Award-winner Amanda Nkomo, Humanitarian of the Year 2024 finalist and former Miss World Zimbabwe UK, runs the Ngcono Mbowane Foundation, a Zimbabwean nonprofit dedicated to improving health and lives across Africa.
Born in Zimbabwe but moving to Manchester, UK, when she was four years old, Amanda received her education in England, from reception class up until she graduated with her degree in Health Studies from the University of Wolverhampton. However, she was raised in a home that encouraged her to embrace both the culture in which she lived and the culture she had moved away from.
Amanda said: “My parents always took me back to Zimbabwe during the six-week summer holidays, which was a blessing. While I was growing up, we spoke both English and my home language, Sindbele, so I had the balance of knowing both.
We were always moving back and forth between England and Zimbabwe, which made it very easy for me to stay connected to my culture.
When Amanda was in college, a glamorous pastime helped lead to her embracing charity work. Amanda was already volunteering at a homeless shelter and at food kitchens, but as she modelled part-time and took part in beauty pageants, she found that many of these events required entrants to do charity work. Amanda continues to enjoy entering beauty pageants to this day and credits her early days of modelling and beauty contests with having helped build her confidence, as well as encouraging her philanthropy. In late 2023, Amanda was a Miss Globe finalist and represented Zimbabwe at the finals in Albania, and says she wants to do more in the coming years.
Taking cues from her glamorous early steps and the volunteering they required, Amanda soon moved on to bigger and more ambitious humanitarian projects.
She said: “A lot of my inspiration comes from my upbringing. I grew up in a Christian household, which I found very positive as it instilled so much community service in me. I did a lot of volunteering, and when I look back, I’m like, wow, I was always doing quite a bit.”
Amanda’s upbringing in England saw her enjoying Zimbabwe’s cuisine and learning values that reflected Zimbabwe’s traditional outlook, which helped forge the powerful connection between the two cultures that came to shape her future. Having seen the privileged benefits that people living in the UK often enjoy, Amanda decided to begin raising money and launching charitable projects when she visited Zimbabwe. This energetic dedication to charity work became one of the most important aspects of Amanda’s life. Although things picked up pace while Amanda was at the University of Wolverhampton, giving time to charitable causes while studying and moving rapidly between the UK and Zimbabwe was at first overwhelming.
She explained: “I kept saying to myself, I’m way too young for this. I’m still at uni. I don’t have a big budget. I’m not a millionaire, and while I’m living in England, getting to Zimbabwe takes a whole day or two. But I just kept reminding myself of the things I’ve seen and the places I’ve been, and how whenever I went to help people in Zimbabwe, there were so many young people – so many young girls – who had gained access to the opportunities I had while I was growing up in the UK.”
Today, Amanda’s Ngcono Mbowane Foundation improves health and opportunities for young people across Africa, including Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Tanzania. Amanda is especially passionate about educating and improving opportunities for girls and young women.
Amanda said: “Health is the topic I’m most interested in, and the work I did during my Health Studies degree helps me navigate my career. That’s why health ties in with a lot of the work my foundation does, as we focus on mental health, menstrual health for young ladies, and education.
“I am such a different ‘Amanda’ compared to when I was a shy little girl. I never felt like I had a voice, and now I look back and think, ‘I wish I was a bit bolder and a bit more passionate back then.’
“My mum and dad always seemed very equal, and I think that growing up with such powerful women around me like my mum, grandparents, and aunties made me see that in comparison there are so many times when women are not heard or not listened to. I wanted to become a voice for women who don’t have a voice, and to advocate for them, and offer them more equal opportunities.”
The foundation has moved from strength to strength and provides help and education to children whose lives would be more restricted without the foundation’s help.
She said: “Our projects depend on what we’re doing, the season, and what is needed at the time. Sometimes we’ll have schools reach out to us, requesting supplies or a workshop. For example, last week we had a school giveaway where we offered schoolbooks, pens – standard stationary stuff. Then on top of that, we donated sanitary products for the girls and hosted a workshop on mental health and sexual health, while offering positive words, advice, and affirmation.
“Other times we have nurses come, government ministers visit, people offering talks on female empowerment for young women between the ages of 15 and 30.
“Last December we did a massive project for our Christmas drive, handing out Christmas hampers for the elderly in our community.”
Now nearly 27, by the age of 24 Amanda had already won several high-profile awards for the work that she and the foundation does, including Rising Star at the Zimbabwean International Women’s Awards, Zimbabwean Young Achiever of the Year, and being recognised as one of Africa’s Forty Under 40 awards in philanthropy.
Amanda was particularly moved by her finalist nomination for the University of Wolverhampton’s Humanitarian of the Year Alumni Award in 2024. She remembers bringing her father to the event and seeing how proud he was of his daughter.
She said: “I think it was only the second award show he had ever been with me to. He was overjoyed and showing off to all his friends. That gave me such a heart-warming feeling.
“It was a lovely night, as well. Just being nominated by my university showed me that, damn, wow, I’m doing something right. I’m having a positive impact somewhere.”
In 2025, Amanda has more planned for her foundation and wants to focus even more closely on the ways she can improve health in Zimbabwe and beyond. She said: “Every year is exciting for the foundation, but I want to see how we can incorporate more health pop-up days and health check-ups. We always start small and then if it is successful, we see if we can grow things bigger and bigger.
“I think that expanding is really important for us. We’ve been doing a lot of work in Zimbabwe, which is amazing, but we’re looking to collaborate more widely because the goal is to take the work as far as it can go. Zimbabwe will always be the main goal, but I’ve realised the importance of collaboration and expanding into other regions in Zimbabwe as well as other African countries.”
Despite Amanda’s cavalcade of achievements, awards, and nominations, when she is asked what she feels most proud of, launching her foundation and completing her university degree remain neck-and-neck at the top of the list. However, as such a young woman, Amanda has plenty more she plans to achieve.
She added: “When I speak about legacy, I always relate it back to my grandfather, who passed away when I was really young. Before then, he served as vice-president of Zimbabwe for a very long time. He had such an impact before he left us and built his own school in the village I’m from in Zimbabwe. I need to continue that, so I’m going to be in politics.
“I want to make more of an impact, wherever I’m able to put my voice and ideas out there, then see them come to life and serve our communities, serve our country. I want to live a big life, because you never know what will happen and where life will take you.
My only hope is that when I leave, people can be, like, ‘Okay, that was Amanda. She was here, and this is her legacy. She did some good in this world.’
Amanda hopes that female students will continue to raise their heads up high and do their own good, too: “The advice I would give is to not be afraid. Be bold. Be passionate. Stand your ground – even if you’re the only voice in the room speaking.”
