Guineans in France are mobilizing against Covid-19
Owing to the major role played by African diaspora organisations and individuals in the African continent’s development, ADEPT, the Africa-Europe Diaspora Development Platform, is keen to highlight initiatives of the African diaspora based in the EU but also in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Norway. ADEPT works towards achieving a main goal: improving and strengthening the capacity and impact of African diaspora organizations involved in Africa’s development activities.
Today, the focus is on a collective of associations grouped under the name “STOP COVID-19, Solidarité des Guinéens de France”. Its objective: to help Guineans both in France and on their soil, with two flagship projects.
In France, support for students and undocumented migrants.
As early as 31 March, the Association des Jeunes Guinéens de France (AJGF) became aware of the gradual spread of the pandemic in Europe and Africa. It then appealed, via its Facebook page, to all people of goodwill, and organized a fundraising campaign to set up an “emergency humanitarian response”.
This is how the movement “STOP COVID-19, Solidarité des Guinéens de France” came into being, led by the Coordination des Associations Guinéennes de France (CAGF), and supported by the Guinean Embassy in France.
The funds raised were intended to finance, on the one hand, an awareness campaign reaching the most isolated populations and, on the other hand, the supply of food (rice, oil, sugar) and first aid kits (soap, gel, water).
Thanks to an immediate outpouring of generosity and a proven logistical organisation, the movement was able to move quickly into action on the ground. Concrete assistance operations were set up during the lockdown, such as the distribution of food to needy Guineans in Ile de France on May 23rd, or the one carried out on May 21st by the Association des Guinéens de Montpellier [A.G.M] in the two largest squats in Montpellier located in Euromedice and Corum.
Active assistance also deployed on the Guinean soil.
In Guinea, the movement “STOP COVID-19, Solidarité des Guinéens de France” received the support of local partners: Corona Ntondi and the Association of Young Doctors of Guinea. Its objective is to relay and popularize prevention measures. But it doesn’t stop there. The movement has also planned, thanks to the donations collected, to come to the rescue of the neediest, in order to help them get through this crisis through the distribution of health kits and food packs.
Ambitious renovation projects and the financing of water and sanitation infrastructures are also being deployed with local authorities, as part of responses to calls for tender issued by donors present in France. Finally, depending on the resources collected, the collective also plans to equip some health structures in Guinea with artificial respirators.
A form has been put online to allow all good wills to participate in the solidarity drive with Guineans in France and support the cause: https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8nRvN9330
Contact : Coordination des associations guinéennes de France – https://www.cagf.fr/contact/
