in school.
· Family size, i.e., the girl is asked to stay at home or hawk because the father cannot send all the children to school.
· Young women that are widowed, divorced, or married and are willing to return to school.
· Low-income female-headed households.
· Preference of a male child to be educated over a female in the family.
· Girls from families that have no value for education.
· Motivation, as exhibited by a girl/young woman's determination and efforts to overcome personal challenges.
· A girl-child involved in child labor or hawking.