{"id":36071,"date":"2017-10-19T12:11:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T12:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/working-with-airlines-for-38-brussels-airlines\/"},"modified":"2017-10-22T11:05:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T11:05:58","slug":"working-with-airlines-for-38-brussels-airlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/working-with-airlines-for-38-brussels-airlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Working with airlines for 38, Brussels Airlines\u2019 Harelimana yet to take a flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022\tCalliope Harelimana joined Sabena as assistant aircraft technician in 1979
\n\u2022\tHe was a farmer who completed primary education only
\n\u2022\tHis knowledge of French language got him a job
\n\u2022\tHe started job earning Rwf12,000 monthly, so much money considering then currency value compared to today\u2019s value
\n\u2022\tHe was able to repair planes after eight years learning from a Belgian engineer
\n\u2022\tSabena was dissolved in 2001 and replaced by SN Brussels in 2002 which re-employed Harelimana as a car driver.
\n\u2022\tHe is paying university\u2019s fees for four children, owns good house in Kigali
\n\u2022\tBrussels Airlines covers his and children\u2019s medical costs 100%
\n\u2022\t38 years working for airline companies, Harelimana has never taken flight despite offer of free flights.
\n\u2022\tHe plans to have three flights abroad, first to Brussels, before retiring.<\/p>\n

Harelimana, then 21 years old, was tilling lands in his area of Muyunzwe, Gishweru, now in Ruhango District when his brother\u2019s friend, Jean Damascene Mwumvaneza, asked for a replacement from Sabena technical dockets to join the staff van driving job.<\/p>\n

\u201cMwumvaneza told my brother to bring him that young man (me) who was always number one in class but never got chance to continue to secondary school. I was able to speak French and that was enough to do the job of assisting the Belgian engineer by doing as instructed during the repairing of the plane,\u201d says Harelimana.<\/p>\n

When Sabena, former Belgian national carrier, was dissolved in November 2001, Harelimana waited for awhile before SN Brussels took over using some Sabena\u2019s assets and Harelima was re-employed in April 2002 as a car driver. SN Brussels later changed name to Brussels Airlines, keeping Harelimana in the docket till now.<\/p>\n

Father of four, Harelimana says he enjoyed much seeing a plane fly after his and fellow senior engineer\u2019s work on a breakdown. \u201cEight years of learning from my chief engineer, I was able to work on planes\u2019 technical problems and my supervisor would come after to check on the authenticity of my work. For over 20 years in technical job, we faced around 10 serious plane\u2019s breakdowns which took intervention of a technical team from Belgium,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Harelimana has always found his motivation in good work environment, timely pay and pride of working for giant companies. He started at a salary of Rwf3,500, plus allowances of Rwf8,500 monthly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy supervisor said he would get my salary increased after my probation time but I told him the pay was good enough. Rwf12,000 was a lot of money that time and few people were paid such amount which can be equated to Rwf600,000 currently considering the value of franc in the 1970s,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

{{A journey well travelled }} <\/p>\n

Harelimana first extended pride of working with airlines to his family as he put down his father\u2019s old houses and developed new and better ones immediately after getting into the job. He, as well, paid school fees for some family members. He later built his own house near the Kigali International Airport in Kanombe where he currently lives. He got married in 1990 and produced four children before his wife passed away 15 years ago.<\/p>\n

Harelimana is able to pay private university\u2019s fees for four children and provide them with all the required materials, thanks to \u201cmy good salary and cash from two rented houses.\u201d The job also got him many friends in the country and abroad. \u201cBelgians treat employees well. They pay good salary on time and lend me when I need money for children\u2019s school fees,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When he started the job in 1979, Harelimana was told he is entitled to free flights for holidays abroad but he has never used the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never been on a plane because I found it better spending some Rwf400,000 on building houses and supporting family members than spending that on tours abroad. I have spent 38 years in this job without making any flight but I want to have at least three flights abroad before going for retirement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Harelimana, 59, says he will have put aside all heavy responsibilities by September 2018 and will have his first flight to visit Brussels where he has many friends and former bosses.<\/p>\n

Harelimana says the secret to retain a job lies in loving it and avoid misconduct at work and in society. He worked with many Rwandans before 1994 but he remains in the company with one, Mwumvaneza, to whom he sends his gratitude over getting him into the job.<\/p>\n

\"Harelimana<\/figure>\n
\"Calliope<\/figure>\n
\"Harelimana<\/figure>\n
\"Calliope<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calliope Harelimana never forgets February 9, 1979, the day that saw his life changing from a subsistence farmer to assistant of a planes\u2019 mechanical engineer in now defunct Sabena, then sole airline company operating in Rwanda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72],"byline":[2813],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-36071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","byline-jean-damour-mugabo-3"],"bylines":[{"id":2813,"name":"Jean d\u2019Amour Mugabo","slug":"jean-damour-mugabo-3","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2813,"name":"Jean d\u2019Amour Mugabo","slug":"jean-damour-mugabo-3","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36071"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=36071"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=36071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}