For love of country

In a small office in Rego Park, Queens, businesswoman and philanthropist Beverly Nichols meets with the board of directors and volunteers of the Push-Start Foundation. It's the office in which she began her entrepreneurial venture 15 years ago. "It's brought me luck before," she notes. "Why change it?"

Nichols has become known for her love of her home country, Jamaica, and her willingness to do all she can to help those without means live a respectable life and realise their full potential. "I've been moved to act for many years," says Nichols. Her concern is the plight of the poor in Jamaica. As a direct response to the need she witnessed, in 2010, Nichols established the Push-Start Foundation, a non-profit organisation working to bridge the gap between the poor, provide health-care access and economic development opportunities.

The fourth of six girls for Gebel and Frank Nichols, she grew up in the rural district of Blackwoods in the hills of Clarendon. Her journey is truly a Cinderalla story going from poor and uneducated to an accomplished entrepreneur.

Nichols' humble beginnings as a motherless child left to fend for herself throughout most of her adolescent years never stopped her from working hard to grasp life by the skirt tail and hang on. Determined to make it, she completed night school to obtain her high-school diploma and the qualifications to become a nurse. She later moved to May Pen to study practical nursing. After becoming certified, she began her nursing career working in doctors' offices.

Although nursing was a career she sought, she took a break in the late '70s to work for the May Pen Department of Statistics. But it was during a serendipitous trip to the United States in 1981 that Nichols got her first glimpse of her future. While working full time as a caregiver for the elderly, she continued studying. Driven by the need to understand the elderly population that she worked with, Nichols muscled her way through Medgar Evers' College, studying gerontology. After earning a certificate, she took her studies further by obtaining an associate degree from LaGuardia College, securing a coveted spot on the Dean's List then eventually a bachelor's degree in gerontology from York College. With her qualifications and background in nursing, her academic accolades and her ambition to be successful, Nichols became an unstoppable force. In 1996, she was granted a state licence to operate a home care agency, establishing Beverly's Home Care, a reputable organisation that serves the City of New York and Nassau County.

Nichols lives by the saying, 'Doing well while doing good'. Now with a very successful business, she does not hesitate to give to others. She is active in her church community and donates to several charities, impacting the lives of many persons in need.

At the Ceremony of Investiture and Presentation of National Honours and Awards in October, Nichols received a Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service for her contribution to community development and health care. As a child who knew what it was like to be in need and deprived of so many privileges, Nichols' work is far from done.

"I am committed to working on behalf of the vulnerable," she adds. She never lost sight of where she's from and is currently actively fund-raising to establish the Beverly Nichols Dialysis Center, which broke ground in Jamaica in October. Her goal is to provide dialysis services to Jamaicans who would otherwise be unable to pay for the treatment.