Julia Tetteh from Ayikuma
Mother of three Julia Tetteh lives with her elderly mother and three children in Ayikuma, a small village 45 km north-east of the capital Accra.
“Back in 2009 my twin children were very sick in hospital and my husband refused to pay for the hospital fees. I had to ask friends and neighbours for money. But because I was also sick and weak, I could not work and pay back the money”, Tetteh said.
“When I found out I was HIV positive I was shocked and afraid”, says Tetteh. My father helped me to stay strong”.
Big God Tafaa David, a community leader, noticed that Tetteh’s health was fragile and she had no steady income. “There are no jobs in my community and parents often don’t send their children to school because they need them supplement the household’s income”, he said.
He recommended Tetteh’s family for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme — a social cash transfer programme that provides cash to extremely poor households.
Although living with HIV is not a requirement for joining the programme, and Tetteh’s three surviving sons Michael (14), her firstborn Martin, (17) and Dani (3) are all HIV negative, Tetteh’s children were deemed vulnerable, and she was given assistance in 2009.
Children affected by HIV are at greater risk of being poor and losing their family — whose care is their first line of protection. Cash transfer programmes can help lessen the impact of HIV by reducing poverty and keeping families together.
When payday comes, it’s mostly women who collect the money, as they are often those taking care of the household and caring for the children and elderly family members.
With LEAP, Tetteh is able to meet her immediate needs for food and healthcare. The programme also gives her the money she needs to pay for her children’s school fees, keeping them in school and giving them a chance for an improved life.
Besides cash payments, LEAP beneficiaries access free health insurance through Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). This has been a huge bonus for Tetteh, whose frail health and inability to pay hospital fees were previously a great burden to her life. “Now my health is much better because we all have free access to the NHIS. It makes a big difference not having to pay for hospital fees for the whole family”.
“The money helps me to take care of my children. I can pay for their school fees, I can take them to the hospital if they’re sick”, Tetteh said. “And I can use some of it to buy my fruit stock, which I can resell around my neighbourhood. I’m more hopeful now about the future than I was before”.
David is a member of the Community LEAP Implementation Committee, or CLIC. Because they know those living in their own community very well, they can identify and select families in need for potential enrolment for cash transfer.
He says, “I do this work out of passion, because I want to help people, and especially women like Julia, lift themselves from poverty and improve their lives and those of their children”.
LEAP now reaches about 213 000 households in all 216 districts in Ghana. The programme targets those most in need of assistance: poor households with orphaned and vulnerable children, elderly people, disabled persons unable to work or earn, pregnant women and families with children under one year old. Each beneficiary receives between 64 and 108 Ghana cedis (R215 and R362) every two months. The amount is determined by the number of household members who fall within the three eligible categories.
LEAP is implemented by Ghana’s Department of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and is supported by the World Bank and the UK Department of International Development. UNICEF provides operational assistance.