Zola's Story

Zola Gidi came to the UK from South Africa with her boyfriend in 1991. By 1997, she was settled in Swansea, Wales, with a job, a flat and the medical care she needed. Suddenly the Home Office threatened her with deportation. Zola's many friends in Swansea rallied round. The local paper, the South Wales Evening Post campaigned for her right to stay. Charities including Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group, the Immigration Advisory Service, and Asylum Justice, made sure she got the expert legal advice she needed to fight the Home Office decision. Zola was finally allowed to stay, though only after difficult years of uncertainty, insecurity and fear. In this book she tells her story in her own words. She tells how eventually she was able to take British Citizenship, at a moving ceremony, and then was able to travel to see her family in South Africa, for the first time in many years, no longer fearful that she would not be let back into the UK. Zola's story: sometimes, kindness and friendship do win!