North Tyneside's first ever Black councillor says she endured racism and hostility and even "considered suicide" following her arrival in the UK.
Josephine Mudzingwa-Siziba was elected as Labour councillor for Benton Ward in North Tyneside in 2022 in a landslide victory. However, it has been a very long journey since she arrived in the UK in 2000 from Zimbabwe, a former British colony, which she left aiming to provide for a young son and daughter who have since joined her in the North East.
Though she was a qualified nurse in her home country with 13 years of experience, she was unable to work for three of her first five years in the UK. She was housed on the Meadow Well Estate, where she claims to have faced racism and hostility, and had her home and vehicle targeted.
Read more: Newcastle marks 75th anniversary of Windrush with parade during Refugee Week
She had her third child Michelle shortly after moving into Meadow Well, and even found that someone had cut her washing line with Michelle's, now 20, baby clothes on them. She worked hard to become a part of the community and hosted gatherings at her home, using food to break down barriers.
Josephine told ChronicleLive: "I was given a badge that said 'employment prohibited' so I was not allowed to work, and I would stay in the house being given £35 per week for myself and £35 for my daughter.
"That was hard when I'm a qualified nurse and I knew I could provide a service that could help people. But I wasn't allowed and people were calling me scrounger, lazy, saying you don't want to go to work.
"I tried to tell people that I really want to go to work but the system is telling me to stay at home. We had badges that say 'employment prohibited', so you can't look for work and if you do, you're going to be in trouble!"
Josephine said that things became so difficult, she considered taking her own life. She did not see her daughter Memento, now 34, and son Marshall, 26 for five years. She continued: "When I got my stay, I didn't want to be British at all - it was so hard going five years without seeing my children."
However, on getting British citizenship and being able to work, Josephine has set up her own nursing agency and become a trustee of the North of England Refugee Service. She initially wanted to be a councillor in her home ward of Meadow Well, but was unsuccessful.
Despite that, she is now extremely proud to represent one of the most diverse wards in North Tyneside, and on being elected said: "North Tyneside is a very diverse community and every child here deserves to feel that they are also represented."
And at this week's Windrush anniversary celebrations during Refugee Week, Josephine was at the front of the parade with a megaphone, singing "say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here."
She finished: "It's very important for me to recognise refugees and to recognise the Windrush generation. I'd like people to recognise refugees because I'm one of them.
"The way people treat you, being called names like scroungers, lazy, don't want to work, things like that. People do not understand that the people who are refugees are coming from normal houses, they have normal jobs."
