Siza Mtimbiri was born in a poor rural area of Zimbabwe. At the age of 10, after the country became independent, his family decided to buy a plot of land in a whites only area.

He describes it as “a defining moment” in his life. Until then he had received the most basic of primary educations. At his new school, he was the only black child and he was about a year and a half behind the other children. He soon caught up and had other educational breaks which propelled him forward to university in South Africa, Morocco, the US and now the UK.

His PhD at the University of Cambridge, for which he has received a Gates Cambridge scholarship, is on the impact of HIV/Aids on infected and affected rural primary schoolchildren in Zimbabwe who are often shunned by their peers.