Frome woman, Dawn Denton, has won the Micro Business Award (South African Abroad) at the recent awards ceremony held in London at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel by the South African Chamber of Commerce in the UK, on the 16th May.
Dawn is known in Frome for organising get-togethers for South Africans in Somerset and Wiltshire, running Facebook and small business training sessions online and in workshops, promoting writers globally. She is also known for her non-fiction writing and is the owner and operator of the popular Frome Diary website and organiser of the Celebrate Southern Africa Market in Frome.
There were ten categories in this year’s South African Chamber of Commerce awards which recognised achievers ranging from individuals who have made a difference in the small business sector or their community, the efforts made by those in the charitable and ‘giving back’ arenas and those in the corporate business sector who have added value.
Dawn was the winner of the award which recognised: – “An individual who owns, runs or has a significant influence on a micro business or activity in the UK that is South African-led or serving the South African community in the UK or South Africa.”
The success of Dawn’s brand, Celebrate Southern Africa, formed the base for the judge’s decision.
Dawn who works tirelessly and mostly alone, is passionate about her home country and helping her countrymen and women get as much out of life as possible. The brand, “Celebrate Southern Africa “, encompasses a quarterly online magazine called Celebrate Southern Africa, which has already produced three issues, and is has a global readership, (available on https://issuu.com/celebrate southernafrica), a Facebook presence to enable interested people to connect and network, a weekly informative and entertaining online radio show on Frome’s Mix Tape Radio International, which celebrates Southern African music, culture, history and interviews and a podcast, which will go live on iTunes in July this year.
Under the umbrella of the brand is the now annual, Celebrate Southern Africa Market in Frome. This year the market will take place on 24th June at the Cheese and Grain. There will be arts and crafts, services, traditional food, beauty products, décor, textiles and so much more. The Black Swan will be serving a South African menu on the day too.
On Friday 22nd June there will be a South African wine tasting at Forward Space which includes a wonderful selection of wines, paired snacks and South African gin – tickets available on the Frome Diary website.
Above, left to right: Award sponsor representative of BusinessFit, Beverly Power (finalist), Dawn Denton (winner), Natalie Davids (finalist). Photograph by Shelley Craven.
