UMHLANGA WOMEN ACHIEVERS – EST. 1994

To grow together through networking,
sharing and enthusiasm.

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Welcome to UWA

The Umhlanga Women Achievers fondly referred to as UWA, is a non-profit organisation established in 1994.

Our primary focus is networking which is our platform to market our businesses, to connect and engage with firm business contracts and, by doing so, to build and develop meaningful relationships and friendships.

Our members enjoy the benefits of various activities and offerings that are created and designed with our slogan as our inspiration; “to grow together through networking, sharing and enthusiasm”.

UWA Networking is vital for our progress and growth, and our UWA members are part of a sisterhood who are like-minded, passionate and grateful for where we are and what we do.

We inspire and motivate each other as we aim for better business results and success. We support each other as we all follow a journey to grow and evolve into greater versions of ourselves as businesswomen and individuals.

Highlights from the UWA Year End Soirée – Viva la Vida

BEAUTICIAN TAKES 2022 ACHIEVER OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Umhlanga Women Achievers (UWA), a networking club for women in business, held their annual awards dinner at the Mount Edgecombe Country Club on Wednesday, 30 November, where Beverley Murray, owner of Bev’s Beauty & Wellness in Umhlanga, was crowned the 2022 Achiever of the Year. 

UWA-Achiever-Bev-Murray

Seventeen UWA members were nominated and invited to submit their applications. The judges for this year’s competition included local publication editors and a social media expert. After a rigorous voting process, the top seven entrants were interviewed, and Beverley was adjudicated the overall winner, with Karen Stark (owner of So Scrumptious – a biscuit supplier for supermarkets – Checkers and Spar) and Lynn Easton (of Afscot Financial Services, specialising in short term insurance brokerage in the hospitality industry) as first and second runners up respectively.

Beverley’s mother ran a Beauty School as well as a Beauty Salon in Gauteng, and this is where she trained as a therapist after finishing school. Being a beautician was in her blood, and she became a top therapist and worked with her mother for 20 years.

In 2012 Beverley moved to Durban to be with her childhood sweetheart, and in January 2013, she started her own salon, Bev’s Beauty and Wellness, in Mt Edgecombe. Unfortunately, a few months later, her rekindled love was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Beverley’s business had to be put on hold whilst caring for her partner until his passing in August 2013.

As she struggled to get her business back on track, more heartache followed – her father, also a cancer sufferer, passed away in 2016, and so did her new partner of 7 years in February 2022. It was whilst caring for her own loved ones that Beverley’s passion for Hospice started. She saw the amazing work they did for terminally ill people and therefore use every opportunity to raise funds for Hospice.

Beverley ran her salon in Mt Edgecombe for 5 years before moving to Umhlanga, where she ran it from a B&B for a short stint of 18 months.

Shortly after relocating her salon to the Hirsch’s Homestore in Umhlanga, the Covid pandemic and lockdown drained the business. Thinking out of the box, she started taking ‘one on one’ clients, which kept her going during the dreaded “Covid period”. Now a bit more than a year later, the business has picked up once again, and she recently employed a therapist to assist her.

To keep abreast in the “beauty” world, Beverley still attends different beauty courses on a regular basis to enhance her own skills. The latest one is Microneedling using NCTF, the best ingredients from France, making Bev’s Beauty and Wellness only the 2nd beauty salon in Durban to offer it, and she works in conjunction with a local medical doctor.

Message from our president – Robyn Meloni

Take a look at these lovely ladies… They are our UWA 2023 committee.

UWA Committee 2023

We represent our members who are from the wider Durban area and include entrepreneurs in various industries such as Health and Wellness, Insurance, Banking, Estate Agencies, Social Media, Branding, Hospitality, Law etc.

We are a dedicated committee already working towards making this term another successful year for all our members through our various activities: UWA networking breakfasts and dinners, the UWA coffee club, our UWA book club, UWA Achiever of the Year programme as well as advertising on our UWA ads group.

This year we celebrate UWA’s 29th anniversary, and we have plans to transform one of the rooms at Granny Griffs Sugar Shack in Durban North into a UWA meeting room. This meeting room will be available to our members to host meetings, presentations, and consultations and will also be the permanent ‘home’ to showcase 29 years of events, pictures and press releases, history, and memorabilia. In addition, other visitors to Granny Griffs will also have an opportunity to see what we are about and encourage new memberships to our well-established organisation.

We are all passionate about UWA, and the feedback from guests confirms the warmth and energy that they feel at our events, something that our members already experience, and we want to carry this forward into the new year. But without the inspiration, hard work, commitment and passion of our committee and our members, this would not be possible.

We look forward to a positive membership renewal rate and welcoming new members to our community. If you would like to renew or join us this year, click on the Membership tab.

Networking opportunities

Coffee Club

Our Coffee Club is held monthly, a week after our UWA networking breakfast. It is limited to 20 attendees, so it is a more focused and intimate networking platform.

Book Club

Our book club collection has a space in our UWA Boardroom located at Granny Griffs.

There are a number of business, leadership and motivation titles on offer to our members to enhance their knowledge and boost ideas and new thinking. These are offered on a limited loan basis.

UWA Cares

The primary focus of UWA is networking; however, we also create awareness and support charities within our communities.

We raise funds at our monthly events by selling raffle tickets to attendees who stand a chance to win prizes sponsored by our members and guests.

The money raised is donated to the charity of choice. Throughout the year, we also schedule UWA Blood Drives to create awareness and support the need for donations.

Achiever of the year

This annual programme is designed for UWA members to reflect on the past year, measure their growth and
motivation, acknowledge their hard work, fortitude, and attitude and realise their worth.

As UWA ‘achievers, ‘ we need to believe in who we are, what we do and why we do it. ALL our members are
invited and encouraged to submit an entry into this competition. An overall winner will be announced at our Year End event.

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July 2022 UWA Networking Meeting

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Heroine of the Month – Bev Murray

The UWA heroine of the Month – Bev Murray

Let’s take a minute to get to know Bev!
Bev is the proud owner of Bev’s Beauty & Wellness, situated at 3 Tetford Circle, Hirsch’s, Umhlanga.
It can be confirmed that Bev doesn’t only spend her hours taking care of her customers inner and outer beauty, but she extends this innate passion for wellbeing to her family, friends and the UWA committee members. If you peruse her Facebook page, you will notice that most of the posts are based on promoting and supporting other individuals and local businesses!

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