00:08I'm in the company of Kayaka Zidjoka. Hi! You are the chair of CIGRE Women in Energy International,
00:16so welcome. Maybe first of all could you tell us a little bit about your own history with CIGRE?
00:22Why did you join CIGRE at the first place? Well firstly I was introduced to CIGRE as a young
00:28engineer because the company where I work in South Africa, ESCOM, has been a collective member for
00:34like many decades and so I got to know about CIGRE, the technical knowledge, everything that you can
00:40get from CIGRE. I could get that so that was the first introduction to CIGRE and then I came to
00:46Paris
00:46in 2016 because I was invited to be a guest speaker and for me I think that was the beginning
00:53of my
00:53journey with CIGRE because I think Paris is where CIGRE begins. So I came as a guest speaker and from
01:01that I basically accelerated, I think my career accelerated within CIGRE. So in 2018 I came back
01:08to be a moderator of the Women in Engineering session and I had also assisted in putting that
01:15program together and from there I was then nominated to be the chair, the international chair for women
01:23in engineering and this nomination was supported by the steering committee and administrative council.
01:29So I started my duties immediately after that but at the same time my career within A2 was also
01:36you know growing and because within A2 now I became the strategic advisory group member
01:43and the convener of the advisory group on transformer technology. So both my technical and CIGRE women
01:50in energy careers they just picked up within CIGRE. So that's really my my journey within CIGRE.
01:56So we see how joining CIGRE for Women can be exciting and an accelerator to the career of a woman
02:04but
02:05tell us now as the chair of CIGRE Women International in Energy International, tell us why we need more
02:12women into CIGRE. CIGRE is big on diversity. I see even when we work on our you know technical
02:21bulletins we're looking for diversity from different countries and so having women in that technical
02:29discussion is also an element of diversity, different thinking and we need more women. We also need more
02:36women to be role models for the young engineers. Most women are leaving the engineering space and so we need
02:42more women that are going to stand out. Women that every other young girl is going to look up to
02:48and
02:48associate engineering with women. What are your expectations for Women in Energy during this Paris
02:56session this year? This Paris session is actually on something that we also initiated as the Women in Energy
03:05which is Net Zero Initiative. So it talks more about decarbonisation and so I think for us this is
03:13something that we need to be actively involved in. There's a lot that we can extract in but also the
03:19view from women, the impact that this energy transition has on women and the society and that element needs to
03:28come out. So I'm expecting more of it and also more involvement from the women engineers side. So I hope
03:37to see
03:37more speakers from women engineers. I always encourage women engineers to write papers so it's actually
03:45very good when you see contributions coming from women engineers because remember we are trying to
03:50to role model for all the young women engineers within our technical space. Eventually do you have
03:56like a message you want to address to women that are among visitors today and and all along the week?
04:06To everyone that is visiting especially women engineers please get involved talk to somebody
04:13and get as much information as you can within your technical space and also the challenges that you are
04:19experiencing as a woman engineer. You will be surprised how many of us experience exactly the same challenges
04:26and every challenge has a solution. I believe that if we work together we will come up with solutions so
04:32be
04:33involved get involved and who knows you could be the next international chair. I like that thank you
04:39Kaya Kazi for coming by. Thank you very much for having me.
