LEAP (Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty) is a national program targeting the extremely poor and empowering them to 'leap' out of poverty by providing the vulnerable with finances for basic needs, skills for income generation and other collaborating services. Felecia Naa Ankrah, Metro Director for Social Welfare in Cape Coast noted that the LEAP program has seen many successes. These include the constant expansion of the program, boasting a total of 1,507 beneficiaries as if February 2011. LEAP now involves and works with NGOs to develop collaborating action plans for certain poorer communities.
A Household receives between eight-twelve (8-12) cedi per month. They also get free National Health Insurance, and involve the family in school-assisting programs which provide books and uniforms.
Although Mrs Ankrah admitted the cash injection seems low for a household, she stressed the money was worth a lot to needy families with the added services of education and health.
Mrs Ankrah also pointed out the constant monitoring the program committee conducts. This includes making sure the children of the household are attending school, otherwise the household risk losing their cash privileges.
The program co-operates with the women of the household. The committee identified that for a whole household to benefit from the cash, the money should be given to the main caregiver in the family. Usually the woman distributes the cash where it is needed most in there household. Mrs Ankrah heralded the scheme by noting "a lot of the children have been withdrawn from child labor" in registered households. Although she stressed that the program was still in developmental stage and hopes to quicken the slow processing of potential registrars due to the nation only having one processing point, in Accra. Even after a household has been checked, after thorough investigation, the committee again returns to the community and decide if their poverty rank was a true reflection. Only after all opportunities of corruption have been eliminated can the very needy access all the benefits of the program.
The Cape Coast committee has great plans to saturate more communities in the area, after already registering eleven (11) out of one-hundred and seventeen (117) communities. The committee prides their success on their diligence to first sensitize the whole targeted community which encouraged the citizens to admit who was the poorest in the community, after the assembly had viewed their poverty map of the area. The committee does not want households registered with the LEAP program to forever be reliant on the program. Eventually after the family has engaged in self-sustaining income generating activities, they can be removed from the program so that even other families can benefit.
-Olivia Berry (Projects Abroad)
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