Sylvia Dembedza Kick Starts National Refugee Week 2007

The annual Celebrating Sanctuary Festival is Birmingham's main contribution to National Refugee Week, celebrated across the U.K from 18th - 24th June 2007.

The event, Celebrating Sanctuary, will be a one day, free open-air festival in Victoria and Chamberlain Squares in the City Centre.

Sylvia Dembedza, Finance and Office Manager of My Time Ltd, has been appointed Chairperson of Celebrating Sanctuary which starts on Saturday 16th June 2007 and includes numerous events. Sylvia is extremely happy by this appointment as she originally came from Zimbabwe however fled in 2002 with her two sons to arrive in Britain. She has experienced first-hand what it is like to be a refugee and arrive in a foreign country leaving behind her family, friends and job as a successful business woman. She was left with no other choice but to flee after she attacked the Mugabe regime and spoke up for white farmers who were being evicted from their land.

After arriving in Britain and finally winning the right to remain in 2005, Sylvia could only obtain lower skilled jobs as a filing clerk. Despite many barriers she worked her way up as she had 21 years of banking, finance and adminstration experience having also been a divisional director of a finance division of a large healthcare company.

Sylvia faced many rejections when looking for work despite her excellent and vast amount of skills.

'I am convinced that as soon as they saw my name and could not prounounce it and that I had recently arrived from Zimbabwe, many prospective employers decided I was not for them, but I continued to be resilient, bouncing back from each rejection', Sylvia stated.

This Saturday will see Sylvia, hosting the Lord Mayor of Birmingham at the event and being one of five main speakers on the day.

Sylvia Dembedza arrived in Britain with nothing but hope, left everything imaginable behind and managed to pick up the pieces to create success for herself and a better life for her family, all in the face of adversity and prejudices .

Sylvia is a walking example of the struggle refugees face and a role model to refugees everywhere hence the decision to make her Chairperson of Celebrating Sanctuary, couldn't have been a better decision.

As far as My Time is concerned, we are happy to have such a strong woman on board.

More e-news can be seen at  http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/mail/news/tm_headline=city-focus-on-plight-of-refugees&method=full&objectid=19255388&siteid=50002-name_page.html