In roughly 90-days, those families in Conakry, Guinea, who were once unable to see each other when night would fall, will finally get that opportunity thanks to a power plant project that USP&E is constructing with its Brazilian partner Asperbras.
Amr Elaguizy, Power Station Design and Construction Engineer at USP&E, says the project is an emotional one.
“All they’re asking for is one bulb in the home,” he says. “They’re not asking for an air conditioner, they’re not asking for a freezer, they just want one bulb to be able to see each other.”
Although the job is one for profit, Elaguizy says, he’d do it for free in a heartbeat. “You’ve got to appreciate what you’re doing for them,” he says. “If I had the choice to retire or work for nothing, I’d work for nothing because it’s a very interesting job.”
In a country, such as Guinea, where the unemployment rate is high, the education system is poor and the labourer’s wages are low, jobs like the ones that USP&E provides raise the technical knowledge and experience of the workers.
“We’re really raising the experience with these guys,” he says. “You raise the technical knowledge with some of the employees so that when you leave and you’re done with the project, they could go look for jobs with more experience and more income.”
USP&E is a South African full-service energy solutions company providing services in power station engineering, procurement, construction, operations and maintenance and emergency services for mission-critical applications worldwide including countries such as Ghana, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam and Lithuania. For more information, go to www.uspeglobal.com.
