Podcast episode: Greener Pastures

• The United Kingdom is home to the second-largest population of Zimbabweans living abroad.
• Because care work is so challenging and badly paid in the UK, the sector is kept afloat by migrant workers.
• After introducing a new visa program aimed at attracting more migrant workers, the UK government has recently imposed stricter rules that make it harder for these workers to bring their families with them.
• Radio Workshop produced an audio documentary about a young woman who left her family in Zimbabwe to build a better life for them in England.

Listen here

Being a live-in care worker for seniors in the UK is hard work. It involves lifting people in and out of bed all day, feeding them, and sometimes changing their diapers. All that, while keeping on top of their housework too.

For Ruby, a 30-year-old mother of three from Zimbabwe, this wasn’t her dream job, but that didn’t matter. She was determined to give her kids a better life. So she sacrificed her career as a teacher and left her kids back home to become a care worker in the UK.

Ruby won’t let anything stand in the way of getting her kids and husband to the UK, where they can receive free education and healthcare. Two things Ruby doesn’t have in Zimbabwe. But the real question is: Can Ruby sustain the punishing routine long enough to pull it off?

Radio Workshop’s Editor and Host, Lesedi Mogoatlhe, says producing this episode was especially tricky, given how busy Ruby is. Lesedi added, “In order to produce our stories, we usually spend several hours interviewing our main character. But Ruby’s schedule was so full that she simply didn’t have time for an interview. So we resorted to exchanging voice notes instead. It turns out it’s a great way to sidestep the apprehension or stiffness of a formal interview and can quickly establish a sense of intimacy with an interviewee.”

When Ruby arrived in the UK in January 2024, she quickly learned that the real England is far from the romanticised version people have of it back home.

“ I was so disappointed when I got here… Everywhere, the same type of buildings.”

While not exactly the “greener pastures” she expected to find, her visa offered her the opportunity to earn pounds. After struggling to support her family on a teacher’s salary in Zimbabwe, that meant everything to her.

Ruby’s first job involved providing around-the-clock care to a woman in her nineties. She was paid to work eight hours a day, but it was a 24-hour job.

“It’s really depressing. So I call my mom. I call my friends. I call my husband and express how I’m feeling. Sometimes I just call to cry.

But Ruby says she was lucky. The woman she was caring for was kind and did everything she could to make Ruby feel at home. Not like the horror stories Ruby heard from colleagues about being spat on by racist clients.

We exchanged voice notes with Ruby for just over a year, capturing the highs and lows of her mission: the intimate relationship she built with her client, the joy of her husband’s first day of work in the UK, and the madness of working opposite shifts. And not least of all, Ruby’s momentous trip home to finally get the kids.

But arguably the biggest challenge will begin with the start of their family life in the UK.

“In a year or two [the kids are] going to be different people,” says Ruby. “But, I am there to remind them of their roots.”

A special thank you to Veryus Studio for recording assistance in Harare and to Hindenberg for supporting Radio Workshop’s projects across Africa with audio editing software.

This episode and the work of Radio Workshop would not be possible without the support of the Ann Levy Trust, the Shin Creek Trust, UMI Fund, Luminate, and the Ford Foundation.

Listen to Greener Pastures on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

To find out more about Radio Workshop, visit radioworkshop.org or follow us on social media: @radioworkshop on Instagram and Radio Workshop on Facebook and LinkedIn.