A third-year student at the University of Ghana Medical School, has lauded Vodafone for giving her financial and technical support throughout her senior high school (SHS) education.Yasmin Buari is one of the beneficiaries of a three-year scholarship programme, which was introduced by the Vodafone Ghana Foundation to help increase the pool of females in the science, technology and engineering industry. Vodafone’s scholarship programme was introduced in 2014, in partnership with the British Council, to help bridge the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) by increasing females’ involvement in these subjects in Ghana. The package, catered for the tuition fees, learning materials and educational expenses of the beneficiaries for their three-year secondary education.The scheme sponsored the education of 300 brilliant female students in over 80 senior high schools across the country between 2014 and 2019.Sharing her experience, Ms Buari said, “Vodafone’s scholarship programme helped my parents and I a lot when I was in senior high school. “I attended various science camps and mentoring programmes where we were given hands-on training in coding and robotics, as part of the scholarship. She added, “We were told to uphold higher academic standards, which also helped in my admission into medical school. I would like to thank Vodafone and British Council for that wonderful initiative.”On his part, Gayheart Mensah, Director of External Affairs at Vodafone said, “We are excited that our scholarship programme provided the foundation that has empowered 300 females who are pursuing careers in the medical, engineering and other related disciplines. “We believe that females can play a significant role in addressing the technology and engineering challenges in the country, and this is one of the initiatives we introduced to help decrease the high attrition rate of women in this area.”