The following story from Senegal is an extract from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
STORY BY SOKHNA FALL
After studying in the Physics and Chemistry Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, I passed the admissions test for the CEDT (Entrepreneurship and Technical Development Centre), where I obtained my advanced technician’s certificate in refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) in November 2000 after three years of study. The subject of my thesis at the end of the programme was “Compressor scaling for meat lockers.”
I chose this profession for two reasons. Firstly, I realized that refrigeration and air-conditioning are present in all key areas of our lives: in homes and offices, agriculture, fisheries, the food industry, hospitals, etc. Secondly, I found that working as a refrigeration technician also allows you to acquire knowledge in other areas such as electricity, plumbing, welding, and mechanics. It was a great challenge for me to succeed in a profession practised mostly by men. My passion for refrigeration has been my strength, allowing me to create my own business without help or funding and competing with men in the market.
My main work is mobile air-conditioning (MAC): servicing private vehicles, buses, and trucks. Since 2011 I have been giving training on mobile air-conditioning and have trained many technicians in the theory and practice of air-conditioning for trucks, excavators, and mining machinery in the Sabodala gold mine, the Diogo zircon mine, and the Akjoujt copper mine in Mauritania.
I have also done maintenance, repairs and installation of air-conditioning units, cold stores, refrigerated containers and central air-conditioners. I’ve worked in hotels, supermarkets, the Port of Dakar, government buildings such as the Ministry of Environment, private residential villas, and private households.
I’ve been a member of IIR (International Institute of Refrigeration) since 2015 where I regularly receive information on current news and development in the refrigeration sector around the world. I am also a founding member and president of RENAFF (national network of female refrigeration technicians in Senegal). My goals in this association are to encourage female technicians towards entrepreneurship as well as to provide training, for those who need it, in mobile air-conditioning, which is a sector hitherto dominated by male technicians. With this in mind, I organized a training for 20 female technicians on automobile air-conditioning at the Liberté 6 Reference Centre in August
of 2018.
I am a member of APROFIC (Industrial Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Professionals’ Association), and I am the organization’s secretary and officer in charge of educational affairs.
In 2002, the year I was named best refrigeration technician for protection of the ozone layer, I joined Senegal’s National Ozone Committee. I am
also a national consultant and trainer in good refrigeration practices in Senegal’s ozone programme.
In November 2018, with the help of GIZ, I participated in a training on using hydrocarbons as refrigerants in refrigeration and air-conditioning organized by the ACRA Institute (Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Academy) in Johannesburg, South Africa for which I obtained a certificate in Safe Handling of Refrigerants.
Today, my professional life is divided between my workshop, conducting training in MAC and good refrigeration practices and taking part in Senegal’s ozone programme activities and the work of the refrigeration associations.
