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12 minute read
Sherriff Ifadiola personality
Mojatu Female Personality of the year
The Sheriff of Nottingham for 2019-2020 is a woman of colour with African origin. Sheriff Patience Uloma Ifediora was elected to office as the Councillor for Aspley Ward in 2015.
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The relevance of her appointment as Sheriff of the city of Nottingham reiterates importance of the legacy of Robin Hood in nurturing, promoting and upholding the history of Nottingham.
As key among the roles of the Sheriff is welcoming visitors to the city and making them feel home, Patience Uloma Ifediora is honoured to serve this noble office. Her appointment serves as a huge milestone in BAME communities as it will encourage people in minority communities to challenge their potentials to the fullest in every sector of life.
The Sheriff was born and raised in Enugu, Nigeria and relocated to London in 1998. Councillor Ifediora moved into Nottingham in 2006 and has worked for Nottingham City Council before becoming a councillor.
Sheriff Ifediora who holds a BA in History and Masters in Political Science, made history by becoming the first woman from African origin to be elected as a Councillor in Nottingham City.
She has served on many committees, including overview and scrutiny, young people and health scrutiny committees, trusts and charities, among others.
The Sheriff has been a member of the board of directors of Nottingham City Homes and standing committee for Religious Education, SACRE and has represented Nottingham City Council in many other functions.
She is also involved in community events and has established food bank in various places in Nottingham in collaboration with different local organizations.
Mojatu Magazine is pleased to award the 2019 Mojatu Female Personality of the Year to the Sheriff of Nottingham 2019-2020 Patience Uloma Ifediora for her tremendous achievement.
Sheriff Ifediora has proven herself against the odds and becomes one of the most respected citizens of the City of Nottingham.
She serves as a role model and an inspirational figure to members of the BAME community especially African women.
Mojatu Male Personality of the year - Mr Delroy Brown
Mr Delroy Brown is the Chairman of the Afro Caribbean National Artistic (ACNA) Centre since 2016. He has lived in England for over 56 years and came to Nottingham in 1983 after graduating from Hull University.
He started his work at the Ukaidi Community Link Project as a Unit Coordinator. He then moved on to work for the Nottingham County Council and the City Council as an inhouse trainer and later became the service manager for Staff Development and Training. In 1999, Mr Brown became the manager of ACNA after holding the position of Director of NCVS.
While working for the City Council Mr Brown was a very active member of the community in a number of local African - Caribbean Management committees such as Nottingham Black Initiatives as well as being a Director of New College Nottingham for 13 years where he played a major role in re-establishing the college as a major force in further education. He is now a member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal as a lay member for the Ministry of Justice. When I asked Mr Brown how he would describe himself, Veronica Barnes is the founder of Blue Mountain Women Group, initially set up to support women with African-Caribbean and African backgrounds at the time of their menopause. Veronica who is also a founder member of the Nottingham-based Slave Trade Legacies heritage project, volunteers most of her time to educating and championing projects around race and social justice. She is also one of the pioneering women who set up Blue Mountain Women enterprise to reach out to the women of African and Jamaican heritage in a creative way. Veronica earns a huge amount of respect within Nottingham for her efforts and contributions towards the community. in an interview with Mojatu Magazine, Delroy Brown said as a citizen of Nottingham, he loves what he does; with the view to improving the lives of everyone living in Nottingham. He felt he could do his best by ensuring that the black community had a place in planning the future of how Nottingham would become with black people being an active member in the decision making and incorporating their culture and history in making Nottingham a richer place to live. He describes himself as a community influencer working with Politicians, Community activists and all members of the locality in creating solutions to local problems/issues and planning how to celebrate each other’s cultures.
“What is very important is that there is a consistent presence and representation in local forums and more importantly trying to encourage the next generation of young black people to have the confidence in themselves and to represent their communities.” –¬ Mr Brown In recognition of his services to the City of Nottingham, the BME community and the country at large, Mojatu Magazine finds Delroy Brown to be a role model in our community and as one worthy of emulation, acknowledgement and celebration. In this regard, Mr Delroy Brown has been awarded with our Mojatu Male
Mojatu Personal Contributors VERONICA BARNES
Personality of the Year The enterprise is named after the Blue Mountains of Jamaica which serve as a reminder to the joys and challenges of health, particularly sickle cell and the menopause. The Blue Mountain Women’s Group was set up as women’s community-based group organising awareness seminars on issues surrounding menopause and women with the view to providing information which will enable them to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing. Blue Mountain Women are now working on a new Black History collection with Nottinghamshire Archives, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. As senior person in the African and African-Caribbean communities, Veronica who is a wonderful figure of a woman and certainly does not look her age, still continues to make beautiful bags and cards.
Thirteen years after an attack on his life that left him hospitalised for over two weeks, Keiren Thompson, now a youth volunteer, has been named the ‘Mojatu Male Youth Personality of the year’. Mr Thompson who suffered swelling to the brain and seizures in the weeks after the attack in April of 2006 in St Ann’s, also had a catheter fitted and was left with a permanent scar to the back of his head. In recognition of his contributions in raising awareness against crime and youth violence; and keeping children motivated away from crime, Keiren was decorated with the Sports Personality of the Year 2019 at the “BBC Get Inspired Unsung Hero Awards” held in Aberdeen in December 2019.
Thompson runs a community project in Nottingham called 'Helping Kids Achieve'. The project which started in January 2019, attracts children through activities in the areas of basketball, dance and multi-sport sessions. If you want to see a busy woman speak to Pastor Julia Paul. Here you will find somebody who is unassuming yet a fountain of creativity and personality. Having established herself in Nottingham with a family, Pastor Julia is responsible for delivering training packages to various client groups who come to Mojatu; one of which we can name as the
Ambassadors of Change Project where she engaged the young people and the faith leaders with the view to giving them overall understanding of issues of Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the psychological impact and trauma it causes. She also contributes immensely in creating an understanding as to how to overcome this cultural practice for it to become something of the past of many traditional Africans. 'Helping Kids Achieve' project brings together about seventy children every week and five volunteer coaches at the Bulwell Riverside Centre and Southglade Leisure Centre with the aim of keeping them off the streets and instilling a bond of friendship in them. On Mondays he runs a young women's group, which includes dancing and multi-sports, and runs basketball sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Mr Thompson conducts similar activities every Friday at the place where he was attacked in 2006 in the Brewsters Estate in St. Ann’s. Asked why he chose to go back to the place where he was assaulted, he told Mojatu magazine that “it is to stop young people becoming perpetrators or victims of knife/postcode crimes or gang mobs, just like I was”. In light of our positive awareness engagements and crime free community participatory efforts in Nottinghamshire and beyond, recognising the likes of Keiren Thompson will serve as motivation to so many other volunteers within our communities who continue to make immense positive differences in the
Personal Contributors to Mojatu PASTOR JULIA PAUL
lives of youths and other vulnerable people. Pastor Julia has the ability communicate and expand the understanding for people who have a narrow view regarding FGM. As one of the frontline volunteers, we can see the difference in her contribution and many trainees have felt the impact she has made on their lives as well as the transitions to their understanding of some of these issues during training programs. As a FUTURES Training project leader, Mojatu recognises her as a community champion where she is expanding the issues and arguments for the development of Women looking at Healthcare and Hospitality, and developing skills in this area which will help in the future employment for these women. These are the strengths that she brings to the Mojatu team and we feel with her versatile skills of presentation and training this can only help Mojatu to grow from strength to strength as a community group empowering our local women and families.
various organisations around the UK to provide In today’s web-orientated world there is a huge demand for people skilled in web design and Nottingham connected 13Community The youngest MP in the country is a 23-year-old woman of colour, Nadia Whittome born to a Punjabi Sikh father and a catholic Anglo-Indian mother. Her mother who is solicitor, was also a member of the Labour Party. hate and knife crimes in Nottingham…with leading hate crime prevention practitioners, including front line Mojatu Female Youth Personality of the Year. NADIA WHITTOMEFollowing the uncertainties of BREXIT; UK leaving EU with or without a deal, the government has set up an EU Settlement Scheme which urges all EU, EEA and Swiss this service, free of charge to these vulnerable groups. Who are these vulnerable groups? They are EU nationals in care local authority, hospitals, care homes and some elderly EU residents, who have been here for long; we had development. Almost all organisations and professions have and require websites and so do people of influence or those doing own business. Gaining skills of creating and maintaining multimedia website is a highly marketable skill. You will be required to: • Identify different website purposes, features and structures Nadia, a law graduate from the University of workersnationals living in the United Kingdom to one client who have been here for 50 years and • Plan a basic website (5 pages) from a specified brief / for specific industry Nottingham, earlier dropped out of university due to financial reasons. During this period, she worked as a hate crime project worker at Communities Inc, and as a carer; and was involved in different types of activism Discussions on strategies and actions to raise awareness in tackling FGM and women related issues register and legalise their stay in the country. Our editor Pa Modou Faal hosted the Immigration Adviser from the Law Centre; so she thought she did not have to register but she did. Clients with mental health issues, with other disabilities, clients who are illiterates not • Create a website based on given brief settings • Test website created – Navigation, Links, Search Engine Optimisation etc) within Nottingham and beyond. While studying, she became the Student Union’s Ag. General Secretary for BME Network of the university. Community conversations on issues affecting the BAME communities, an Diana Bagci, who works with the Home Office in guiding applicants through the process of only computer illiterates but cannot read and write in their own language and Roma groups. • Use at least one Content Management System - Joomla or WordPress Before becoming the Member of Parliamentary for Nottingham East (December 2019), Nadia contested for the 2017 Nottinghamshire County Council election as the Labour candidate for the West Bridgford West ward but lost it to the Conservative candidate. area she is passionate about. The Honourable Member of Parliament continues to offer her services to activism against racism, inequality, hostility towards immigrants, homelessness, filling in the settlement status form. Below is the interview which was held at the Hyson Green Youth Centre where they operate, and she began with a warning: These small minorities of the EU. Is there a strategy in place at all? This course will give you the knowledge and tools to create, manage and run a great business or professional website. You will get access to Joomla / WordPress premium features. During her campaign trail, she promised to take home deportation of the Windrush generation among other We want to reach out to as many as possible, only £35,000 of her £79,468 salary and give the rest to local causes and charities. The “Baby of the House” What is your name, your role and the areas. Nadia is also known for her support for young people, new and emerging communities, climate to let them know that this Scheme is open to Key Information as she is fondly called because she is the youngest MP, Whittome says she did not mean to imply that politicians do not deserve such amount of money; but everyone deserve a pay rise and that until when firefighters, teachers, nurses, carers get a pay rise, then she will not take hers.” Nadia has been very active with Mojatu in different organisation you work with? I am here to deal with the EU Settlement Scheme on behalf of the government who wants to ensure all EU nationals are registered 30 Hours Flexible change, the working class, mental health related issues, women and youth empowerment through community engagement. As someone who possesses all these qualities as a young lady of colour and a law maker for that matter, Mojatu Magazine recognises her efforts and contributions toward the transformation of the city them, we are here to help them and we can help them to register on the EU Settlement scheme. We have many advisors; I have got another advisor who helps me do the application from start to finish. We provide Free Level 1 (3 Credits) areas such as: Community Conversation around how to tackle onto this scheme by December 2020 if the UK leaves Europe without a deal, if not it will stop registering by 2021. 14+ of Nottingham into a more tolerant, multi-cultural and diverse city for everyone; with our Female Youth Personality of the Year. them platforms and laptops if there are, some clients who know how to do it but need a little bit of help, just in case they get stuck, because Classroom, online & website project
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