The following stories from Zambia are an extract from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
STORY BY JANE LUBI
I am a Zambian lady aged 42. I graduated from Northern Technical College in 1998 with a certificate in refrigeration and air-conditioning and then worked in the industry for two years before joining the training sector, where I have been training students for the past thirteen years.
I work for Northern Technical College, which is the biggest technical training college in Zambia.
My job involves training students in refrigeration and air-conditioning practice and theory. The trainees consist mainly of beginners from secondary schools.
I am also involved in short courses in which we train people from industry. These people are trained in new refrigeration practices, such as basic refrigeration for those with a different technical background who want to improve their skills, and also refrigerant management, where we train people how to handle refrigerants so that they don’t release them into the atmosphere – in order to protect the ozone layer.
In our country the RAC sector is male-dominated, and I am the only woman in the training sector. I decided to join the refrigeration and air-conditioning training sector so that I could encourage women to take up that trade.
Refrigeration has been my passion for the past 20 years. It’s one of the fastest-growing industries in Zambia and a good contributor to the economy's growth.
I encourage our graduates to open their own companies. Most of my former students are now company owners employing others.
STORY BY ANNIE MACHEBA
I am a Zambian lady aged 38, born on 27 November 1980. I completed my education at Namwala Secondary School in the southern part of Zambia.
I attended my RAC course at the Northern Technical College (Nortec) in Ndola in the Copperbelt from 2002 to 2005. I did my attachment at the Wanaz Refrigeration company in Kitwe. When I was allowed to join them after completion, I worked there from 2005 to 2009 as a technician and at the same time as workshop supervisor.
As for my work, it was interesting because of what I learnt at school and what I actually experienced. At school, we were told about recovery and recycling, but when we arrived in industry it was the opposite because very few people could afford to have all the equipment owing to the high cost of living in our country.
We attended LC2 certification in 2007 and 2013, where we learnt about gases being changed and replaced in our country because people were looking for high profits. Few people are aware that all they consider is high profits and that too much corruption is allowed at the borders.
The challenges are so many, but to mention just two: workers are supposed to be motivated by good salaries and secure jobs, but because of too many people with no jobs they do cheap work just to earn a living, technicians don’t care about the methods and tools they use – all they are interested in is having food on the table.
As women, we are not really given any consideration, even though we can contribute, but are mostly left at the workshop to take care of internal issues instead of being involved in industrial work. But, as a woman, I think we should wake up from the delusion that only men can do it. As for me, because of my education and difficulties, just paying school fees was a problem. I value my work. I feel my work is my mother or father.
I was also privileged to work in the mines but had some bad contractors who didn’t even pay me after I had been working for the company for so long. They take a woman for granted because she is a woman. Some even take women as their girlfriends so that they can take care of their businesses. I am inspired by women who can make their own demands, not really waiting for a man to do everything for them. As a woman, I pity women who end up leading wrong lives, e.g. doing prostitution because they don’t have anyone to help them.
Some measures should also be taken to give women work security. If anything happens or jobs are to be lost, women will be considered first. Now with this theme of gender, we are in trouble. Some measures should be considered for bosses who offer jobs to women on certain conditions (giving up the first salary or paying before you are given the employment). As women we encounter problems.
STORY BY CLARA NAKALONGA
I completed my secondary school education in 1997. My parents owned a flower, spice and cake shop and this was my main motivation to study refrigeration and air-conditioning. I wanted to know how to repair and maintain cooling systems for the shop.
Later I enrolled at the Northern Technical College and studied refrigeration. Upon graduation, I was employed by Zambeef, a major agribusiness company dealing with beef, fish, pork and dairy products.
My job is mainly to repair, service and maintain refrigeration units such as freezer rooms, meat displays and chillers.
As a woman, I face some challenges. One of the challenges is that men do not accept me as a technician. They believe that technical jobs are not meant for women. Currently, I am a supervisor leading a group of 11 men and some cannot accept being headed by a woman. In some cases, I face sexual harassment from certain men.
STORY BY JUDITH JILINU NSAKASHALO
I graduated from the Northern Technical College in 1999 with a technician’s certificate in refrigeration and air-conditioning.
I worked for Zambia Telecommunications Limited as a service technician for ten years. The job involved installation, servicing and maintenance of split-type air-conditioners and central air-conditioning systems.
I am currently working with fellow technicians running a refrigeration and air-conditioning business which we set up in 2010.
The challenges faced by female technicians are that menfolk underestimate the capabilities of women to do the job. There are also cases of sexual harassment by men.
I was motivated to work in this sector because there are few women working in it, and I wanted to prove to the menfolk that women can also do engineering tasks.
