The following three stories from Malawi are extracts from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
MARY KAPETE
I have always had a passion for fixing electrical equipment, and when I realized that the RAC course had no women technicians in our area I took on the challenge of being the only woman doing it.
They were many challenges for me at the school as the only woman in a class full of men who were teasing me and not including me in practical classwork. Furthermore, we were lacking teachers well versed in the course, since many people here in Malawi have never done it; and as women, we lacked someone who could be our role model to inspire people like me to greater heights. After obtaining my corticate I went into the industry, where I have continued to face challenges: other people have taken advantage of me at work because I am a woman, and yet others have not believed I could work as a technician. Because of that, it’s not 
easy at our company to employ female technicians since they believe women are lazy when it comes to mechanical work, and this has demotivated me. And here in Malawi, we don’t go further with our education because they did away with the City and Guilds programme in 2015 because of the lack of practical work, which was a requirement to supplement the certificate. The other challenge has been that when I told my parents that I was going into this field they weren’t happy with the decision because they saw this course as unsuitable for women, discouraging me even further. With these many issues I almost gave up, but I didn’t as I believed that I could do it, and so with hard work and perseverance I have managed to defy the odds and make it in this gender-biased field.
I have done two training courses on ozone-friendly gases, in which I learnt the advantages of using gases such as hydrocarbons and ammonia. These gases don’t destroy the ozone layer. The only problem with hydrocarbons is that they are flammable, and so we just have to handle them with care. Ammonia is environmentally compatible, it does not deplete the ozone layer and does not contribute to global warming. It has superior thermodynamic qualities, and, as a result, ammonia refrigeration systems use less electricity. Ammonia’s recognizable odour is its greatest safety asset – unlike most other industrial refrigerants, which have no odour – and because of that, leaks are not likely to escape detection. There is also the fact that ammonia is a natural refrigerant.
I have always motivated my friends to do what I do and tried to tell them that they should not be afraid of doing courses that people claim to be only for men because it is rare for a woman like me to do this course. When other girls look at me they admire me, and they ask me why I chose this field, as it needs courage: sometimes we use ladders and scaffolds, which is risky, and without courage, you cannot do it. I was also motivated because at my house there were a lot of refrigerators that were not working and it was rare to find a technician to repair them; one day we found this male technician who came to do it, and I admired how he did his work. I told myself that I wanted to do it though I was a woman and even my parents were not happy with me when I decided to do this course. But because I believed that I could do it, now I am a role model for other women, and my parents are happy because when we have a refrigeration fault I am the person they can call upon to assist.
I got my tertiary level education at Soche Technical College, where I obtained my Grade 3 and Grade 2 certificates in refrigeration and air-conditioning. Now I am waiting for the results of my Grade 1 in refrigeration, and I wish I could do more with my education. Here in Malawi, the highest level is the Grade 1 certificate, but in other countries it is a degree; and so it’s my dream to get more advanced knowledge of refrigeration and air-conditioning because I love this field and want to help more women not to look down on themselves by thinking that they can’t do this line of work. I want to convince women that there is no work that is for men only; we women can do anything as long as we make the effort and have the support, and it’s the world’s duty to encourage us into this field.
I would like to thank the United Nations Environment Programme for recognizing the biased nature of my course and providing training because it does help us to know more about refrigeration gases that are changing and new things to use when handling gases and other equipment in refrigeration. This is really helping us and motivating us to know a lot of things because nowadays we are living in a technological world and this training gives us a better understanding of what is changing in our field and all aspects related to it.
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ATUPELE LIMBANI
I joined the Refrigeration sector on the 5th of September 2011 with Soche Technical College in the southern part of the nation. The training was not an easy road as we could not study some important topics just because they had no learning materials and no funds to buy such materials. For instance, for air conditioners, we only did the theory part whilst we failed to do the practicals because we had no installation materials which I only learnt at the industry during my internship period.
Through thick and thin I managed to graduate in December 2014, although by then I still had not fully gathered the required skills.
Going through the internship process was a rough road because each passing day we worked out in the field, meeting different people with different motives. Some fellow technicians really showed interest to help you achieve your goals. They would correct you where you had made a mistake and advise you how to do it next time. Though there were people who encouraged me to achieve my goals, there were some who took advantage of me. They proposed to me and at times would even threaten me that if I did not have an affair with them, my marks would be reduced. By and by I coped and fought for what I wanted to be.
Refrigeration is one of the most challenging courses that I have come across. Going through my secondary years in education, I wanted to pursue what is challenging in nature; a course that will involve me in solving problems not just putting in long hours, but to get involved in problem-solving. This happens to be the reason I chose to pursue a career in refrigeration and air conditioning.
Though being one of the best courses in our town, our country is still lagging behind, like the world is going digital and our country is still using analogue refrigeration equipment. It becomes so strange when you are called to work on a digital plant, but you do not know how to operate it. The training institutions also need to be upgraded, and this includes training staff as well because we are taught some things that have been phased out of the industry, and at times not taught at all because we do not have the training materials.
In conclusion, refrigeration is the best course so far, because refrigerators are a ‘must-have’, as well as air conditioners - both at domestic and commercial level - hence a call for good service technicians.
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BRIDGET TAMBALA
I work on all refrigerating and air-conditioning devices, and I enjoy working in this field because it motivates me to help the communities around as well as organizations that need my services for their offices and projects. I attended my RAC course at Soche Technical College, where I passed the TEVET (Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training) Certificate Level 3 and the Trade Test Grade 2 in refrigeration and air-conditioning. I have received a lot of training in theoretical knowledge, balanced with practical experience in a busy energy sector: at Nkula Hydro Power Plant (Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), now Electricity Generation Company Malawi (EGENCO)) in Malawi, where we were doing plant services at the power station for cooling machines and also domestic work in RAC. Working in this field offers a very challenging environment where the market and positions are male-dominated, and many companies underestimate us ladies. They think we are not capable of doing the job.
