Zim woman breaks new  ground in foreign land Nicole Ndiweni
Nicole Ndiweni

Nicole Ndiweni

Growing up in the heart of Karoi, Nicole Ndiweni never imagined for a single day towering beyond her community environs to become anybody other than an ordinary woman. Little did she know that one day she would become a woman of repute, not in her homeland but thousands of kilometres away from home. Ndiweni is the first black councillor for Hucknall on the Ashfield district council, in the United Kingdom.The elections that were held in May last year saw her emerge a winner among other hopeful contestants, putting Zimbabwe on the map.

Speaking on the win, Nicole said it was a humbling experience for her, looking at her background.

“It’s still a little surreal that the little Zimbabwean from Karoi is now councillor Ndiweni in England,” she revealed soon after her crowning moments last year.

And more than a year after her achievements, the community that voted for her is still convinced that they made the right choice.

Currently she has started working on an Ashfield pilot scheme to improve quality of life for residents in socially-challenged areas — and reduce demand on council services, which should result in major financial savings.

Nicole Ndiweni and colleague

Nicole Ndiweni and colleague

A “support team” has been working in the New Cross area of Sutton since September 2014 after it was recognised as having persistently high levels of demand for council, police and health services.

Ashfield District Council teamed up with the police, fire service, neighbouring local authorities and others to form the support team, which addresses residents’ problems as a whole rather than seeing people referred to different agencies for different issues.

The results of the pilot scheme were in June presented to members of the council’s Cabinet who were happy with the progress made to date.

These show that up to £2,75 million of public sector money could be saved by 2017 if the savings made in the 16 cases that have been fully evaluated are applied to all 115 cases the support team has worked on so far. The report states that “for every £1 spent, £7 could be saved”.

The savings are due to drops in the demand for council services and crime and anti-social behaviour.

It is now being proposed that the scheme be rolled out to Broomhill in Hucknall.

Councillor Nicole Ndiweni, portfolio holder for community safety and engagement, said: “The initial evaluation has shown improvements in quality of life for residents and the potential to save taxpayers’ money, long term.”

But who is Nicole Ndiweni?

Born in 1989, Ndiweni attended Rydings School in Karoi where she became a prefect, a librarian and member of the choir before attending Arundel Senior School in Harare for a short while after which she moved to another conveniently small town in the UK called Hucknall.

In Hucknall, she did her sixth form at Holgate School where she was appointed as the first head girl, elected to the student council, school council and ethnic minority representative for Connexions.

She then studied for a BA in Criminology and International Relations at the University of Lincoln where she was elected president of the Afro-Caribbean Society. There, she was involved in various campaigns against racism, gender discrimination, gang violence and gun crime.

After school, she found herself out of employment. With encouragement from friends and colleagues, Nicole entered a competition called World of Difference, which was highly subscribed.

With over 11 000 candidates, Nicole could not imagine herself edging any close to being among the finalists. But she made it into the top 500 people who were chosen to work for a charity of their choice.

That development marked a beginning for her future because she was to later get full employment.

Her job involved working with the training and support team, helping women in crisis, survivors of domestic violence, female ex-offenders and women seeking employment and adult learning.

“I have always had a heart for people. I have always stood against injustice and fought for a fair society.”

After two years at the centre, she decided to start a luxury hair extensions brand, a little bit different from the field where she had been working.

“I decided to take the risk and enter the world of business in a market that has continued to grow despite the global recession and economic challenges.

In 2013, she successfully sourced funding and grants to start an online business and travelled to various parts of the world to source her products, establish a manufacturing team, design and mass produce packaging.

Nicole’s Boutique was officially launched in 2014 and currently has sold luxury virgin hair extensions to women all over the world — France, Nigeria, Canada, Swaziland, Greece and Zimbabwe to name but a few.

Nicole’s Boutique’s team worked hard to get the business off the ground and implement systems, giving her time and opportunity to pursue her passion which has always been helping people whenever she can.

Additional information from chad.co.uk

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