The Gambian Association
The Idea of The Gambian Association in the West Midlands was conceived in 1999 after the tragic death of one of prominent community members. He had a very big heart and had immense respect for everyone and sees good in all, he used to call everybody Gainde meaning a lion in Wolof (one of our local languages). Hence our logo bears the head of a lion. During his eulogy, we come up with the idea of establishing an association to look after the interests of The Gambians in the West Midlands in the areas bringing our common interests under one roof, contribute in community cohesion, facilitate community integration and create mutual and fraternal relationship with other communities in the West Midlands, as well as playing its vital roles in the development of its committee members, individuals, group of individuals and the local community as a whole.
The association is for the purpose of contributing to humanity and therefore our main objectives are to add values to everyone our activities may have impact on either directly or indirectly. The membership of the association is open to all and it is administer democratically by the executive members who are elected by the majority through one man one vote system at regular intervals. The association also extends the same hands of help to the people back in The Gambia unreservedly. Our activities are geared for purpose but not to make profit
Since the inception of the association, it has established very strong ties with Birmingham City Council and other local communities. The association has being working in partnership with other funding agencies such as The Big Lottery, Birmingham Community Foundation, West Midlands Police, The Art Council England, Digibeth Trust, etc, which has funded some projects to help the association, accomplished quite remarkable achievements and it has being growing from strength to strength since.