Capital: Conakry
Area: 245,860 km²
Population: 9.5 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Fulbe, Malinke, Susu
Official language(s): French
Religion(s): Muslim, indigenous beliefs, Christians
Currency: 1 Guinean franc = 100 centimes
SOS Children's Villages' facilities in the country
The political liberalization in Guinea and the more positive social politics in favour of needy children during 1984/1985 enabled SOS-Kinderdorf International to become active in Guinea as well. Having signed a cooperation agreement with the government in December 1985, SOS Children's Villages was given a plot of land free of charge, approx. 25 km east of the centre of Conakry. So, from 1987 to 1989 the first SOS Children's Village with an attached kindergarten and a school came into being in Conakry. In December 1989, the first children moved into their new home.
In 1993, SOS Children's Villages received another property for the extension of its activities in Guinea in the furthermost southeast of the country, in the district of Gbangana, near the provincial city of N'Zérékoré. It was here that the SOS Children's Village N'Zérékoré with a kindergarten and a school was established in 1999/2000. As from October 2000, a national SOS Children's Villages Association managed the SOS Children's Villages work in Guinea as a legal entity. After the first youths had outgrown the SOS Children's Village Conakry, an SOS Youth Facility was established in a rented house in Conakry in 1995.
In the course of the years, SOS Children's Villages Guinea also carried out various community outreach programmes and among others also contributed to the food provision of the evacuated SOS Children's Village Bissau.
In 2002, the idea came up to build a third SOS Children's Village in Guinea, namely in Kankan, the second biggest city of the country, approximately 520 km from Conakry. In 2003, several community assistance activities in all SOS Children's Villages in Guinea were strengthened. Particularly in Conakry, an adult literacy and training programme especially for women was set up in co-operation with a women's organization starting with October 2003. In March 2005 the preparation for the fourth Children´s Village in Labe has started.
At present there are three SOS Children's Villages in Guinea, three SOS Youth Facilities, three SOS Kindergartens, six SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools and four SOS Social Centres.