Lorlet Hudson is the genius behind One Hand Can't Clap, a capacity building organisation developed in 2000 with a vision to tackle educational underachievement by using Jamaican proverbs. Traditional sayings written on playing cards are used to engage pupils and adults and promote learning. She won the Silver Capacity Building Award at the prestigious British Female Inventors and Innovative Awards in 2005 and the Wavemakers award in 2006. She also co-founded the MyPal life skills programme which began with one class but is now cascaded throughout West Thames College.

Matilda Macatram was outraged by the abuses she saw happening to black people with mental health issues in particular the death of Rocky Bennett. Using her own resources and time she founded, and now directs, Black Mental Health UK. With limited resources she lobbies and argues for equality. So far her successes include defeating the 2004 Mental Health Bill, which proposed to increase powers of detention by police. She is now campaigning to ensure the legal duties within race relations and human rights law are observed.

Pamela Franklin established her business in 1989 at a time when black businesswomen in the West End were rare. Her unique idea was to make training mobile rather than fixed hence the name Portable Training. A radical concept at the time many of her ideas, (such as putting computers on a bus and driving the bus to various corporations to deliver training on site ) have since become common place. She's won three Business Awards; Women in Business for Greenwich in 2000 .European Federation of Black Women Business Owners 2002, London African and Caribbean Entrepreneurial Award in 2004.

Ade Solanke is a screenwriter and story analyst. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Southern California where she gained an MFA in Screenwriting she also holds a post-graduate diploma in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths College and an honours degree in English Literature from the University of Sheffield. Her pioneering writing efforts led to the recent Lagos to London set of plays at Oval theatre. Performances were sold out until the white director decided to quit after Ade protested over his idea to project prison cell bars onto the performers. She is hosting this months African Odyyseys event on Black Women on Screen at the BFI on Sat 18 June details below

Mavis Best is a real life superhero who's relentless campaigning and personal sacrifice led to the repeal of the notoriously racist 'sus' law in 1981. Until the Scrap Sus Campaign came along it was normal for black children aged 7 and above to be arrested and locked up in police cells for simply walking the streets. She was honoured at an event arranged by BHW on May 13 2011.One of her strategies for self defence was to scan the media for inaccurate or negative stories about black people and immediately contact the producers and deliver a response.

Nadia Denton was responsible for several years of the Black Filmmaker Magazine film screenings and the extra special 10th anniversary. The BFM was, at one time, the only source of positive African-centred film. They offered a monthly oasis of eclectic films where the black image was treated with respect . Her work is fundamental to the growth of black film exhibition in England.

Donna Panton, frustrated at the level of racism she encountered at schools in London began organising small, one-off events on black history at local schools. She noticed the lack of culturally appropriate books and set up Colourful Kids which sources and sells books with African/Caribbean themes and images. Not content with that she also arranged events on black history at a old church hall with no budget but full houses. She then got local parents together and embarrassed the local authority into coughing up £3000 to fund a series of events on the Black Image, Health, Relationships and African Superheroes.

Marina Raime after suffering a double mascetomy and years of racist treatment within the NHS (including being given an white imitation breast to replace her own surgically removed breast) Marina founded Better Days Cancer Care to help other women avoid such discriminatory treatment. After years of dogged campaigning, poor health, headaches, official blockages, website hacking and idea theft, she has just been commissioned to write a policy on black women and prostethis for the NHS.

Abi Ajose-Adeogun is a brilliant research scientist and a grass-roots educator. She walks the streets of Peckham informing women of the realities of breast cancer. Rather than upgrading her masters in Molecular Biology to a more status-enhancing doctorate, she preferred to undertake yet another Masters degree in Public Health she is also learning Spanish so she can work in Latin America. All of this study is done in her 'spare' time . As a direct result of presenting at the BHW event on Breast Cancer in May 2011 both Marina and Abi have been invited to present their pioneering work at a hospital and college in Harlem New York.

Sister Ishea Mohammed heard Abi speak at a BHW event then invited her to speak for an hour at the Brixton Mosque. The response was so intense that a further half day session was arranged. Since that time Breast Cancer has featured in the american Nation of Islam newsletter and the Brixton sisters have literally been out on the streets of Lambeth knocking on the doors of local estates raising awareness of the realities of the triple N variant. Sister Ishea also runs events on Prostate Cancer and recognised the service of people like Abi at a recent NOI awards ceremony.

Professor Elisabeth Anionwu is one of the very few black female professors in this country. There is a book to be written on her career quite apart from her pioneering Thalessima and Sickle Cell work. She is currently leading the Mary Seacole statue appeal which plans to erect a statue to this British/Jamaican hero in the grounds of St Thomas hospital. When accomplished it will be only the second statue of a black woman in London, the other is in the traffic island next to Stockwell tube station.

Dr Margaret Busby recently spoke at the BHW James Baldwin event at the BFI yet many people had no idea of her contribution to the UK and international Black Power movement. In the 1960's when when it was considered normal and legal to rape your wife and when there were signs in the street saying Keep Britain White, Margaret set up her own publishing company. She went on to befriend and publish CLR James, Buche Emecheta, Sam Greenlee, Chester Himes, George Lamming, Nurudin Farah, Hunter S Thompson, Michael Moorcock, Anthony Burgess, Boris Pasternak,H Rap Brown and others. Without her efforts many of these authors would still be unkown. BHW will be arranging an event in her honour later this year.

Leylah Hussein turned down a modelling career for social work and set up a number of different groups to combat racism and sexism. One of these groups is Daughters of Eve which campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation. For her efforts she has met and been given accolades by Waris Dirie, and David Cameron. Her voluntary work has taken her to Downing Street, Austria and Ireland. It has also earned her death threats, stress, and harassment. Despite this she carries on with her campaigning work and has just achieved a post graduate diploma in counselling. In 2010 she was awarded Cosmopolitan magazine's Ultimate Woman Campaigner of the Year.

Mia Morris historian, archivist, journalist, publisher needs a whole website to recognise her multiple achievements. To choose a couple, her website www.black-history-month.co.uk has been archived by the British museum as a national sample of Black British history. At one time the site was the go-to venue for all info to do with black history in England. In the 1970's she joined the Brixton based Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent whose first interview question was "Are you prepared to die ?" She was also a hidden hand behind tributes and fundraisers for people as important as Cherry Groce and Connie Mark. She is currently organising Black History Live at Wembley Stadium.

Sainab Abdi another potential model, is not interested in the catwalk but dedicated her mind to study. She recently graduated from City university with her post graduate degree in Optometry. This makes her a part of a tiny number of black female optometrists. Her story is even more remarkable considering she escaped internment camps and hostile soldiers in East Africa then overcame bullying and exclusion in England to achieve academic and professional success.

Lady Phoenix (Jan Edwards) was inpsired by BHW's monthly film events in central London. She saw how urgent the need was for children to have culturally relevant film material rather than the usual Hollywood junk. Using her own resources she set up the Childrens Cultural Film Club in Tottenham which shows accurate and positive portrayals of black people once a month in a venue near Seven Sisters tube. The group has expanded its remit and Jan recently brought her group on a black history walk of St Pauls and arranged for 10 year old girls to interview Jamaican World War 2 Veterans.

Sylviane Rano was vexed by the gross and negative portrayals of black women in films so in 2004 she co-founded the Images of Black Women Film Festival. One weekend a year she showcases films produced by,or featuring, black women from all over the world. IBW also imports black female directors and animators, to discuss their work and arranges workshops on acting and film production. If it were not for IBW films like Say my Name, My Nappy Roots, Tree of Spirits, I Will Follow etc which are full of images of black female beauty, would never be seen.

Nadifa Mohammed & Yetunde Ruban

Nadifa has written one of the few novels, Black Mamba Boy, which tells the story of Somali soldiers in World War 2 and their subsequent migration to London in the 1950's. She won the Betty Trask award in 2010 and was listed for the Orange prize for fiction. Yetunde set up and runs Black Londoners Meet Up. The social group, which is mostly managed by women, provides links to black cultural events and a friendly space for individuals to congregate and enjoy London. Not content with just having fun Yetunde, after seeing the devastation in Haiti, was moved to action. She co-ordinated several fundraising events, sponsored and organised the publication of A Lime Jewel an anthology of writers and poets, including Nadifa. Profits from the book go to the Lambi Fund a charity run by, and for, women in Haiti

Dr Donna St Hill was told that she would probably end up packing bags in Tescos because she was from a council estate and was 'geeky'. Ignoring this advice she went on to become a national newsreader, founded and sold a media business, obtained a doctorate in International Relations a year ahead of schedule and then travelled the world. While on safari in Kenya she noticed that the other tourists were more interested in the local animals than the local people and decided to set up a scholarship for young girls. 5 years on, the young women are now educating their community.

Allison Hewitt is one of a minority of black radiographers Allison set up the National Nubian Network and publishes a monthly newsletter where she highlights issues relating to African Caribbean health. She established the black radiographers group and campaigns for equality within the NHS despite many obstacles.

Odiri Ighamre is a professional African story teller but that is merely one of her talents. She has used her many skills to help the youth of Haringey and Africa. In 2002 she set up KORI Arts, a thriving social enterprise which has developed incredible young mentors who then spread their skills across the community. Last year she raised £10,000 to take 18 teenagers to Tanzania (for the fourth time) where they used drama as an educational tool in small villages. She then raised a further £5000 to bring some of the Tanzanian youth to London.

Dami Akinussi is the brains, producer and director behind the award-winning Malcolms Echo. Ignoring the rules Dami filmed, and compiled rare archive footage 'by any means necessary' which resulted in her first feature film winning the African Movie Academy Award for best documentary in 2009. Malcolm X's daughters invited her to screen the film on the anniversary of his birthday at Audobon Ballroom where he was tragically killed. BHW hopes to screen the film in London later this year.

K. N Chimbiri attended numerous BHW events and was inpsired to make her own contribution to positive media about black people. She joined an all white Sudan study group at the British museum, spent a couple of years enduring slights and stereotypical comments, learned the history of ancient Sudan, re-interpreted that history from an African perspective and weaved that history into a childrens book and learning resource. Just for good measure, to avoid the racism in the publishing industry, she self published and distributed Step Back in Time to Ancient Kush

Zhana author of Black Success Stories, took action against negative media by producing her own media. Not content with two books she also writes a blog, hosts her own internet radio show and runs workshops on African-centred health using Spiritual Response Therapy

Dr June Bam-Hutchison a Khoi Khoi, grew up in apartheid South Africa where one of the methods of repression was propaganda stating that black people were ugly but white people were beautiful. Not content with just misinformation, white dentists would often remove the four front teeth of pre-pubescent African girls in order to make them ugly and make it easier for other whites to orally rape them. June over-achieved academically despite tremendous adversity while assisting with the fight for freedom. She survived police raids, attempted kidnap and numerous other idigniites before becoming part of Mandelas administration after his election in 1994. The book Peeping Through The Reeds gives a graphic account of the unspoken realities of white supremacy