Nomzamo Mbatha

About Nomzamo

Nomzamo Mbatha is a South African actress and humanitarian. After serving as a LuQuLuQu High Profile Supporter for several years, Nomzamo was appointed as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in January 2019. Since her appointment as a High-Profile Supporter for the LuQuLuQu campaign in 2017, she has visited four refugee camps with UNHCR in Malawi, Kenya, and South Sudan.  Nomzamo has said that “For so long the image of the refugee has been that of despair and destitution, but when you come to the camps, you see the spirit of resilience, you see the spirit of rebuilding.” Nomzamo visited IDP settlements in Juba and the remotely located Maban refugee camp. There she learnt about UNHCR’s work alongside implementing partners in the provision of healthcare and education for refugees and IDPs. 

In June 2018, Nomzamo was a speaker at the first ever TedX event to be hosted in a refugee camp – TEDxKakumaCamp. Later in the October of the same year, Nomzamo hosted the Nansen Refugee Awards, to honour the South Sudanese award winner she had met during her visit to South Sudan, Dr. Evan Atar.  

Recently, Nomzamo played a strong role in supporting UNHCR’s LuQuLuQu COVID-19 emergency response campaigns which included fundraising and public engagement and awareness initiatives in an effort to help protect forcibly displaced families against the spread of the corona virus in the refugee camps.  

For World Refugee Day 2020, Nomzamo reunited with Eujin Byun, a UNHCR staff worker who she met during her mission in South Sudan in a virtual meeting to learn more about the situation in refugee camps amid the corona virus global pandemic, the work UNHCR was doing to protect refugees from the spread of COVID-19 and the wellbeing of refugees Nomzamo had met in South Sudan.