The following stories from Togo and United Arab Emirates are an extract from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
STORY BY AGBAVOR YAWA MAWULI, TOGO
In 2004 I enrolled at the CRETFP (regional centre for technical education and vocational training) to receive training in refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) and two years later obtained my qualification.
These two years of training were not easy for me because my family considered this field of work to be only for men. After my training, I was fortunate enough to experience first-hand the realities of the RAC sector on the ground in two companies – TTSI and Interdis – based in Togo and run by French managers. Through this employment, I was able to obtain a training scholarship in technical maintenance of HVAC installations at the AFPI Rhodanienne in Lyon (France), where I received my certificate (the scholarship was financed by the French Development Agency (AFD)).
After my training, several clients of my former employer were impressed by the quality of my work. I, therefore, decided to create my own company, Timef, which I had registered in the trade register in Togo on 20 June 2010 so that I could work with companies that were requesting my refrigeration services and, in particular, gain experience lawfully.
Today, I manage Timef’s administration, which includes accounting and secretarial services, and a technical team of nine technicians declared with the tax and social security offices, as well as three trainees.
Timef also accepts interns sent by the national training centres (CRETFP and CFMI in Lomé), and our clients consist of companies and individuals. Under the verifiable tax and VAT systems adopted by my company at the start of the year, we are now able to obtain public contracts.
Considering the competition in the market, I intend to keep promoting the latest techniques in RAC through the professionalism and the quality of services we provide. I would also like to further increase interest in working in RAC among women, who are practically absent from this field and think that this sector is only for men.
STORY BY SHIMA ALI GAMAL, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Currently I am working with Alfa Laval in their Dubai office. I work as a technical sales engineer and support the air heat exchanger division. Some of my tasks are to understand customer requirements/ scope and prepare techno-commercial proposals, to select optimum HVAC-R equipment, to liaise with the production and design team to resolve issues and to support sales to achieve targets for the MENA region. My immediate objective at work is to minimize the consumption of refrigerant quantity and energy by not overdesigning the equipment. This helps to improve TEWI/LCCP numbers.
Overall, I have around 10 years of working experience in industrial refrigeration, commercial refrigeration, and air-conditioning. I graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Khartoum University, Sudan. I had various internships/workshops in Sudan as part of my extracurricular activities.
My inclination towards mathematics and physics had led me to pursue a career in techno-industry. My experience at LG in Sudan was the main reason for my interest in the RAC sector. The pursuit of my career led me to look beyond Sudan. Being a girl from a conservative society it was not an easy decision on my part. Also, it was not easy for my family to let me go alone to a different country. However, I found the UAE to be one of the safest countries for women and a land with equal gender opportunities.
Working in the RAC sector allowed me to express my talent and vision. It is the “ambition to learn and contribute” that motivates me to continue my career in this sector, and especially the contribution towards making the world an environment-friendly place by supporting and implementing green technologies based on ozone-free and low-GWP refrigerants. I am a staunch supporter of sustainable and energy efficient technologies (e.g. VFD, VAV, inverters, micro-channels, adiabatic cooling, renewable energy, etc.). I believe a lot of work needs to be done to spread this awareness to developing countries where they still use CFCs/HCFCs coupled with overdesign and less efficient systems.
The RAC sector is predominantly a man’s sector; tasks like commissioning, fabrication, installation, servicing and maintenance are carried out mostly by men. However, there is more to the RAC sector than the above-mentioned tasks, and women can perform various other tasks as efficiently as men in this field. I continually work hard to gain more knowledge and expertise. I would like to convey this knowledge and expertise to other women who are bereft of such opportunities owing to lack of funding, availability or for other reasons, to empower them and motivate them to pursue a career in RAC.
I had my own share of struggles – working without pay for months, being laid off due to cost-cutting, dealing with customers with various attitudes, etc. However, I never let these challenges distract me from my goals and visions.
