Mail & Guardian reporter
Women in Rural Areas’s (Wira) Woman of the Year is Sheila Thabisile Ngubane, an entrepreneur and social activist from KwaZulu-Natal.
Her biography aptly demonstrates just how much a woman can achieve professionally and how one individual can have a positive impact on her surrounding community.
Originally trained as a radiographer and medical technologist at the Ngwelezane hospital in Empangeni, Ngubane left to study for a BSc degree at the University of Zululand.
After graduating in 1986 she concentrated on raising a family – she has four children with husband Ben Ngubane.
In 1994 Sheila Ngubane established an interior decorating, catering and curtain- making operation, Ntonhlo.
The following year she set up a women’s development organisation, Ithubalethu Intambo.
The organisation specialises in craft, sewing and arts projects as well as agricultural development schemes. Four years later the KwaZulu-Natal-based association has more than 10 000 members.
In 1997 Ngubane was involved in the construction of a school for disabled people, and a year later started the Welani Rural Development Trust.
The trust concentrates on three main areas – sewing, poultry and hydroponics – in its bid to empower rural women and youth.
In addition Ngubane is a board member of the Empangeni Business Advice Centre and a provincial committee member of the KwaZulu-Natal Local Bank.
She remains a patron of the Welani Trust.