Frud

Frud is a Black African community leader working across the Greater Manchester City region.

Greater Manchester has a population of about 2.8 million with significant diversity of people from BAME backgrounds and about 200 languages spoken. There are differential health inequalities across the 10 Local Authorities making up Greater Manchester. The Caribbean and African community makes up about 3% of the population and for decades have had worse health outcomes across many health indicators.  

There are stark and profound health inequalities facing people from the Caribbean and African community in the UK. An empirical study in May to understand the impact of COVID-19 had 334 respondents: 59% of the respondents were concerned about the mental well-being of their children and 43% of adults were also concerned about their own mental well-being. Also 45% of respondents identified the need for bereavement counselling and practical support.

The focus of Frud’s writing and video/audio reports will be on health inequalities and racial systemic barriers that create further disparities which COVID-19 has exposed to wider society. The reports will feature the impact of racism and issues such as mental health and maternal mortality as experienced by local community members and highlight their experiences of the impact of the wider social determinants of health including in education, housing, employment and criminal justice. It will also feature the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black community challenge in its response to what we term as “two pandemics”.