Lekela is an international organisation, with our people based in Senegal, Egypt, South Africa and the UK. We want to shine a light on the amazing work our people do across Africa and in Europe and hear directly from our employees on what life at Lekela is really like.
Over the coming months, we’ll be speaking to different employees across Lekela’s business to hear what they’re working on and what led them to this industry.
Today, we’re speaking to Kholoud Bakry, Maintenance Planning and Reporting Engineer at our West Bakr Wind Farm in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Kholoud joined the Business Development team of Lekela Egypt as an intern in early 2020. Having proved herself in a very short period of time, Kholoud was soon appointed to the role of Junior Engineer, during the construction of the wind farm. She has recently joined the Operation and Maintenance team in her current role as a Maintenance Planning and Reporting Engineer.
Kholoud is from the town of Ras Ghareb, located just 30 km from the wind farm and where the West Bakr wind farm team have focused much of their community work. This, combined with her experience since joining the company, has given Kholoud first-hand exposure to the wide range of work that Lekela does, from business development, operations and community work.
We asked Kholoud a few questions about her time at Lekela so far – read on below for her thoughts.
What led you to a career in renewable energy and to Lekela?
I chose to study and later work in renewables as I believe that renewables are essential for the energy transition. The need to adopt renewables has become more urgent over the past few years so that we can build a sustainable future. For me, joining Lekela has been a great opportunity to build a career in this industry and gain experience, as the company has been making a real contribution to the transition to cleaner energy across the continent, country and even my city.
What do you enjoy the most about your job?
I enjoy the upward learning process and growing in Lekela and in this field, having worked across a number of the company’s functions. Working at Lekela, I’ve had a wide exposure to different levels of stakeholders, with both contractors and governmental authorities. I really enjoy working with the operations team at West Bakr Wind Farm and seeing the wind farm become a living reality, functioning and producing electricity.
Tell us about a project you’re working on right now and what impact you hope it will have?
I am currently working as the Site Maintenance Planning and Reporting Engineer for West Bakr Wind Farm. The project is helping to increase the share of Egypt’s energy produced by renewable sources and achieve the country’s Sustainable Development Goals. As part of these goals, I hope that the wind farm will reinforce the UN’s ‘Leaving No One Behind’ goal and leave a positive impact on the world.
Is there anything else about your time at Lekela that you’d like to tell us about?
I’ve really enjoyed my time working with Lekela’s highly experienced team. Everyone works well together as one big, diverse group across multiple countries. The team have given me so much support, which has helped me gain a lot of skills and knowledge.
