Use LEAP money for intended purposes - Beneficiaries advised

Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho May - 27 - 2014 , 12:08

Beneficiaries on the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme have been asked to use the monies for its intended purposes or else they would be taken off the poverty-intervention scheme.

The monies are meant to cater for the nutritional, educational and health needs of beneficiaries.

The advice was given when officials from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) visited some communities around Koforidua on Wednesday to solicit views from beneficiaries on how to improve on the programme, as well as find out how the monies were benefitting them.

The suburbs visited included Akwadum, Nyamekrom and Osabene.

Advice to beneficiaries

The team was made up of the Director of Finance at the MoGCSP, Mrs Christiana Gockel, an accountant under the National Social Protection Strategy of MoGCSP, Mr Emmanuel Bediako, and the Communications Advisor at MoGCSP, Mrs Mercy Adjabeng.

They were taken round by the Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mr Harisson Tete-Donkoh, and some other officials at both the regional and district offices of the Department of Social Welfare.

Currently 73,134 households are benefitting from LEAP, which is being operated in 100 districts across the country.

Advising the beneficiaries, the monitoring team called on the beneficiaries to use the monies for the purposes for which they were given.

Monitoring of beneficiaries

As part of the programme, local organising committees have been formed in all beneficiary communities who monitor beneficiaries on how to utilise the monies.

As part of the conditions to benefit from LEAP, beneficiaries who receive the monies on behalf of orphans are supposed to ensure that the children are enrolled in school, they eat nutritional foods and are also registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Also people who receive the monies on behalf of the aged are to ensure that they eat well and receive prompt medical attention through the NHIS.

Benefits of LEAP

According to some of the beneficiaries, they are now able to take better care of their children, the aged and ailing relatives through the cash transfers.

Some of the beneficiaries who received bimonthly amounts of between GH¢42 and GH¢90, however, called for the monies to be increased to help them meet the current hike in the prices of goods and services.

They said the monies were very beneficial to the promotion of their well-being, as well as their dependants but were also of the view that it could be increased and made available to them monthly.

Madam Margaret Danquah, who is disabled and catering for her 10-year-old daughter, said she and her daughter survived on the GH¢90 they were given.

According to her, she was unable to work because she was disabled in her arms and therefore she always looked forward to the next LEAP payment.

Abandoned by her husband due to her deformity, Madam Danquah said the money had been very beneficial to her and her daughter and thanked MoGCSP and the government for its introduction.

Also at Akwadum, 19-year-old Sueabatu Sulamana, a JHS three student who receives GH¢48 as her grant because she has a deformity, says she gives the money to her aunt for her upkeep.

She said it helped in buying her school needs, as well as catering for her medical bills.

At Nyamekrom, a visually-impaired shop owner, Asiamah Agyekum, who has two teenage daughters, said he used the LEAP money to set up his provision shop.

He said the money helped him to send his children to school, as well as provided them with food and shelter.

Mr Agyekum, who is a member of the local organising committee on LEAP, said most of the beneficiaries were currently better off due to the cash transfer they received.

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