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Government to support 25,000 extremely poor household
Cape Coast, Jan 14, Ghanadot/GNA- The
Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, would from this
year offer relief to about 25,000 extremely poor households
in 50 districts in the country.
The programme would be implemented under the "Livelihood
Empowerment against Poverty in the National Social
Protection Strategy.
Mrs Angela Asante-Asare, the coordinator of the Programme
made this known at a day's sensitization workshop, organized
for key implementers of the programme, in Cape Coast.
She said the scheme, which sought to create an all inclusive
society through the provision of sustainable mechanisms for
the protection of persons living in extreme poverty,
vulnerability and exclusion, would be executed on pilot
basis within the next five years.
Mrs Asante-Asare said government was committed to ensuring
the success of the programme because it believed that
investing in people was a sure way of attaining the
Millennium Development Goals.
She said a scheme had been initiated to help reduce leakages
and corruption that might occur during the implementation of
the programme towards its sustenance.
Mrs Asante-Asare said the Ministry would soon resource the
Department of Social Welfare, one of the implementing
agencies to enable it work effectively.
She said it would require the concerted efforts of all
Ghanaians to ensure the successful implementation and
sustainability of the programme.
Dr Ellen Botei Doku Aryeetey of the Centre for Social Policy
Studies, and a consultant to the programme, said even in the
midst of widespread poverty, society needed some form of
relief and services.
She said "a responsible State supports the family for it to
in turn take care of the family in order to have a peaceful
and progressive society."
Dr Aryeetey, commended government for its efforts aimed at
supporting the vulnerable, the extremely poor and those
excluded.
Those who attended the workshop included district
coordinating directors, presiding members of the various
district assemblies, officers of the Department of Social
Welfare and the Ghana Post.
Under the programme, which commences this month, each
extremely poor household to be identified, would be
registered and given between eight and GH¢15.00 every two
months to support their basic human needs.
They beneficiaries would also be assisted to access existing
social services such as the mass transport as well as free
health care to improve upon their socio-economic
development.
GNA
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