The Ministry of Children, Gender and Social Protection has released GH\u20b5 3.9 million from its emergency programme to assist victims of the June 3 flood and fire disasters.<\/p>\n
The sector Minister, Nana Oye Lithur said the payment would be made soon to beneficiaries, some of whom have become poor and vulnerable.<\/p>\n
In all 13,000 households around the disaster zone will benefit from the intervention.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”ZwsVF4pmS5XNBj0VSTKyIuKsuxmHxePA”]The Minister said this on Tuesday during the launch of a report by Challenging Heights, a human development oriented non -governmental organisation, on the effects of the Livelihood Empowerment and Poverty (LEAP) project on the well-being, care and family cohesion in Ghana.<\/p>\n
She mentioned that the government is working hard to ensure the victims of the floods will not become worse off, and was hopeful that children who lost their parents to the floods will be able to stay in school.<\/p>\n
Nana Oye Lithur said social protection programmes have gained prominence as development strategies for lifting millions of people out of poverty and addressing societal vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to the latest Africa MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] progress report, the number of African countries implementing social protection programmes almost doubled in only three years from 21 in 2010 to 37 by 2013,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Minister noted that since the programme was launched in 2007, the number of beneficiary households have increased from 1,645 in 2007 to 90,785 as at the last cycle payment this year.<\/p>\n
She said the Ministry had also increased beneficiary households to 150,000 and is targeting 200,000 by the close of the year.<\/p>\n
Mrs Lithur said the Ministry has launched a project dubbed: \u2018LEAP 1000\u2019, aimed at addressing malnutrition in children in the first 1,000 days of their lives with the main focus on the Northern and Upper East Regions.<\/p>\n
The Executive Director of Challenging Heights, Dr James Kofi Annan, appealed to the Ministry to extend the LEAP project to coastal areas in the country especially the Efutu Municipality and Awutu-Senya District in the Central Region.<\/p>\n
He said studies in such areas have revealed the extent of poverty existing there and the rise in child labour and child trafficking.<\/p>\n
Dr Annan expressed appreciation to the Gender Ministry for increasing the cash size of LEAP from GH\u20b5 24.00 per beneficiary per month to GH\u20b5 44.00 per beneficiary per month with effect from July.<\/p>\n
The research which started in November 2013 by Challenging Heights was carried out with the support of Family for Every Child and the Centre for Social Protection at the Institute of Development Studies, UK.<\/p>\n
The report called on the Ministry to remove the four eligible household ceiling and make it accessible to all eligible household members across all LEAP catchment areas in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cChallenging heights is also asking the Minister to ensure that payment of cash under LEAP is done as planned, prompt and also frequently as our field research shows that existing beneficiaries of LEAP sometimes wait for months before they receive the money,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: GNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ministry of Children, Gender and Social Protection has released GH\u20b5 3.9 million from its emergency programme to assist victims of the June 3 flood and fire disasters. The sector Minister, Nana Oye Lithur said the payment would be made soon to beneficiaries, some of whom have become poor and vulnerable. In all 13,000 households […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":126537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[17],"yoast_head":"\n