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The attempts to support and bring people up from the poverty ladder are commendable. They come in very refreshing and leave you believing that there is hope for the future. Life may never be fair, but I believe fairness is always within our reach.

That is why I laud the drive of the Department of Social Welfare for the painstaking job they are doing in the collection of data for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.

They may not be adequately equipped in their jobs, but a visit to their head office at the ministries last week gave me a satisfying feeling that serious work actually goes on in some departments within the Civil Service.

Last week saw a further boost in the cap of the LEAP, one of the social intervention programmes introduced by the last NPP administration.

According to a Daily Graphic story published last week, as many as 17,341 children under 18 years and the elderly above 75 would have free medical care. These would not be required to pay the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registration fees.

Is it not encouraging that the LEAP programme is being looked at with microscopic lenses in the bid to improve and widen it? Already, 26 more districts have been added to the number where the NPP government left off, bringing the number of beneficiary districts to 80.

In a 'fact-finding' trip to the Department of Social Welfare last week, the Assistant Director, Lawrence Ofori-Addo, who willingly and readily spoke to me with so much passion, told me about all the things being added to the LEAP programme in order to move the beneficiaries at the bottom of the poverty ladder up.

For this reason, therefore, other pro-poor interventions such as fee-free education, free school meals, free uniforms, free textbooks, and free health care have been introduced or are being considered.

In a very insightful interview with the Assistant Director at the Department of Social Welfare, between GH¢8 and GH¢15 paid out per month to beneficiaries of the LEAP programme alone is not enough to achieve the main objective driving the introduction of the programme — to move them out from the bottom of the pyramid.

That is why currently, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare are seriously looking at certain interventions to support the beneficiary families.

The intervention is laudable. Of course, I am a dutiful student of the old thought that you teach people how to fish for themselves and not provide them with fish all the time.

But when people are terribly hungry, they need help with whatever morsel in order to gather up their strength to go fishing.

The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy has helped so far, to get a sizable number of children to be enrolled in school. Good!

The Ghana School Feeding Programme has added to the attractiveness in being in the classroom as opposed to loitering. Great!

Thankfully, we now are going to add free school uniforms and books.

Excellent! All these education support mechanisms lift a chunk of financial burden off the shoulders of the parents in the LEAP programme.

The case of free medical care now being extended to 28,434 children and the aged in 54 districts nationwide who are already beneficiaries of LEAP is welcome news.

According to statistics available, only 16 per cent of those at the bottom of the pyramid have enrolled in the NHIS obviously due to affordability. This figure compares to 40 per cent enrolment in other income earning households.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Education ensures that children in the LEAP programme enjoy all free education initiatives currently being implemented by the education sector.

But just as education is key to lifting people out of ignorance and poverty, so is health critical in the development of people. Continued    Source: DAILY GRAPHIC - Daily Graphic

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