Farai Shawn Matiashe profile background image
Farai Shawn Matiashe profile image

Farai Shawn Matiashe

Freelance Journalist

Farai Shawn Matiashe is an award-winning Freelance Journalist based in Mutare, Zimbabwe who writes for Aljazeera, CNN International, Vice World News, The Africa Report, Quartz Africa and the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Farai, who has reported from more than five countries across Africa and Europe, is passionate about reporting from rural areas.

March 13, 2024

Nigerian nurse Temitope Ogundare has laid out a fastidious, one-year plan to get himself a well-paid nursing gig in Britain.

Saving half his monthly salary of 45,000 naira ($29) - hard earned in a private clinic - he successfully financed the key English language test needed to bolster his credentials. 

January 12, 2024

When Zimbabwean mother-of-four Eunice Sinoya enrolled in a first aid course near the capital Harare she was lured by the college's promise of a job in Britain's care sector.

But more than a year on, she is sitting at home with her dream in tatters, the victim of a fraud that has cost her thousands of dollars.

January 10, 2024

When a sharp hike in Zimbabwe's internet costs drove Joyce Kapvumfuti's small catering enterprise offline for a week, orders for her wedding cakes, business lunches and frosted cupcakes collapsed.

"I used to get at least five customers a week when advertising and marketing online, but when ... I don't have internet data, I'll be lucky if I manage to get two," Kapvumfuti said at her home in the eastern city of Mutare.

November 07, 2023

Struggling to survive on her meagre salary, Zimbabwean nurse Jane decided to start a new life abroad but, one year after landing a job in Britain, she is still waiting to pack her bags.

Jane is not alone. Zimbabwean nurses eager to escape deepening poverty say their government is barring them from pursuing opportunities overseas as it seeks to stem a brain drain of health workers.

February 21, 2023

In a fertile stretch of fields and farms dubbed New Harare, Zimbabwe is building a high-tech "cyber city" a world away from the traffic-clogged streets and overcrowded slums of the country's nearby capital.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, eager to highlight positive news about the country's troubled economy, launched the first $500-million stage of the Zim Cyber City project last year in partnership with Dubai-based company Mulk International.

January 05, 2023

Zimbabwean soccer player Marjory Nyaumwe is used to carrying her country's hopes as part of the women's national "Mighty Warriors" team.

But she can barely afford to travel to training sessions since global governing body FIFA banned Zimbabwe from international matches last year, leaving top players facing a sharp drop in income and an uncertain future.

December 20, 2022

When Zimbabwean deminer Memory Mutepfa digs up a landmine, places it in a pit and blows it up using electronic detonators, she feels pride, not fear.

Mutepfa, 31, belongs to a group of women working to clear mines in eastern Zimbabwe, where the country's former British colonial rulers laid millions of anti-personnel landmines during the 1970s Liberation War.