By Solomon Gumah
Zoggu (N/R), June 16, GNA â The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has held a sensitisation forum for residents of Zoggu in the Nanton District of the Northern Region to help bridge information gaps on social protection interventions in the country.
They were educated on social protection initiatives including child protection issues, human trafficking, mental health, substance abuse, and available support services.
Madam Francisca Atuluk, the Director of Social Protection at the Ministry, who made a presentation on behalf of the Sector Minister, said it was inspired by findings from the Ministry’s monitoring activities, which revealed that many citizens lacked adequate information about social protection services and their rights.
She explained that the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, initiated the outreach programmes to ensure that people in remote communities had direct access to information that would empower them to seek support and report cases of abuse and exploitation.
She said: âMost of the time, programmes are organised in Accra or regional capitals, leaving-out people in remote communities. The Minister believes that information should be brought directly to the people so they can understand their rights and know where to seek assistance when challenges arise.â
She added that the initiative was also intended to familiarise citizens with available helplines and reporting mechanisms for child protection, social welfare and mental health concerns.
Mr Colson Akanbasiam, Head of Communications for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme at the Ministry said the programme’s beneficiary reassessment exercise had enabled the Government to increase the number of beneficiary households from 350,000 to 400,000 nationwide.
He said the expansion was made possible through government commitment and support from development partners.
Mr Akanbasiam further disclosed that government had introduced a mechanism to index LEAP grants against inflation to preserve the value of support provided to beneficiaries.
He said: âEvery other year, the grant amount is adjusted by about 25 per cent to ensure that beneficiaries do not lose purchasing power because of inflation.â and added that discussions were underway to introduce a new payment structure that would consider household size instead of relying solely on the number of eligible vulnerable persons.
He said under the proposed arrangement, households would be grouped according to the number of members they have with larger households receiving higher support packages and described the proposed reform as a significant improvement that would better reflect the realities faced by beneficiary households.
Mr Akanbasiam, however, assured beneficiaries that government and development partners remained committed to ensuring regular and timely payments, stressing that consistency was critical to the programme’s effectiveness.
Mr Peter Mintir Amadu, Clinical Health Psychologist, Lecturer, University for Development Studies and Executive Director of Total Life Enhancement Centre Ghana, observed that although considerable progress had been made in raising awareness about substance abuse in northern Ghana, the fight against the menace was far from over.
He said: âWe have made progress because more people are talking about substance abuse than before, and more institutions are becoming involved in addressing the challenge. However, we still need to intensify our efforts.â
GNA
Edited by Eric K. Amoh/Benjamin Mensah