The Ogaden Community of Greater Manchester (OCGM) is a refugee led organisation and was set up in July 2008 by a small self-help group in the Old Trafford area of South Manchester and it became a registered charity in June 2010. 

The local Ogaden community has grown in recent years due people fleeing persecution and warfare in South Eastern Ethiopia known as the Ogaden. Many of the arrivals were single parents and young people who felt isolated and insecure. As a result of this, they started to organise themselves visiting each other at home providing mutual support in particular to the new arrivals.

Now, seven years later, OCGM leases a community centre building with an office accommodation, main hall, four classrooms/meeting rooms and Computer/teaching/training room at 3 St Bride Street Manchester, M16 9LS in the centre of the local Ogadeni community. The premise is used as a drop-in-centre, a meeting place, a base to provide outreach work from, youth work, community meeting place, supplementary school, and cultural activities including reciting poetry, dance and singing classes for the members and service users. 

The centre is run by a strong bank of volunteers who have worked tirelessly to develop the organisation to-date.  The majority founding members still remain as trustees and play an active role in the development of the organisation. The self-help ethos still remains an integral part of the organisation’s set up.

People from the local Ogadeni refugee and asylum community have a wide range of needs.  These include;

Language barriers

High unemployment

Isolation

Housing needs

Poor education attainment

Access to services

Advice and information

Fear/victim of crime.

OCGM endeavours to help with the above needs and the volunteers keep the shop front open 7 days a week.