Eight hundred and twenty-eight beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme in 11 communities in the Kwahu West municipality have received their monies.

As part of the evaluation process to enhance the programme, the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North Constituency, Gifty Twum-Ampofo, together with the national coordinator of LEAP, Dzigbordi Kofi Agberkpornu, officials from the Department of Social Welfare and Kwahu West Municipal Assembly were in the field to disburse funds to the beneficiaries through Opportunity Bank.

Speaking to the media, Ms Gifty Twum-Ampofo hinted that plans were far advanced to widen the beneficiary net of the LEAP programme.

She said the programme so far covers extremely poor families, orphans and vulnerable children, the aged (64 years and above without production capacity) and people with severe disability. She disclosed that the government was working hard to include new beneficiaries.

“Officials of LEAP will get back into communities to register new beneficiaries and with the new beneficiaries there is another category that we have added on; these are households with children with cerebral palsy – in other words, autistic households,” she narrated.

There was a health talk by an official of Kwahu West Municipal Health Directorate, Miss Naomi Wayo, to enlighten the beneficiaries on proper nutrition to keep them healthy.

LEAP is a social cash transfer programme that provides cash and health insurance to the extremely poor households across the country. Its main aim is to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development.