LAPO empowers 197,766 community members

Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) has  empowered 197,766 community members with  health and social training between January and June, 2016 to enable them address the socio-cultural issues that underpin healthy living.

Speaking at a performance review meeting in Benin, Edo State,  Executive Director, Sabina Idowu-Osehobo, said the beneficiaries were equipped with social empowerment and preventive health information during the period with overall improvement in their health and social well-being.

She said LAPO had been in the forefront of the struggle to bring gender issues to wider attention since 1987, by promoting legal and policy reforms and supporting projects that empower women socially and economically.

The LAPO executive director highlighted significant reduction in self medication and other forms of drug misuse among the achievements of the organisation, expressing concern that rural dwellers were prone to diseases due to unhygienic environment, ignorance and poor lifestyle.

This is just as the organisation said it had contributed to food security and improved production capacity of 61,188 rural farmers with a disbursement of N1,467,805,000 between January and June, 2016.

The executive director  expressed delight that the beneficiaries, who are mostly engaged in subsistence farming, have now expanded their farmlands with improved income for family upkeep and savings.

She said LAPO addresses challenges limiting farmers’ productivity and income such as non-availability of inputs for improved farm yield and limited access to finance.

, adding that the organization places emphasis on the general living conditions of poor rural households, particularly women-headed households and youth.

The beneficiaries cut across communities in the country, expressed gratitude to LAPO for not only supporting them with the soft loans but also providing them exposure training and retraining programmes.