3 December 2008
A number of people benefiting from the government's Livelihood Empowerment Programme Against Poverty (LEAP) initiative, have decided to use part of funds received to subscribe to Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in their various communities.
Some women beneficiaries have also invested their share of the funds into petty trading, animal husbandry, groundnuts and shea butter extraction among others.
In the Talensi-Nabdam District alone, about 343 people have registered with the health insurance scheme with monies disbursed under the LEAP programme.
Ms Victoria Natchu, Assistant Director of the Department of Social welfare (DSW) and head of the monitoring team in the Upper East Region, disclosed this to the press in the region after the team had paid a four-day working visit to beneficiary communities to ascertain progress so far made with the programme.
She said beneficiaries in communities such as Dalga-Kunkua in the Bongo District, Kajelo and Zenga in the Kassena-Nakana District, Chansa and Gwenia in the Builsa district as well as Nyogbaara and Tongo-Beo in the Talensi-Nabdam District expressed gratitude to government for the programme.
Ms Natchu indicated that visits to the communities revealed that the beneficiaries were the true recipients of the money and said even though there were few technical hitches such as accidental swapping of photographs of the beneficiaries those problems were contained immediately.
She noted that malnutrition among children in the areas visited was high and so advised the beneficiaries to use locally grown foods, which had high protein content to ensure that their children were well-fed.
Mr. Nat King-Tackie, an Assistant Director of DSW and a member of the monitoring team, said the Department was considering upgrading the emergency programme into a fully fledged LEAP programme.
The LEAP programme which commenced early this year is funded by the World Bank.
It is aim at mitigating the plight of people who are severely affected by floods and droughts in the Upper East Region.
The DSW is disbursing GH¢ 167,500 to 5,250 beneficiaries under the second phase of the programme in five beneficiary districts in the region. They are Bongo, Kassena-Nankana, Builsa, Garu-Tempane and Talensi-Nabdam districts.
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