Obuasi, June 30, GNA - Over 160 needy households within the Obuasi Municipality, have benefited from the Government's grants under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme. The programme formed part of the government's overall National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) designed to assist the poorest poor to meet some of their basic needs.

The needy households were selected from 19 communities in the Municipality with the beneficiaries being orphans, the aged poor and the severely disabled.

Beneficiary household care givers were paid varying amounts depending upon the number of vulnerable persons in each household. A care giver looking after one vulnerable person was given 16 Ghana cedis and those taking care of two, three, four or more were offered 20, 24 and 30 Ghana cedis respectively. Mr E. Akoto-Sarpong, Obuasi Municipal Social Welfare Officer told the Ghana News Agency that the amounts were channeled through the Ghana Post and facilitated by the Municipal Assembly. He said the LEAP programme would also help the beneficiaries to access other socio-economic interventions available to enable them to improve their living conditions.

Mr Akoto-Sarpong appealed to the media to help in the sensitization of the programme to help avert any possible politicization of it, since the country was in an election year. He commended the Municipal LEAP Implementation Committee (MLIC) for the commitment so far displayed and appealed to the beneficiaries to ensure the effective use of the grants to enable them "leap out of their present needy situation".

The Municipal Social Welfare Officer assured them that the MLIC was seriously working to link most of them to other programmes that would enable them to earn more income to better their lot.