From Zimbabwe

[00:00:00] Paula: Welcome to “Chatting With The Experts”, which is a podcast for immigrant women from African and the Caribbean. And my podcast talks with women who have relocated to the UK, the US and Canada, or even Australia. And we talk about struggles and we highlight the triumphs that we may have experienced while abroad, we share resources as well. But today is a bonus episode. I will be talking with a fellow African sister, who moved from her country, Zimbabwe to South Africa. Her name Precious Nyarambi, Precious Nyarambi. And she is a social entrepreneur. She’s an international speaker, she’s a coach, she’s a mentor, she’s even an author. And there’s so many things about her that really blew my mind when I connected with her on LinkedIn. So I’m gonna give her an opportunity to talk about herself, and then we talk more about her. So you can discover all what she’s doing in her new home, which is now South Africa. So welcome Precious to “Chatting With The Experts”.
[00:01:13] Precious: Thank you so much Paula, for this wonderful and amazing opportunity that you’ve awarded me today. It is indeed an honor to be on this platform, talking about my life experiences with the intention of motivating, encouraging, or empowering the listeners.
[00:01:33] Paula: Awesome. So you moved from your native country Zimbabwe to South Africa. You had a purpose for that. Can you tell me more about that?
[00:01:43] Precious: Yes, I am born Zimbabwain, but I believe I’m pan African. I moved from Zimbabwe due to many reasons beyond my control, which were largely centered on economic issues, where I felt that as a young person, the environment was not supportive to economic growth for young people. So I had to relocate and found myself in South Africa.
[00:02:13] Paula: And you got to South Africa and amazing things happened, because you are a woman with vision. You’re visionary. So let’s talk about that. What happened when you got to South Africa?
[00:02:25] Precious: Look, when I left to Zimbabwe, I thought I was walking into green pastures, you know? That would find things lying on the silver platter and things like that. But at last a lot happened from the time I arrived in South Africa, the picture of just me being a foreigner in another country, brought in a lot of complexities that I had to navigate around. Which I believe is, I have evolved as a person throughout those challenges, I’ve become better. I’ve evolved as a person, I’ve grown as a woman. The challenges that probably were meant to destroy me are still making me to be a better person, a better woman with the intention of empowering more and more women. So my arrival to South Africa wasn’t an easy one. But I’m grateful it happened because maybe I wouldn’t be the person that I’m becoming. I wouldn’t be relevant to the people that I’m trying to be relevant to. The women that I’m passionate about, that I am continuously trying to empower. I wouldn’t have been able to do so much of that if I had remained comfortable. So I feel like some of the challenges, some of the frustrations makes the great, it makes opportunities available. It makes us grow. It makes us to be better people in turn. So it has been an interesting journey, a rollercoaster filled with many lessons, many failures, many mistakes, many applauding moments, you know? Yeah. But I’m grateful still. I’m grateful for where I am today. I’m grateful for where God is taking me. I’m expectant, looking to the future, I know that the future can only be better and brighter.
[00:04:23] Paula: Wow. I love that. The future can only be better and brighter. And you said with God, that’s understood.
[00:04:30] Precious: Yes.
[00:04:31] Paula: So as we talk about the future being better and brighter, I know that you have two startups and correct me if I’m wrong, you have “Investec” and “Entrepreneurship” with “UNISA”. Tell us more about that.
[00:04:48] Precious: So, you know, running my organizations, I started from scratch. I didn’t have experience or know how I came into a country where I had to create employment for myself, because I cannot find employment. So you know, after a certain period of time, you realize that you’re frustrated, you’re not growing. I had to go back to school to relearn, to unlearn and learn new things so that I could do a lot of things better. So that’s why I have been, I’m still studying entrepreneurship in it’s entirety. I’ve done programs with “GIBS” I’ve done “UNISA” programs in entrepreneurship, even with Investec as well. It was to try and up skill myself so that I can be more relevant to the core, to the organizations that I’m running, and to the greater community at large.
[00:05:43] Paula: Awesome. Awesome. And you talked about “GIBS”. Can you tell us a bit what “GIBS” stands for? I know it’s an acronym or short form.
[00:05:51] Precious: It’s the “Goddard Institute For Business Science”. So there, I was able to do a social entrepreneurship program, through them. Yeah. It was one of a life changing moments for me. It was an aha moment.
[00:06:04] Paula: An aha moment. I love that. Because I’m curious, and I know our listeners will be curious, what’s that aha moment?
[00:06:15] Precious: You know, when you have not had an opportunity to define who exactly you are as a social entrepreneur. Until then, I didn’t know that I was a social entrepreneur. Because I believed in trying to create a job for myself, create a company for myself, create opportunities for others. You know, and also impact communities in that same notion. So I initially, I didn’t know how to define myself until I found myself in a room full of other people. And the name was provided that we are actually social entrepreneurs. We are entrepreneurs that wants to make money, and at the same time, they want to create opportunities for others, in their communities and their environments. So it was that aha moment. And then when we were sitting in that room, you realize that there have been a lot of people with that heart, with that intention, with that perspective that they want to do better for themselves and also intend a ripple effect with their communities. But also they found themselves trying to unpack this, give this thing a name and then yeah. So GIBS was able to help us to unpack it, delve deeper into it, and also understand that other people have already done similar things. And it was then made easier for us to say, okay, if others have done it, then it means that we can also thrive in it and do better. So it was that aha moment for me.
[00:07:47] Paula: Thank you for expanding on that. Thank you so much. I know we are a bit short of time, but I do want you to talk about the company you have for empowering marginalized people, in particular marginalized women. Let’s talk a little bit about that.
[00:08:04] Precious: Thank you, Paula. So when I came from Zimbabwe to South Africa, I found myself on the verge of being on the streets, struggling on the verge of being a prostitute. And as I walked in those experiences in those streets alone, without support, I felt like the Lord had a message for me to say. Now you understand how it feels not to have. How someone can easily sleep without food, how someone can easily jump into prostitution. How people, sometimes their decisions can actually be affected by what they’re experiencing that moment. That’s how I started the cleaning company. it was to help women that are broken women, that have lost hope, that are struggling, that feel like maybe they’ve reached their width end. So we started off from there. It was from a place of experience that, listen, I know the journey I’ve walked it, let’s hold each other’s hand and tried to do better. So we have engaged women in the southern region, particularly through our cleaning company. Where we have counseled , we have mentored, we have coached, we have upskilled and we have placed on cleaning jobs just to give sustained life load. So that’s one of the things that I’ve been able to do. So what was meant for evil, God was able to turn it for my good. And that is through my cleaning company called “Elohay Cleaners”. We’re still evolving, we are still looking for opportunities to do better. We are working on a booking app now, so that we can train more women. We can empower more women. That’s one of my companies that I run actually.
[00:09:41] Paula: What a success story. Oh my gosh. As you said, what was meant for evil has been turned around for good. I love that. And so as we round up, as I said at the beginning, you’re a successful woman. You’ve immigrated from Zimbabwe to South Africa. Now a lot of what you’ve done has been through hard work and experiences that you’ve had. You wouldn’t put this down to lock. What would you put this down to? Because you have been successful in spite of the hardships.
[00:10:15] Precious: I give God all the glory, you know, I wouldn’t even want to hide that. I think for me in him I live, I move and I have my being. In him there’s all sufficiency. Because there were moments where people are not there, moments where people don’t understand, moments where you cannot articulate what you’re going through, what you’re experiencing, moment where someone will look at you and say, but you don’t look like what you are telling me. And at that moment, you realize that I can only take it to God. So I wouldn’t even want to say I’m successful outside of God. Who I am and who I’m becoming still is really anchored and centered in Christ. So if there’s really somebody I can give glory to is the almighty. I believe He makes all things beautiful in his time. And like I alluded to earlier that what was meant to destroy, what was meant to derail, what was meant to deny, what was meant to frustrate me. God continuously consistently turns it out to work for my good.
[00:11:31] Paula: What a story to which I say Amen, cause I’m also a believer. And so Precious can you let my listeners know where they can find you online? Because I know you are online, that’s how I met you.
[00:11:42] Precious: So I’m on social media, on all social media platforms. On LinkedIn, I’m “Precious Nyarambi, I do have pages there. We run our awards through my health organization, “Vessels of Virtue”. We have a magazine “Vessels Magazine”. We have a foundation “Vessels Foundation” where we help previously marginalized children as well. So people can find me on LinkedIn on those pages. The same with Instagram “Precious Nyarambi” on Instagram. The relative pages, still vessels of virtue. You’ll find my Workday on Facebook, still the same “Precious Nyarambi Vessels Of Virture”, “Vessels Of Foundation”. Vessels, business forum on the pages that I run. I’m quite active. I try to be responsive as well on those pages. I do have websites for the magazine, “Vessels Magazine” is there. “Vessels Of Virtue” it’s also there. “Elohay Cleaners”, it’s also live as well as Prember tech, which is our other business that we run. But our underlying thing is honestly is that is, can we lift others as we rise? Can we empower others as we get empowered? Can we create opportunities for others as we get opportunities as well? So, yeah.
[00:13:04] Paula: Wow. That’s all I can say. One word. Wow. I’m so impressed. Very impressive. Very very impressive young woman.
[00:13:13] Precious: Thank you.
[00:13:14] Paula: For my listeners, I know you have been touched by what you just heard, just like I have been. And so I would love you to head over to Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, or anywhere where you listen to podcast and click subscribe on even better, still follow us. And if you are an immigrant woman in this case, this was an immigrant woman within Africa, intra Africa. And you have found this episode so interesting, I’d love you to please give us a review. And if you would like to be a guest on my show, just like Precious was, please head over to my website, which is “chatting with the experts.com/contact us” and subscribe and let’s chat. Thank you again Precious. This has been indeed a very short but excellent episode and interview with you. And I hope to continue to hear more about the wonderful things you are doing in your life and in the life of the women and other people that you are touching. Thank you.
[00:14:18] Precious: Thank you so much, Paula. I appreciate you greatly.
[00:14:23] Paula: Awesome.