The winner of the BME Entrepreneur of the Year award is a gentleman who was inspired to go into business by his father. In 2006 he purchased the struggling Trophy Centre in a £2.5million deal - rejuvenating the business, expanding the product range and increasing productivity – subsequently leading to a staunch increase in turnover hitting £1.5million. In the same year he purchased the Lorne Hotel in a 4million deal ploughing a further £4million into the hotel for refurbishment and modernisation. The 113 room, 2 restaurant and 400 function room capacity hotel is due to open later this year.

The winner of the BME Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award is a dynamic and successful woman born in Glasgow and educated with a honours degree in Physics.

Jinder has successfully run many prestigious establishments including the Elms Court Hotel and the Balbir’s Restaurant Chain. Jinder’s current projects include: Rebel Rouge, a 5 star Hair & Beauty Salon based in Glasgow’s City Centre; Catering Confidence Training; and the soon to open Balbir’s City Centre.

Mother India started its business in 1995 and the founders Monir and Smeena Mohammed have managed to expand their portfolio to 6 restaurants. This institution of fine Indian food incorporates Mother India, Mother India Café’s in both Edinburgh and Glasgow and 3 Wee Curry Shops.

The company is also about to enter into a new adventure by opening its first delicatessen specialising in everything needed to prepare and cook in the ‘Mother India’ style. With it’s humble beginnings the company has now expanded to employ close to 100 staff in these businesses.

The dream of Mother India was to fulfil and further encourage what Monir and Smeena saw as a widespread desire for authentic, homestyle Indian Sub-continental food. They firmly believe that you get out what you put in and have worked hard to earn and maintain a reputation for quality.

One of the cornerstones of this is their insistence on using the best and freshest of local ingredients and they have also been fortunate in having the support and commitment of a skilled, enthusiastic and loyal workforce.

The company has not forgotten its community roots and regularly hosts charity nights for a variety of worthwhile causes and the company is looking forwards with confidence and firmly believes that it can successfully build on its achievements thus far.

Born on July 29th, 1993, this young lady has spent her life growing up in the West End of Glasgow. She currently attends Jordanhill College School and is in her third year.

Jotie is regularly selected for county and national competitions, and in 2007 she represented the West of Scotland at both 18 and under and 14 and under level in competitions south of the border. At national level she was selected to play in the Four Nations event, in the 2005 competition.

In June 2007, Jotie won a prestigious national competition run by “Great British Chicken” to attend one of their summer training camps held in England. She was selected from over 1,000 applicants to win one of only twelve places in the camp. The week spent at the academy included plenty of on court work and physical training. Jotie also met with one of the competition judges, Olympic athlete Sally Gunnell. She is hopeful to return next year and build on this invaluable experience.

In August 2007, Jotie qualified for the National Finals of the 14 and under “Road to Wimbledon” challenge, which were held at the All England Lawn Tennis Club itself. From the original 10,000 children who enter, only 64 boys and 64 girls make it to Wimbledon.

Jotie is one of only a handful of Black and Ethnic Minority girls involved in sport and would actively encourage more being done to promote sports to girls of her age and ethnicity.

Gurjit Singh was elected President of the National Union of Students Scotland in March 2008, having previously served as President of Strathclyde Students’ Association for 2007.  During his time at Strathclyde, studying for an Honours Degree in Politics, Gurjit received an award for his work in the training team for Strathclyde Students and was an active member of the student council.

Gurjit has been an active campaigner in the fight for free education in Scotland and also led student campaigns on issues ranging from teaching and learning to equality and health. He has worked to tackle the issue of racism on campus, helping to maintain a no-platform policy with regards to the BNP and other right-wing organisations and has worked closely with the Glasgow Anti-Racist Alliance.

Gurjit will take over as President of NUS Scotland on 1 July 2008 and will begin his term leading a campaign calling for student exemption from the SNP’s proposed local income tax. He will also be lobbying on the issues of widening access, improving universities’ environmental policies and improving funding for further and higher education.

YCSA provides services designed to enhance the capacity of young people, individuals and groups within BME communities.  We are an organisation who is responsive to demands and offer support, services on demand training and positive friendly staff responsive to individual and organisational requirements. 

YCSA have a strong commitment to our communities and have developed our services over the years with a view to offering a diverse and relevant range of services and support.  YSCA is one of the longest running and productive organisations working on behalf of BME youth delivering educational, fun, responsive and professional services. 

DIWC was established in 1969 and operates a service of educational, recreational and social opportunities for women and young women from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. Many of its service users face social and financial exclusion, compounded through a poor grasp of the English language and/or cultural/community barriers.

The Centre works in partnership with local and national organisations to promote the personal and social development of these women through encouraging active participation, leadership and citizenship in society.

At the moment DIWC is working with over 500 women, from over 55 different countries of origins, speaking 32 different languages, from 15 different belief systems and a wide range of age groups. The DIWC places great emphasis on the importance of women from diverse cultural/racial backgrounds, faith and age groups in coming together to share experiences and learn in a multi-cultural setting.

Shakti (Hindi for “strength”) was set up in 1986 to provide a specialised refuge support service for Black Minority Ethnic women and their children, if any, who are experiencing and/or fleeing from domestic abuse.  In February 2004 Shakti was successful in opening its first purpose-built refuge comprising four self-contained flats.

Shakti currently employs 21 staff from a diverse range of backgrounds and ethnicities which reflects the communities it serves and enables Shakti staff to provide a specialised service which includes emotional, practical support, information and advocacy for both women and children and young people. 

Shakti is proactive in developing better services for Black Minority Ethnic women and is currently supporting 129 women and 137 children and young people. Shakti receives referrals from all over the UK and assist women that have been abandoned abroad.  Shakti’s has been instrumental in trying to bring changes in service provision to Black Minority Ethnic women and their children.

EMEC has over 15 years of success in aiding the Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Glasgow into Employment and Training. They are continuing to grow and changes are being made on a daily basis to reflect the clients’ needs and the requirements of the Employer.

Last year EMEC moved to 423 Paisley Road West, making it easier for clients to access their services. This move has made EMEC bigger than ever. With this huge base EMEC’s potential for growth has reached a new level.

Still in phase one of the move; the second phase will include the restoration of the upper level of the premises. The office is used for training courses that are run in conjunction with local colleges and education establishments.

EMEC joined forces with Glasgow South East Regeneration Agency (GSERA) to combine both knowledge and expertise for engaging with the local BME communities in the area.
Last year EMEC engaged with over 1000 individuals of whom 50% went into either employment or training.

PATH (Scotland) was established in 1998 to address the under-representation of Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in Housing and Employment.  PATH have been extremely successful in this endeavour with 90% of trainees gaining employment in the housing sector post placement. 

The evaluation of PATH’s work commissioned by Communities Scotland in 2003 entitled, “Good Practice in Positive Action,” stated that, “there was a continuing need for positive action in Scotland and that PATH (Scotland) was making a key contribution to this field, both in the specific field of housing, and more generally through its other activities.  The report concluded by describing the organisation and its work as, “an exemplar of good practice” 

Pan African Arts Scotland Limited (PAAS) was founded in 1989 to promote and share the wide-ranging cultural arts of African origin with people who live in or visit Scotland, contributing to the enrichment of an increasingly diverse Scottish culture. 

PAAS aims to bring together many people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds through African arts workshops, skills training and performance events.

PAAS Productions puts the creative work of BME people in the public domain. Through Hesu and Akaya we celebrate Scotlandʼs cultural diversity in the fusion of Ghanaian folk and Celtic music, is a new musical flavour to the Scottish music scene

Kwang Pang Lee

Mr. Lee has been working as a fitness instructor in the Chinese Healthy Living Centre since January 2006. During this period of time he was involved in planning, organising and teaching various fitness classes for the Chinese Community. He has been hugely influential in enthusing the Chinese community to take regular physical activity.

He also dedicates a huge amount of his personal time on promoting physical exercise, healthy life style and community planning. Thanks to Mr. Lee there are a significant number of Chinese people who have had health problems but now enjoy a healthier lifestyle and have improved their mental well-being.

Mr. Lee is and has been highly instrumental in CHLC’s project to increase access to mainstream fitness classes, which is ultimately about improving integration between the Chinese community and the wider Scottish society.

Glasgow Ansar

Glasgow Ansar was originally formed in 2001 to provide a sporting platform for ethnic minority youth from Glasgow’s Southside. However, the initial success has been such that the organisation had developed dramatically in an incredibly short period of time. The organisation is no longer restricted to the ethnic minorities, boasting membership from a wide cross-section of the community it serves.

Furthermore, it no longer confines its activities to the sport arena. Through strong networking links and collaborative work with local agencies the service provision now encompasses areas as diverse as careers advice, counselling, confidence building and access to both academic and sporting qualifications: to name but a few. What started off as, and what still is, a small group of volunteers, has now become an organisation fit to take the sports and healthy living message to Glasgow’s wider community, irrespective of colour, sex, faith or creed.

Azmina runs the very successful multicultural Café Aziza in the West end of Glasgow.  Café Aziza is the only café Bazaar in Glasgow – a unique venue with a heady mix of amazing décor, mouthwatering international food, excellent service and a fantastic atmosphere. 

Azmina believes one of her main motivations for the Aziza project is the long standing voluntary work that she has been doing with refugees in Glasgow since the influx of refugees from 2001 to 2005. Azmina identified that many refugees felt isolated from the overall Scottish society. 

As a way of tackling this Azmina wanted to pull these groups together so that they could share their wealth of culture in a constructive way.  As a main goal Azmina aimed to convert local resources and talents into a sustainable, profitable and vibrant trade.  In addition, Azmina aims to use this ethos to create positive changes, empower people, create awareness of different cultures and encourage a community spirit.