The author batman source | | north Africa voice community, blue blood research (lanxueyanjiu)

Cross the Sahara, see the most beautiful scenery - a heroic glimpse of the tough country in northern Africa

Open the world map, in the middle of Africa, you can see from west to east, across the world's largest desert - Sahara Desert, Africa is naturally divided into two parts, north and south.

Spanning the Sahara from east to west are South Sudan, Chad, Central African Republic, Niger, Mali, Guinea, Benin, Gambia and other countries.

GDP per capita in these countries is less than $1,000, and in some cases it is only $400 or $500.

The climate is hot and the sand is long.

However, commerce brings interconnectivity, communication promotes civilization, human overcome difficulties, the pace of crossing the desert has never stopped, such as in the long history of the Mali Empire, Berber caravans in this area has been continuous.

Today, a group of young Huawei people are struggling here, just as Berbers did thousands of years ago, to continue to carve out "digital" trade routes here.

Facing the storms of nature, society and humanity, they and the local people, together for the civilization and development of this land, shed their youth and sweat.

01 South Sudan does great things in the land of "one man, one kitchen and one driver"

In 2011, Huawei Man published an article titled "Happy Life on the banks of the White Nile".

The article describes a group of Huawei people coming to the world's youngest start-up country to develop and build new networks.

Conditions in South Sudan were harsh, with workers living in tin dormitories and offices and often falling asleep to the thump of rain on tin roofs.

But their spirit was joyful and happy, and they felt happy and proud to be able to participate in the construction of the communication network of this start-up country.

▲ An 11-year-old tin shack

How quickly 11 years have passed.

The new generation of Huawei people, continue to struggle on the land.

Bu Leiming was transferred to the South Sudan Office from Regional Account Manager in Fujian, China in November 2019.

Before I go to south Sudan BuLeiMing to know the situation before work there predecessors, feedback is heard, tin live room without electricity, work in customer room during the day, with customers of electricity to recharge his phone, with mobile phone novel soon to sleep at night, no running water, also need to carry the bucket bath to the well to draw water.

These "Heavenly nights" story, Bu Leiming dare not believe, but online checked a lot of data, what tell with seniors really is about the same.

To go or not to go?

Experience a short tangle, Bo thunder decided to fight, since the north Africa, as directly to "the most difficult country in the world" hit a card, perhaps there is an unexpected surprise!

Bu Leiming arrived in South Sudan with his bags on his back. His first impression was far beyond his expectation: "When the plane was about to land, I saw through the window that the airport was actually a concrete runway.

On the way from the airport to the dormitory, I saw concrete buildings with five or six storeys on both sides of the road, which was much better than I expected."

Although be appointed for office director, but Bu thunder is a light pole commander actually.

At that time, the business scale was small. Due to the lagging economy and the unstable situation, customers did not invest for a long time, and the annual sales revenue was only about five to six million dollars.

In the beginning, Mr. Bu worked with a chef and a local driver in South Sudan.

"Each of us has multiple roles," Bu said.

The local driver is familiar with the local society, and some government approvals, such as labor and visa, are borne by the driver.

Our chef not only cooked for you, but also served as your hairdresser and health chief during the pandemic.

I run for customers, make plans, on the station inspection, including some daily living arrangements, and so on. I have become a generalist."

With "one man, one kitchen and one driver", after more than two years of efforts, the South Sudan business has doubled in the past two years, contributing to continuous improvement of profit margin and achieving effective growth.

At the beginning of 2022, Bu Leiming was promoted to the Congo Representative Office as the director of the operator business Department due to his perseverance and business achievements.

In two years, Bu Leiming completed his transformation from Fujian regional account manager to office director and then to BG director of representative office.

Along with the business development and team growth, Huawei's accommodation and office environment in South Sudan have been greatly improved.

With the support of the company, the South Sudanese team has now moved into the big House and lived the life of the Swiss rich, with European ceiling in the dormitory and office area, a large swimming pool, the refrigerator used by the Italian famous brand Smeg, and luxurious KTV room.

"Before the environmental renovation, the old KTV system could only order songs before 2012, and we could only sing the first snow of 2012 every time. Now we can sing the first snow of 2022," Bu joked.

The life of the rich in Switzerland after environmental transformation

02 Villagers in the remote mountains of Burkina Faso CALL for us

Many people may not know that there is a country in the world called Burkina Faso.

It is located in west Africa and did not establish diplomatic relations with China until 2018.

In early 2020, Zhang Xiugui was sent to Burkina Faso as the office director. It was Zhang's eighth year in Africa.

"It was very hot in Burkina Faso in February," Zhang recalled. "Although there was air conditioning in the car, it was not effective. It was only ten minutes' walk from the airport to the office.

When I came to the office, I saw a brother playing basketball. When I came close, I saw that the basketball court was full of a layer of yellow sand. Every time I beat basketball, there will be ash, and basketball will float up at the same time.

Looking at these, I always want to be a little better, more tolerant and helpful to everyone."

Burkina Faso has a population of more than 20 million, but most of its remote mountainous areas are not yet connected to the Internet, and customers are reluctant to invest in this area because of the input-output ratio.

How to not only dispel the concerns of customers, but also bring communication convenience to the local people?

This is the biggest challenge for Huawei Burkina Faso Representative office!

As long as the thought does not slide, the way is always more difficult.

First, Zhang Xiu and partners by field visit and analysis, found in the local rural areas, many people already have mobile phones, basic is to build a network, users came up, and don't need to spend a lot of time cultivating user, just suffer from no network, or network status is bad, with less chance.

On this premise, the wireless communication technology specially developed by Huawei for remote rural areas has greatly improved the signal coverage quality in remote mountainous areas. Under the guarantee of such technical conditions, customers can recover their investment in basically two years after constructing a rural network site.

After communication, the customer agreed to open the experimental bureau.

When the lab opened, local villagers were very happy. "Before, we had to climb a hill or sometimes climb a tree to search for signals before we could make a phone call. Now, we can make a phone call whenever we want from lying in bed," they said.

As for the operators, the commercial effect is far beyond the expectation. In fact, the investment can be recovered in less than one year. In addition to the commercial effect, the social benefits brought by the rural network are far beyond the expectation of customers and the local government.

Later, the carrier and the government gave Huawei bulk orders for rural sites.

Recalling the story, Zhang said: "The client was not so much impressed as we were ourselves.

When you are impressed, you can really impress the customer."

After two years of expansion, Zhang led the team to not only successfully gain the trust of local operators and government customers, but also helped Burkina Faso's government start the road to digitalization.

In January 2021, Zhang Xiugui was promoted to the representative office of Cameroon.

Referring to Zhang Xiugui's story, He Tao, president of the Northern Africa Region, said:

"When I went on a business trip to Burkina Faso in 2021, I found that Zhang Xiugui was deeply thoughtful about what customers care about. She was meticulous about customer relations, project operation and office operation, and achieved outstanding results. We want to promote cadres who 'keep their eyes on the customer and their hips on the leader'."

In February 2022, the North African Regional Department officially issued the "Five Priorities, five resolute" cadre orientation, which prioritized the promotion of cadres who knew difficulties, reversed the crisis, washed the saline land and won, and resolutely eliminated cadres who were only superior and not customer-centric.

Achievement of customers, to achieve their own.

▲ Through the first call, joy overflow7

Chad/Mali/Guinea retrograde we, not not afraid, just don't want to admit defeat

Due to historical reasons, there are still some internal turbulences in some countries in recent years, accompanied by the epidemic, which has brought great challenges to the production and life of our brothers and sisters in the local area.

In the face of these tests, the young Huawei people, adhering to the Huawei tradition of "customer in, network in, Huawei people in", have withstood the test after test.

Anyone who has worked at Huawei longer may have heard the story of Chad's chicken chaser (see "The Huawei employee who Ran after the Chicken, retires!"

).

Although the Chad office has now moved into the best park in the area, where you can enjoy the antelope and peacocks, the life is not peaceful, the time is not quiet.

In March 2020, the emergency situation in Chad prompted the government to impose a city lockdown.

Our original resident property to make a decision, where stationed in the park as long as the personnel who go out will not be allowed to enter.

We provide services to two mobile operators in Chad, and our customers are also in the midst of the pandemic.

In order to be with the clients, Kong Lingyu, the office director, gathered a few key people overnight to pack their bags, move out of the campus, and find a temporary dormitory and office space close to the clients.

At that time, Kong's family was in Chad with a child under one year old. They had planned to return home after the Spring Festival, but the epidemic disrupted all their plans.

Since Chad is short of supplies, the representative office has tried every means to buy milk powder from Cameroon and send it to Chad.

In that difficult time, Kong Lingyu wrote a limerick: The land is all heart, is to wipe the Shu road to smooth, natural danger will eventually become a road, done!

One wave after another.

In April 2021, the situation in Chad changed dramatically.

Sun Wei, the former director of the Chad Office and the current enterprise minister of the Cameroon Office, immediately purchased a plane ticket and flew to Chad. Kong Lingyu also returned to Chad immediately after finishing his vacation in China.

"On the flight to Chad, we were the only Chinese people checking in."

▲ the brave

New crown in 2020 after the outbreak, Mali city, employee's work life park garden, you can't go out for a long time, dong jun will lead the people in the park every evening on the basketball court to do tablet supports and yoga, when certain CFO JiHui also happens in Mali on a business trip, so also I spent with you guys this hard and unforgettable days.

▲ Playing sports together at the Mali campus

On 5 September 2021, the domestic situation in Guinea changed.

Jing Li, director of Guinea Office, led the team to deal with the situation in an orderly manner, which not only ensured the continuity of the client's business, but also ensured the safety of the life and capital of the office staff.

"The office held a business seminar in the hotel that day, and we found the situation was not good.

Considering that the office is close to the Chinese Embassy and relatively safe, we immediately decided to end the meeting and organize everyone to return to the residence.

As we drove near the office, the road ahead was blocked by troops.

Fortunately, we had a Huawei LOGO on the car. Thanks to Huawei's years of commitment in Guinea, we were given priority after negotiating with the anti-smuggling forces, and we were able to safely return to our base."

Ulrich still recalls the scene with fear.

When Wang Lei from Guinea volunteered to work for the small country in 2017, the director in charge of the interview at the representative office almost sent her away because he was worried that the little girl would cry in the past.

"Africa is a tough place. Don't cry."

Wang Lei replied: "Crying nose maybe, but crying nose I also want to go."

In just a few years, Wang Lei has become the head of Guinea's O-subnet system Department.

What's the secret?

Her answer was succinct: "Born to be stubborn, never give up."

There are still more young men and women who carry the security of Huawei's business and personnel in these areas on their tender shoulders.

Their story is like the lyrics of the song "Stubborn" :

The direction of the wind, more suitable for flying, I am not afraid of thousands of people stop, but I surrender, I and my last stubborn, clenched hands absolutely do not put,......

▲ On the hall, under the site

Benin's defunct office is back on its merits

Benin is a country of south-central West Africa bordering the Gulf of Guinea to the south and Niger to the north. Dust from the Sahara is also carried on the wind over Benin.

In January 2019, Wang Jun arrived here as an account manager.

Benin, at the time, was a veritable saline-alkali market.

Old businesses are declining and new businesses are growing weakly.

In April 2020, the Benin office was closed, and a number of long-time local employees, some of whom had worked in Benin for 10 years, were relocated to Cote d 'Ivoire and other countries.

When they left Benin reluctantly for another country, Wang Jun will always remember their tearful instructions: "You represent the hope of Benin, you must bring Benin, so that we will meet again one day!"

Anguish, hesitation, unyielding...

Regional DEPARTMENT LEADER WILL ENCOURAGE EVERYBODY TO WANT TO OPEN SKYLIGHT RIGHT NOW, WANT TO GO "BREAK THE SKY", want TO guide THROUGH industrial POLICY TO explore, poverty brings prosperity.

In the following more than a year, Wang Jun led the team residing in Benin to strive hard and finally seize the opportunity of Benin Telecom's new brand.

However, it is very difficult to talk to the clients, everyone in the client's office until 12 PM every day.

We suffer, the client is not easy.

One night during a negotiation break, the client looked out the window at the busy port and said, "It's worth the pain because we're laying the foundation for the next five years of digital industry in this country!"

Listening to the feelings of customers, Wang Jun has a heartfelt understanding and respect for customers.

In the end, the customer awarded Huawei a five-year X billion dollar contract.

After more than a year of hard work, the Benin team stood up again. The Benin office was restored in 2022, and the local employees who had been shunted to neighboring countries were recalled to their homes.

With the launch of the new brand project, in order to develop local talents, Huawei has planned and built a hard-mounted practice base in Benin, which will soon welcome a batch of local employees to study and practice here.

Through the promotion of new brand projects and national ICT business, Benin will bring out talent and shine.

▲ Benin hard installation base

05 Gambian clients only Recognize the "Busiest Man"

At the mouth of the Horn of West Africa, there is a country called Gambia.

Liu Fengjiang, Director of the Gambia Office, topped the North Africa Region's customer visits list for 2021.

It turned out that Huawei cooperated with five operators in Gambia, and Liu Fengjiang was the busiest person in Gambia because he had to work with five operators.

Liu Fengjiang was transferred to Gambia from the Sichuan representative office in late 2020.

"The first three months after I came overseas were very difficult. I was faced with huge differences in language, culture and customer environment. As a Chinese employee, I had to live a life of one person and a kitchen, and I had to struggle with loneliness.

But a lot of things aren't as hard as they might be if you just dive in and start working on them."

As an interface man for Gambia's five operators, Liu spends almost all day visiting customers.

All five operators highly recognize Huawei's value and give Huawei 100% market share.

In 2021, the office's operation reached a new high, with steady growth in both sales revenue and profit, and was named as the company's annual Excellent operating small country.

In fact, when Huawei entered the Gambia market in 2005, several operators' networks were mainly built by Western partners.

Then Western manufacturers left and only Huawei people stayed.

"Unlike other manufacturers, who communicate with customers remotely, such as through emails and meetings, Huawei is always close to customers on the front line, so that we can truly build affection and trust with customers."

"Liu Fengjiang said.

Interestingly, here, Liu Fengjiang realized the Gambian version of "a man, a kitchen and a dog", and the dog he raised was also a famous dog that was dignified and could guard the house.

Dream, and measure the world with your steps.

In order to make the network cover the whole world, tens of thousands of Chinese and foreign employees are working hard in every corner of the world. As long as there are people, there are Huawei people's hard work. We shoulder the mission of serving nearly three billion people's communication services, and the responsibility inspires us and inspires us.

This is the meaning of persistence.

▲ Move into a new home

Central African Republic We make Our Customers the "Happiest ceos in the World"

The Central African Republic, landlocked in central Africa, has a population of about 4.8 million and a GDP of just $2 billion.

The infrastructure is poor and the natural environment is difficult. It is also affected by frequent armed conflicts and diseases.

On the evening of June 6, 2021, the calm of Sunday night was shattered by a rapid ringing: "The core room of the Central African O operator is on fire, and all customer networks are interrupted!"

Xu Yijin, MS director of Cameroon Representative Office, felt anxious after receiving an urgent phone call from local staff of the China-Africa Project team.

The difficult environment and unstable flights make it difficult for the representative office staff to arrive at the scene in a short time.

After receiving the phone call from the local staff, Xu Yijin immediately informed the representative office of the situation, and the representative office set up the emergency and disaster relief project team on the evening of the same day. A race against time began, from the central African local, representative office, regional departments, organs to the administrative logistics support of all fronts began to operate in a continuous and efficient manner.

From the production and delivery to the installation and commissioning, the Huawei team overcame the difficulties caused by the flight impact of the epidemic and the shortage of local materials, and helped the customer rebuild a new computer room within one month, and deployed a set of cloud core network solutions for the customer.

Here, Huawei set a global delivery record for Group O.

On July 22, the customer organized a celebration party to thank Huawei and said in the speech, "Only in need is a friend truly known. Thanks to Huawei for helping me become the happiest CEO in the world."

This fire is the "rebirth from the ashes" of the customer and also a "rebirth from the ashes" of the project team.

The project team fully demonstrates Huawei's "customer-centric" values to customers through actions.

In the end, Africa is changed by us and the youth is blossomed by Africa

In August 2021, Cote's capital Abidjan.

The Department for Northern Africa brings together business executives and key personnel here for a vision workshop.

He Tao, president of the regional department, gave us the opening guide: "Can we look at today in ten years? What changes will happen?

What is the significance of what we are doing now?

Can we give our whole team a dream and a light in their eyes?

This is probably the most meaningful thing for all of us in the region."

During the discussion and exchange, everyone was enthusiastic and told unforgettable stories.

These stories are scripted, unscripted, across 28 countries in North Africa, with 88 operators and more than 40 government and business customers.

Whether it is Ebola or COVID-19, whether it is war or unexpected, we are always with our customers and with the local people.

In the heated discussion, our vision became more and more clear, and was finally fixed as "Africa will change because of us, and youth will bloom because of Africa".

Developed cities give birth to the most advanced ideas, backward mountain villages forge the most brave soldiers.

In every corner of Northern Africa, we can feel the expectations of our customers and the desire of Africans to embrace the digital world.

And we are willing, with our dreams and passion, to change Africa, to change the land that we are fighting for.

Running around when young, old can see the sunset.

In the most beautiful years, the most difficult way to see the most beautiful scenery, let the spark of youth lit a life without regret.

Life is full of memories, is happiness!