Varaidzo (Vee) Kativhu is a Zimbabwean education activist and social-media personality. She has won a Diana Award and she was listed on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2023. She also is also part of the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth as a Youth Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Early life
Born in Zimbabwe, Kativhu moved to the UK and studied at the universities of Oxford and Harvard. She set up Empowered by Vee, an initiative which helps to make higher education more accessible for students from poorer backgrounds and published her first book in 2021.
Career
Varaidzo Kativhu was born in Zimbabwe and grew up speaking the Shona language. When her father died, she moved to the UK at the age of seven. She first lived in England, then in Pontypridd in Wales and then moved to the West Midlands of England.[1] She attended Dudley College and worked at McDonald's in Birmingham.[1][2] She was the first person from her school to go to the University of Oxford, where she studied classical archaeology and ancient history at Lady Margaret Hall.[1][3]
Whilst at Oxford, she set up a YouTube channel under the name Miss Varz and vlogged about her experiences of university.[3][4][5] Her friend and fellow student Malala Yousafzai appeared in some of her videos.[6] Kativhu took an online Masters in international education policy at Harvard University and afterwards set up Empowered by Vee, an initiative which helps to make higher education more accessible for students from poorer backgrounds.[3][7] She continued to be a StudyTuber and as of November 2023, her channel has 274,000 subscribers.[8][9] In 2021, she released her self-help book Empowered.[10]
Awards and recognition
In 2022, Kativhu's achievements were recognised with a Diana Award and the United Nations selected her as a young leader for the Sustainable Development Goals.[11][12] She was listed on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2023.[7]
Selected works
- Kativhu, Vee (2021). Empowered: Live Your Life with Passion and Purpose. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-1529110456.