Incredible Women Of 2024: Activist Vee Kativhu
Next in our Incredible Women of 2024 series – in which we celebrate the trailblazers whose talent, energy and impact are defining the year – is education activist VEE KATIVHU. Here, she speaks to KATIE BERRINGTON about her purpose and passion, encouraging young women to take up their space, and why she is so optimistic that the future is bright
Forget having the same number of hours in the day as Beyoncé, it is Vee Kativhu whose level of productivity we should be aspiring to. Her list of accomplishments is, quite simply, astounding: she’s the founder and director of an award-winning education charity; a content creator whose viral videos reach hundreds of thousands of people; a UN Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals; the recipient of multiple accolades for her activism; she’s spoken alongside Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai; has an undergraduate degree from Oxford University; a Master’s from Harvard; and is five months into a PhD. And she’s still only 25.
But just as remarkable is her effervescence. Whether she’s creating her inspiring YouTube videos, giving a TedX talk (or indeed, an interview), Kativhu’s positive energy is utterly captivating – even when the topics are serious.
Born in Zimbabwe, she moved to the UK with her mother and sister as a child (her father sadly passed away when she was two). Her passion for education equality started early, when she realized how “drastically different” access to opportunities could be – from the class hierarchies she was discovering in the British schooling system to hearing from female cousins in Zimbabwe who were losing out because of their gender and financial circumstances. “I saw [inequality] everywhere around me. It was impossible to run away from. Starting to advocate and fight [for access to education] was inevitable because I was so aware of it.”
At the heart of Kativhu’s work is supporting underrepresented young people to realize and reach their potential and to take up the space they deserve. It was something she had to do in Oxford, coming from a different socio-economic and racial background to the majority of her peers – and often facing a palpable attitude of “‘How the hell have you ended up here?’”
“I get a kick out of being able to unite as a community through spreading good messages
”
Raised in a household of women, Kativhu credits her mother and sister with the self-assurance that she radiates. “They have definitely given me the confidence and skills to see myself as the best version of me. When I was, like, ‘Mum, I’m thinking of going to Oxford’, she was, like, ‘Well, why the heck not? Let’s Google the process. Let’s figure it out. You deserve to be in that room.’”
“She would always frame it as, ‘Whenever you think you haven’t got [something], just look at where you’re standing without it and it shows the level of power you have.’”
“They’re just audacious in their support of me,” she grins. “They think I’m superwoman. No matter what I say to them, they’re, like, ‘Right, that’s great. You’re the person [for it].’”
This unwavering cheerleading allows her to be “a little bit delusional, in a good way,” she laughs, and helps her to confront imposter syndrome. She’s conscious that not everyone in her position will have that emotional backing, though, and that the disparities in attitudes and opportunities are widespread. “That’s what made me want to start advocating [when at Oxford]. I thought, ‘You can’t tell me that intelligence has a race or a skin tone or an accent.’”
Through Empowered By Vee, the organization she founded in 2018, Kativhu offers a plethora of online resources to support access to higher education. She also partners with global organizations on projects that tackle barriers preventing girls from going to school, including child marriage and period poverty. She recently collaborated with Girl Up India on a period-poverty campaign, to provide underprivileged young women with menstrual products on a long-term basis.
In Kativhu’s corner of the internet – where she reaches half a million followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok – the best parts of social media align. “[We use it for] disseminating information and sharing opportunities. I take [inaccessible information from reports and documents], flip them and make it fun and light, into a one-minute reel. I get a kick out of being able to unite as a community through spreading good messages.” For all the dangers and downsides of the internet, when used with the right intentions, “social media is absolutely pivotal for changing mindsets”, she believes.
Her response to what she’s most looking forward to this year is unexpected, yet characteristically glass-half-full. “As a girls’ education activist before anything else, I always stick to that education lens. I am ecstatic to be on [my PhD], learning about education leadership, and in a classroom with other leaders. These are teachers who’ve been in the game for 20 to 30 years, which is as long as I’ve been alive! So the most exciting thing for me, which sounds crazy, is my exams,” she insists with a laugh. “I’m excited to take the knowledge I’m learning and to see it comes out in practice. I get to be a better educator, a better person to show up for the kids I’m championing.”
Unsurprisingly, Kativhu’s unshakeable positivity offers a wholly optimistic outlook. “Around the world, young people are on the ground doing the work, uniting and pushing forward for change. So, what gives me hope is seeing the hunger, the drive in my friends and the people who I get to call my leaders. The future is in good hands if we keep on pushing through.”
RELATED READING
Incredible Women of 2024: model Alva Claire
Elizabeth Day is the second guest in our Incredible Women podcast season 8: The Powerhouses