Paebo dynamite explosion victims to receive LEAP support

Victims of the Paebo dynamite explosion in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri municipality in the Eastern Region are to receive cash grants under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP).

The support will span a period of three months.

As part of the process to enhance the distribution of the grants, the ministry, on Monday, conducted a registration exercise in the community to enable it to get the bio-data of the victims for their eventual enrolment on the LEAP database.

Registration

About 2,000 victims are expected to be registered during the one-week exercise.

A Social Development Officer of the ministry, Eugene Nuamah, explained that the grant would be given to households and not individuals.

“After the registration, every household, based on the magnitude of how it was affected by the explosion, will be enrolled on the LEAP database for us to process the grants,” he explained.

The officer assured the victims that barring any hitches, the grants would be transferred to their e-zwich cards which would be provided by the ministry in February.

He, however, did not mention the exact amount each household would receive or the total amount earmarked by the MGCSP for the intervention, stating that “such information will be provided to the public once the ministry finalises all the registration and enrolment processes”.

Appeal
Some of the victims who spoke to the Daily Graphic appealed to the MGCSP to distribute the grants in a fair and transparent manner, stating that “some of us were left out in previous assistance to the community because of our perceived allegiance to certain political parties”.

LEAP
The LEAP emergency cash grant is provided by the government for victims of disasters in the country for a particular period of time.

It is different from the formal LEAP cash grant which is paid to vulnerable members of society such as the aged, orphans and persons with severe disabilities on a monthly basis.

A representative from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Eric Karaah, said the assistance would augment the efforts by NADMO and other agencies to alleviate the suffering of the victims.

Background
On December 24, 2015, there was a heavy dynamite explosion at a quarry site at Paebo in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri municipality, killing one person and injuring 10 others.

The explosion also damaged many houses around and beyond the quarry site.