Israel's defence minister has told its military to prepare a plan to "allow any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave to do so", in line with President Donald Trump's proposal for the US to take over the territory and resettle its 2.1 million Palestinians elsewhere. Israel Katz said Gazans should have "freedom of movement and migration" and countries critical of Israel's war with Hamas were "obligated" to take them in. Trump meanwhile said Gaza would be "turned over" to the US by Israel "at the conclusion of fighting". But the Palestinian presidency reiterated its rejection of the plan, which it has said would violate international law, and insisted that "Palestine... is not for sale". The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. More than 47,550 people have been k...
She Got Pregnant at 18, Divorced Twice, and now Zimbabwe’s First Female Transplant Surgeon: Inspiring Story of Praise Matemavi
Praise Matemavi dreamed of becoming a doctor since he was four years old. At the age of 10, she expressed her desire to become a cardiothoracic surgeon after being inspired by a group of doctors from Loma Linda University in California who visited Zimbabwe to perform congenital heart surgery on children at Parirenyatwa Hospital.
When she was in fifth grade, her supportive father bought her a copy of “Gifted Hands,” which she finished in one night. Her interest was further fueled by Ben Carson’s famous narrative. She preferred to operate on the brain rather than the heart.
At the age of fourteen, she moved to the United States to pursue her love while retaining her scholastic success. Matemavi shared with The Weight She Carries that she has always believed in herself. I’ve always believed that I could do whatever I wanted. There was never any doubt in my mind that I could accomplish anything.”
However, the trailblazer admitted that there were times when she felt most undermined, particularly when she went to hospitals to retrieve organs and the hospital staff immediately struck up a conversation with her accompanying assistant—typically a white male—because they assumed he was the surgeon.
“I just let them go ahead because I know they’ll have to come and talk to me eventually so I can tell them what kind of equipment I need and exactly how I want things to go,” she told me. “It’s one of those things I’ve had to learn to deal with and it doesn’t bother me much anymore.”
She married again, this time to a guy who understood her passion and didn’t complain about her work schedule, despite the fact that she worked approximately 120 hours per week and was on call every day.
Matemavi is Zimbabwe’s first female transplant surgeon and one of its youngest, however she works largely in the United States.
According to New Zimbabwe, she is an accomplished author with the following books: “Lessons for my Daughter: Adapted from Life Experience” and “Passion and Purpose: Black Female Surgeons,” focusing on the fortitude of women in the medical sector around the world as they pursue their aspirations.