The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and its partner NGO in Tamale, has organised the second Dimitra Clubs Forum in Damongo in the West Gonja District to stimulate discussions among club members to explore ways of improving their lives.

The forum, which brought together representatives of the Dimitra clubs and other key stakeholders including community leaders and local radio representatives also aimed at identifying the main changes that occurred since the commencement of the project.

Dimitra is a gender-sensitive initiative of the FAO under the United Nations, formed with the aim of supporting the socio-economic empowerment of rural population especially women so as to improve their living standards and food security through a better access to information, communication and exchange of knowledge, practices and experiences on agriculture.

Mr Mauro Bottaro, an expert with the FAO for the Dimitra Project, speaking at the open of the programme in Damongo in the Northern Region, said the Dimitra clubs are spaces for dialogue and action for isolated rural communities and effective means to access information.

He said there are approximately 1,300 FAO-Dimitra clubs in Niger, DR Congo, Senegal, Burundi and Ghana currently, which are benefiting more than 250,000 people directly.

Mr Bottaro said Dimitra had become a transformation approach in Ghana and had obtained concrete results within rural communities with a total of 36 clubs set up in 2013 in the West Gonja District and commended its local partner ACDEP for its commitment for the project to succeed.

He said the second forum followed the successful meeting of the first clubs forum in September 2014 where members discussed successes and failures as well as reporting on important social changes such as improved unity, economic benefits, better access to information among others.

Mr Ali Bakari Kassim, District Chief Executive in a speech read on his behalf expressed the importance of the Dimitra Clubs to the transformation of lives especially women.

He commended FAO and its local partner ACDEP for the initiative and gave the assurance that the Assembly would continue to partner organisations whose work was tailored towards complementing government’s efforts of transforming lives.