Women In Africa’s Aviation Industry Seek Equity, Not Equality- AWAYA
African Women and Youths In Aviation (AWAYA) is an initiative that seeks to attract young people and women to aviation careers. Capt. Mercy Makau from Kenya is the President & Founder of Young Aviators Club of Africa. She is an instructor in drones and flies fixed wings aircraft. She has been nominated into the Hall Of Fame For Women In Emerging Technologies & Advanced Air Mobility and in this exclusive interview with AVIATION MONITOR, the pilot speaks on expectations of Women In Aviation.
Q: CAN YOU HIGHLIGHT SOME OF YOUR ACTIVITIES THIS YEAR AND YOUR EXPECTATIONS AS WOMEN IN AVIATION?
A: In my country Kenya, I am happy to say that I have the support that I need. However, I attended the Lome conference to meet African leaders and share the vision with AFCAC on what we want to do. We want to let them know that we want to reach our populations through mentorship. We are encouraging AWAYA members to share their experiences, to adopt protégées, adopt young persons and start giving back. We are also encouraging them to find attachment opportunities for these youths. There is also peer-to-peer interaction. For instance, we visited a high school in Togo to talk to the young people. We are also talking about scholarships. AWAYA is in partnership with Iteria University in Spain. We gave scholarships across Africa. We are creating linkages with industrial and financial institutions like Afreximbank for funding of next generation of aviation professionals with limited resources. Resources, like I said, has been a challenge because most aviation courses are not exactly very cheap. So, we are encouraging partnerships for partial or full support. We are also looking at leadership. We are advocating for positioning of women in leadership. We want to see more women in positions of leadership and policy. Only then can we expand the number of women in aviation industry. We can never have equality. We are not talking about equality. We are talking about equity. We are grateful to the men who support women in aviation. We can’t do this on our own but equity is what it takes to take the African aviation ecosystem to the next level. We are also looking at career guidance. We are looking at encouraging our member participants in conferences to engage in career talks. There is so much information that is shared at such fora. Also, we encourage professional networking at conferences. It is important to have regular interactive sessions. Africa needs to organize more events that bring us together. Also, individual countries where our member women come from, we want to be able to interact because when there is professional networking, we are able to support young people who are coming in and see opportunities that are there.
The face of aviation in Africa is changing. We have women in positions but not in Africa. We even have women entrepreneurs. Women own aviation school companies. So, I believe it is time for Africa and the future of Africa is based on our youths, the youths. Aircraft that will be flown in 2050 has not been designed yet. However, the pilot has already been born. The engineer has already been born. They are in school somewhere in Otombo village. We need to get this information to them because the future of aviation is already here.
Q: WHAT IS THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF YOUNG AVIATORS CLUB AND WHAT INFORMED ITS EMERGENCE?
A: In Kenya, I realized there was a gap. Many people don’t know much about aviation. It is seen as a given for elites and the people who try only go and check out pilots training. They realize it is expensive and leave. That is how aviation dreams die. So, I decided to give back to the community and I established Young Aviators Club. This is an organization that is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of aviators. I developed a progressive age relevant programme. I worked with our Ministry of Transport Development of State for Aviation Office and also, the Ministry of Education. We implemented this 15 years ago, offering aviation technology as an examinable subject in our schools. Other success stories we have had is that we have demystified aviation. The population in Kenya and East African region understand what aviation and aerospace, what opportunities are there locally and internationally for training; also, the career path. So, youths and their parents know what they can pursue and even the cost implications. This has resulted in many youths from the East African region working in international companies such as Boeing. We have manufacturing and design engineers and African youths working there. We have our youths working for Airbus in emerging technologies such as one of the projects in Kenya where they are making high altitude technologies and our youths are in the forefront t of those technologies. I attended the recent Lome Conference under the umbrella of AFCAC. We have an initiative called African Women and Youths In Aviation (AWAYA) where we have come up with scalable and tangible ways of being able to reach the youths and women in Africa. If you visited our booth at the African Aviation Convention & Expo in Lome in June, you would find our women who have done wonderful things in their countries, now giving back.
Q: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE CHALLENGES YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED AND IDENTIFIED IN THE COURSE OF TRYING TO ATTRACT WOMEN AND YOUNG PEOPLE TO AVIATION CAREERS?
A: The main challenge I have identified is lack of support from governments and also, lack of ownership of these initiatives by our governments. We talk about this in high profile conferences but implementation has been a challenge. As you know, aviation is not a monopoly. You have to work with the airports. You have to work with the governments; particularly the Ministries of Transport. If you don’t have access to that, then we can’t be able to implement this even if you have the best ideas and the best intentions.AM
