Being a live-in care worker for seniors in the UK is hard work. It involves lifting people in and outof bed all day, feeding them, and sometimes changing their diapers. All that, while keeping ontop of their housework too. For Ruby, a 30-year-old mother of three from Zimbabwe, this wasn’t her dream job, but thatdidn’t matter. She was determined to give her kids a better life. So she sacrificed her career as ateacher 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 theycan receive free education and healthcare. Two things Ruby doesn’t have in Zimbabwe. But thereal question is: Can Ruby sustain the punishing routine long enough to pull it off? This podcast episode was produced by Radio Workshop, a non-profit that works with youthreporters across Africa to broadcast on local radio and create podcasts. Radio Workshopprovides the tools and teaches the skills, and youth bring their creativity, experience, andpassion for tackling the issues that matter to them and their communities. Radio Workshop’sdocumentary-style podcast has won numerous awards, including Best Standalone Documentaryfrom the International Documentary Association in 2023. Radio Workshop’s Editor and Host, Lesedi Mogoatlhe, says producing this episode wasespecially tricky, given how busy Ruby is. Lesedi added, “In order to produce our stories, weusually spend several hours interviewing our main character. But Ruby’s schedule was so fullthat she simply didn’t have time for an interview. So we resorted to exchanging voice notesinstead. It turns out it’s a great way to sidestep the apprehension or stiffness of a formalinterview 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 farfrom 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 theopportunity to earn pounds. After struggling to support her family on a teacher’s salary inZimbabwe, that meant everything to her. Ruby’s first job involved providing around-the-clock care to a woman in her nineties. She waspaid 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 expresshow 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 shecould to make Ruby feel at home. Not like the horror stories Ruby heard from colleagues aboutbeing spat on by racist clients. We exchanged voice notes with Ruby for just over a year, capturing the highs and lows of hermission: the intimate relationship she built with her client, the joy of her husband’s first day ofwork in the UK, and the madness of working opposite shifts. And not least of all, Ruby’smomentous 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 thereto remind them of their roots.” A special thank you to Veryus Studio for recording assistance in Harare and to Hindenberg forsupporting 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 theAnn 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. Why you should listen to it It is a tangible, vulnerable story, treated with both tenderness matters of fact. Even for a person sitting in Zimbabwe, the feeling of want resonates. Ruby speaks from her position, it iterates over the episode. It is beautifully woven and we build up into the climax, the reward. One thing many get wrong about podcasts is trying to sound like they represent everyone. This one doesn’t. This is a story about Ruby. And if you get it, you get it. Subscribe to Blog via Email