OMG! Witches Protest In Ghana Over Leap Allowance

The decision by some alleged witches in the Gushegu District in the Northern Region to demand their right has paid off as they would begin to receive their allowances under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme (LEAP) by the end of this month. The alleged witches were registered for the LEAP programme two years ago but have not been paid any allowance since.

The LEAP programme

The LEAP programme is a social cash transfer programme that provides cash and health insurance to the extremely poor households across the country.The main aim is to alleviate short-term poverty and encourage long-term human capital development. It was launched in 2008 as Ghana’s flagship programme of the National Social Protection Strategy and it is being implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

Abolishing of witches camp

The Ministry of Gender and its partners in 2014 launched a project to abolish witches camps in the Northern Region but two years after the initiation of the project,the ministry has been able to close down only one out of the six witch camps in the Northern Region at Bonyase in the Central Gonja District. Currently, there are five witch camps in the Northern Region with the Gambaga witches camp in the West Mamprusi District being the oldest, which is believed to have been in existence for about a century.