Nomzamo Mlungu believes that the value of the work done by Built Environment Professionals is the contribution to economic shifts and social change she therefore encourages Built Environment Professionals in MY CAREERTIP to see themselves as change agents.
Recently it was brought to my attention the transformative power of the work we do in this industry. I was visiting a cousin in one of the townships in Cape Town. Across the road from me was truly a sight to be delighted upon. The construction of the school opposite her house had been completed. The project had been marred with contractor challenges resulting in suspension of construction activities for almost two years. During those two years, the learners were squashed in temporary prefabricated structures.
And now for the first time these learners would be in their new multi storey school. I started thinking of what this meant for the learners. A space had been created where dreams could be birthed, where the next Architect/ QS/ Civil Engineer could emerge. It's a space that could plant hope beyond the circumstances that they are exposed to daily.
This awareness was reignited when I visited my aunt over the December holidays. She had recently moved into a new Breaking New Ground (BNG) house in East London after being on the housing beneficiary waiting list for more than 20 years. And now in her retirement years, she could finally claim ownership to her own house.
Why is this rhetoric important to you as a construction/built environment professional? How often have you viewed yourself as a change agent? How often have you recognized the value that you add through the work that you do? How many lives have you changed? How many spaces have you created where new stories are being told daily on what was once barren land?
It could the high rise office block, the shopping centre or the hotel that you were instrumental in creating which is now bustling with economic activity and has become an engine for job creation. It could be your involvement in a housing development where you provided homes to the economically marginalized in this country. It could be that bridge that you designed and has enabled children to cross a river safely to get to school in a remote village. It could be the power, road or rail infrastructure that is connecting countries to facilitate intra continental trade that you helped construct.
That is the beauty of the work we do. That is the power of what we do. Through our professional disciplines, we contribute to economic shifts; we contribute to social change. I invite you to take a moment to recognize the difference that you make and the impact you make in the socio-economic transformation of this country or this continent and applaud yourself for the work you do.
Whilst it is easy to get lost in the motions of our daily activities, always take a moment to recognize the difference that you make. Perhaps if we were reminded of this in our workplaces, it could serve a motivation to push on and recognize that the lines on that Architectural design, the quantities on that tender document serve much more than the execution of our duties.
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