Vimla Patel of Llandaff in Cardiff has been hugely involved in Voluntary work for the past 40 years, providing a broad range of support to vulnerable people. She has been instrumental in helping Ugandan Asians integrate into the wider community, helping them with translations, medical appointments, job interviews, schools and housing. Vimla also helps her husband with the family business. She has been a Committee Member of Sanatan Dharma Mandal & Hindu Community Centre for the last 30 years giving voluntary, unpaid services to the community. Vimla is currently in a highly responsible position as the General Secretary for Hindu Community Centre. She is active in day to day running of the community centre, organising a broad variety of trips and events. She takes an active part in running an Elderly Day Centre. She is also a Chair of Hindu Council of Wales., Board Member of BAWSO Women’s Aid, Mentor Ring and Minority Ethnic Communities Health Fair. She also sits on the ITV Diversity Panel.

In the past Vimla had been on the Committee of Older Persons’ Forum, CMEE, Cardiff Communities First, Cardiff Community Health Council, BME Women’s Forum and Asian Women’s Network. She has made and continues to make significant contributions to the integrations of minority groups and the host community in South Wales. She has worked part-time as a Finance Officer at BAWSO and Mewn Cymru. She previously worked for the DTI, Customs & Excise, Glamorgan Record Office, and she also helps run the family business. She was honoured by the First Minister Mr Carwyn Jones with “Welsh Achievement Award” for promoting Equality and Tolerance amongst Ethnic Minority Communities in April 2010. Vimla was also honoured MBE by Her Majesty the Queen, for the services to Asian and Hindu Communities of Cardiff.

Masudah Ali was born and raised in Cardiff. She completed her Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws and Legal Practice at Cardiff University. She joined the Senedd as a Trainee Solicitor in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now a permanent Legal Adviser. She has advised Members of the Senedd on primary and secondary legislation, supported the Petitions Committee on a variety of issues and advised on UK legislation that makes provision in devolved areas. She has also advised on a wide range of public law questions to Senedd Commission colleagues, as well as to Senedd Members and their support staff.

Jacqueline works for a Voluntary Sector as Senior Practitioner and a qualified Trainer, working for the organisation that provides support to victims of all violence against women, including domestic abuse; modern slavery and human trafficking. She was born and raised in Zambia and moved to the UK in 1996, and previously worked as a Development Officer, prior to joining the organisation that she works for. She has 16 years experience of working in Voluntary Sectors and she has worked for my current organisation for 13 years on issues affecting women; in an effort to lessen situations of Black and Asian Minority Women and children experiencing or fleeing violence. Her work includes raising awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking through delivering training to other agencies and professionals. Additionally, to act as a link person and the Single Point of Contact for the purposes of tackling modern slavery and human trafficking. This involves; to proactively support the aims and objectives and to be a Key Member of the Multi-agency Anti-Slavery Forum. To ensure there is an effective structure within organisations, with operational modern Slavery Leads that can guide Practitioners and cascade learning and good practice, and develop local policies and procedures.

She has also represented the Organisation at an international EU Strategy on Human Trafficking “Child Trafficking: The Challenges for Europe”. In 2016 she was awarded the staff of the year award in recognition of my work and the same year, she runs in Cardiff half marathon to raise money to support victims of FGM. In her spare time, she likes playing chess, going for walks and watching legal-based dramas and documentaries.

Natalie Jones was born in Birmingham and grew up in a council flat until she moved with her family to Wales aged 9.  Growing up in North Wales, she was immersed in the Welsh language and became a confident Welsh speaker by 15. 

She started doing various sales jobs but had a desire to work with children. After moving to South Wales and having two children, whilst working full-time she studied Psychology in Carmarthen, UWTSD and obtained a 2:1. Following a mental health break and change of career, she completed an MSc in Clinical Psychology and achieved her dream of working with children. Eventually becoming a Welsh Language teacher. 

She currently works as an Education Content Executive for S4C and delivers anti-racism training through Race Council Cymru to various organisations. She is also writing children's books that promote positive representation for Black, Asian and minority ethnic children in Wales.  In October 2023, she won an award for her contributions to improving the lives of people from the global majority living in Wales.

Her passion remains, to create better opportunities and quality of life for children and those who are disadvantaged in our society due to ethnicity, gender or social standing.

Temmy Woolston was born and raised in Cardiff in the 1970’s to Angela and Alan Kwok. Temmy’s parents emigrated to the UK with little or no English and opened up their own Chinese Takeaway in Pontcanna. Growing up in 1970’s Cardiff, Temmy and her family were subject to numerous racist incidents, with little or no support from the local community, it wasn’t easy. Facing racism and dealing with the sudden loss of her father, made a huge impact on Temmy’s life, she became committed to fighting for social justice, equality and working with her mum to build support structures for the local Chinese community in Cardiff. After graduating with a law degree Temmy began working with various law firms and ended up working at the prestigious firm, Thompsons LLP. It was while working at Thompsons that Temmy met her future boss, Vaughan Gething and they’ve worked closely together ever since. Following his election to the Welsh Parliament in 2011, Temmy was asked to become his Office Manager and help serve the people of Cardiff South and Penarth and Temmy has remained ever since. Temmy is a committed Trade Unionist, her values and beliefs come from her past experiences and fighting for justice and equality across society and particularly in the workplace. Temmy has organised a successful work experience programme for students in Cardiff South and Penarth to come and work in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). Recently, Temmy has spoken at a number of events, aimed at increasing the number of BAME people working in the Senedd and has organised a number of successful events such as ‘Rugby Hero’s of Cardiff South and Penarth' celebrating Black History Month each year.

Nisha is a hugely academic individual who has studied Electronic Engineering at Cardiff University, Wales. She worked in Semi-Conductor technology for eight years as a Lead Engineer and then went on to support and provide training in both Oracle CRM and its financial packages. She has since worked in Investment Banking, Public and Private Sector industries coupled with education facilities in the UK and overseas. Nisha has an astounding amount of qualifications which assists her in the role of Director within the IT business she runs. Amongst these include an Accounting degree and a Master of Science (MSc) in Finance and Information Technology. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Cyber Security in collaboration with Cardiff Metropolitan University and the business. She is well suited to working on various projects collaborating with other organizations due to the relationships she has built at management level and with the wider customer community through her years. Her relationship with her existing customers is based on trust and delivery, and they can rely on the service that is provided to them.

Nisha has worked in a wide variety of fields including application engineering and support, project management and training which has made her the enthusiastic and motivating individual she is today. With over 23 years of experience behind her from varied backgrounds, Nisha is very familiar with both the technical and personal aspects of the workplace and is a real “people person”. Nisha is massively active in her home-life as she is a chair of the parent’s association and enjoys attending Taekwondo competition and events with her son both in the UK and overseas at an international level. Nisha is also heavily involved in charity work and frequently organizes Galas and musical performances for the public to enjoy.

Dr. Tania was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is a psychiatrist working in one of the medium secure forensic units. She has worked in psychiatry for the past 14 years and has experience in general adult psychiatry, old age psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. She did my bachelor of science in Kabul and have two medical degrees; Doctor of Medicine M.D from Crimean Medical Institute in Russia and Medical Doctor MSc.M.B from Utrecht Medical University in the Netherlands. She has worked in the Netherlands and the UK, in which she has worked in Bangor, London, and Cardiff. She speaks fluent Farsi, English, Russian, and Dutch. She also speaks some Pashto, Urdu, and Bengali. She actively takes part in EMWWA activities and other fundraising events for charity organizations. She believes in the world being our common home, and believes in a world free of violence and discrimination and also believes in women’s education and independence. She is very interested in nature, gardening, and taking care of the environment. In her free time, she reads books, plays badminton, watches movies, swims, and spend time in nature. She is a dedicated mother of two sons, 23 and 14 years old. They are both in full-time education.

With over 19 years of experience working in BME voluntary organisation in management representing BAME voices across sectors and bridging the gap to services. She has worked with socially disadvantaged communities directly supporting them to build their capacity in order for them to raise their own concerns and address their own needs by overcoming any barriers. In addition to this, she has been invited to contribute on several Governmental forums giving input into the development of local and national strategies (i.e. Domestic Abuse Strategy, Community cohesion strategy, Poverty and social exclusion strategy and etc).

In order to give a greater understanding of BME issues, She has provided training in several strands of diversity to many organisations across Wales and England (i.e. NHS, ABMU (Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health board), South Wales Police, Housing sector, Educational Institutes, Voluntary sector, DVLA , and many others).

She is extremely passionate about the equality agenda, specifically gender, and has worked towards the empowerment of BAME women and girls through my various roles. For her Ph.D., she researched the lived experiences of young Muslim women and their Welsh identity looking at the intersectionality between Gender, Ethnicity, Place, and Religion. She has contributed to many conference findings in these areas. Currently, She is working as a lecturer in Business’ Management and leadership, with particular research interests in BAME contributions and experiences in entrepreneurial and leadership skills.

Mrs. Sivanes was born and brought up in Sri Lanka and has been a manager at Sivpalan & company for 15 years, it is a leading independent accountancy firm in Cardiff, Wales providing accountancy and professional advisory services to individuals and businesses for over 22 years. They have a proactive meticulous team and are always able to find a solution to the most complex of accounting and taxation issues. She has immense experience in accountancy and is widely connected with different communities.