For more than two decades, citizens from Guinea have come to live and settle in the greater Manchester region. They have been living and contributing greatly to local community life one way or the other but their contributions to communities and local economy have not been noticed to certain extinct due to various reasons:
- Lack of recognition of their involvement from local authorities
- Individual engagement and contributions rather than organised community structure or group
- Lack of opportunities, support and guidance to invest in social development.
In 2014 Guineans living in the Greater Manchester and Lancashire area came together to create a community group named as: The Guinean Society of Greater Manchester.
Due to human migration, Guinean people are now populating the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, and Gambia. We share the same language, religion, culture and we are unique and not divisible, the membership is open to all irrespective of sex, race, political or religious belief.
The GSGM objectives are:
- promoting social inclusion for Guinean community and other ethnic minorities in the region of Greater Manchester by encouraging and enabling members of these communities to participate more effectively with the wider community; by increasing opportunities for them to engage with local and regional services and to enable those services to adapt to better meet the needs of our communities.
- providing a community centre for the Guinean and other African communities where families and social groups can gather to celebrate social events, hold cultural events and celebrate their diversity.
- promoting social investment by increasing opportunities for Guineans and other ethnic minorities to have a social impact in the UK in general and specifically in the Greater Manchester region
