Family Strengthening (FS), a project meant to support families, caregivers, and youth in society, is championing the formation of a village savings and loans scheme for people in selected communities in the Ejisu Municipality.

The aim is to support and help improve the living conditions of parents, guardians, and the youth in Ejisu, Onwe, Esienimpong, Adadientem, and Kubease, all in the Ejisu-Juaben enclave.

The FS Project is a five-year project (2019-2023), which is being implemented by SOS Children's Village Ghana in collaboration with Freeworld International, an NGO based in Ejisu.

The project helps to champion the fight against diseases, poverty, illiteracy, and social injustice in communities in the area.

Madam Alfreda Yeboah Asamoah, Project Officer for SOS Children's Village, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the Project, among other things, was targeting to lift about 1000 children out of poverty.

This, she explained, was being executed through the resourcing of caregivers with business start-up capital, building capacity in business management, training in market trends, and savings culture.

Again, the project was engaging a total of 150 youth in vocational training and providing start-up capital to those who needed business support.

Madam Asamoah said as part of efforts to improve the health of the beneficiary community members, the project periodically educated caregivers and children on sexual and reproductive health care.

Mr Benjamin Kwadwo Appiah, Executive Director of Freeworld International, said the clean-up exercise formed part of the project's objective of instilling the habit of keeping the surroundings clean regularly.

He said the clean-up exercises had not only proven to prevent the outbreak of communicable diseases but also mobilize people to participate in solving sanitation issues and contributing to local development.

Mr Appiah said these clean-up exercises had become critical, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic era, adding that cleaning of principal streets, desilting choked gutters, and weeding surroundings would help communities to get rid of the scourge of coronavirus.