As an Appfrica Fellow you’ll be following in the footsteps of people like Facebook Senior Engineer Charlie Cheever (who came to Kampala along with Samasource’s Leila Chirayath to help facilitate a Developers Garage). Although Charlie, wasn’t officially a member of this program, his desire to participate on the ground inspired the concept. You can see pictures of that event here.
The Appfrica Fellows program is designed in the spirit of GeekCORPS. The idea is to allow dedicated, talented and enthusiastic programmers to come to Uganda to work with a staff of equally talented and motivated local developers to focus on knowledge and skill transfer. Men and Women alike are encouraged to apply.
About Appfrica
Appfrica is a small organization completely privately funded. It was originally bootstrapped by founder Jon Gosier, before we joined our partner Kuv Capital in January of 2009. We are a for-profit organization that operates under the philosophy that truly sustainable progress in various regions of Africa will come from less dependency on foreign aid money, and more accountability within local communities. As such, we invest in local entrepreneurs who are interested in creating solutions or products for their communities. This supports local economies and creates truly sustainable jobs. As a Fellow, your contributions will have immediate results in supporting the overall program while also having long-lasting unquantifiable results in the form of knowledge-share.
How it Works
Fellows will come to Kampala, Uganda for one month (or longer depending on your desire), and work alongside a staff of talented programmers helping to support projects while also offering mentoring and peer-to-peer advice. To participate, you’ll need to be able to at least pay your own way to Uganda. A round trip ticket from the U.S. as of March 30, 2009 is often $2000 (via British Airways or KLM). If you’re coming from Europe, the ticket is usually half. Accommodation is free and will allow you to stay within walking distance from the labs. You are welcome to bring your significant other with you, but please, no more than one person if you are planning to take free accommodation at the house.
Before you come you’ll need to consult your local travel clinic about which shots and medicines you’ll need to get in order to be able to travel here. In May 2008, my shots totaled about $900. Depending on your local clinic and travel history it could be more or less.
Once you’re here you’ll have a free place to stay (at my house near the office where I live with my girlfriend, Sarah) and you’ll be paid a local wage ($500 a month) for your time. My house is a large three bedroom, three bathroom house, with a spectacular view of the city. Your room already has a bed and a frequently treated mosquito-net and towels so there’s no need to bring these things.
About Kampala
Kampala is a very metropolitan city in the African-context of the word. It’s largely Christian and 90% English speaking. It has a shopping mall, expensive hotels, restaurants of all types, coffee shops, internet cafes, a large university, and is generally pretty easy to get-by in. It’s also fairly diverse with lots of European and American expats, and immigrants from India and China. People here have been dubbed ‘the friendliest in the world’ and Kampala, Uganda is certainly a lot ‘easier’ for foreigners to get accustomed to than some of the other major cities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Crime is extremely low and the traffic is the hardest part for people to cope with. You’ll work for five days a week, 9 to 5 with your weekends and days at the end for travel in case you want to visit other parts of Uganda (gorilla tracking, chimp camping or a Safari). Those things usually require arrangement and payment in advance. If you need help organizing these things before you get here, I’ll be happy to assist as I’ve done some of them before and it’s easier for me to contact them locally.
There is no health insurance offered, so make sure if you plan to do more than just work at the office and hang out at the house (like going on Safaris, staying out late in bars and clubs, wildlife trips or trips outside the city) that you are covered. We have malaria medicine for emergencies but your clinic will encourage you to bring your own, as do we.
Who We Need
Again, ideal participants will come because they share the philosophy of Appfrica the company and want to support it. We’re a group of hackers, programmers and developers trying to pair peers from different continents so that they can learn from each other. Because we are for-profit, Fellows can’t write any of this off as a donation but if you own a small business this might be considered a business expense as you’ll be working as a contractor.
What we need are people with a background in software development, largely for the web. People with experience in XHTML, CSS, MySQL, CouchDB, Flash/Actionscript, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, Django, various CMS’ like WordPress and Drupal, are all encouraged to apply. If you’re more of a base level programmer (Python, Ruby, Java, C++, C#, Symbian etc.) there’s also a need for your expertise. If you have a background in mobile programming/hacking your skills are very much in demand.
Unlike similar programs that have existed in the past, it’s our goal to create more than just capacity for businesses, Appfrica builds on that capacity by creating businesses and funding entrepreneurs. Thus, this is great opportunity for people interested in learning more about the African private sector, exploring business opportunities and making International contacts.
For details on how to apply, email j.gosier@appfrica.org
Fellows
As an Appfrica Fellow you’ll be following in the footsteps of people like Facebook Senior Engineer Charlie Cheever (who came to Kampala along with Samasource’s Leila Chirayath to help facilitate a Developers Garage). Although Charlie, wasn’t officially a member of this program, his desire to participate on the ground inspired the concept. You can see pictures of that event here.
The Appfrica Fellows program is designed in the spirit of GeekCORPS. The idea is to allow dedicated, talented and enthusiastic programmers to come to Uganda to work with a staff of equally talented and motivated local developers to focus on knowledge and skill transfer. Men and Women alike are encouraged to apply.
About Appfrica
Appfrica is a small organization completely privately funded. It was originally bootstrapped by founder Jon Gosier, before we joined our partner Kuv Capital in January of 2009. We are a for-profit organization that operates under the philosophy that truly sustainable progress in various regions of Africa will come from less dependency on foreign aid money, and more accountability within local communities. As such, we invest in local entrepreneurs who are interested in creating solutions or products for their communities. This supports local economies and creates truly sustainable jobs. As a Fellow, your contributions will have immediate results in supporting the overall program while also having long-lasting unquantifiable results in the form of knowledge-share.
How it Works
Fellows will come to Kampala, Uganda for one month (or longer depending on your desire), and work alongside a staff of talented programmers helping to support projects while also offering mentoring and peer-to-peer advice. To participate, you’ll need to be able to at least pay your own way to Uganda. A round trip ticket from the U.S. as of March 30, 2009 is often $2000 (via British Airways or KLM). If you’re coming from Europe, the ticket is usually half. Accommodation is free and will allow you to stay within walking distance from the labs. You are welcome to bring your significant other with you, but please, no more than one person if you are planning to take free accommodation at the house.
Before you come you’ll need to consult your local travel clinic about which shots and medicines you’ll need to get in order to be able to travel here. In May 2008, my shots totaled about $900. Depending on your local clinic and travel history it could be more or less.
Once you’re here you’ll have a free place to stay (at my house near the office where I live with my girlfriend, Sarah) and you’ll be paid a local wage ($500 a month) for your time. My house is a large three bedroom, three bathroom house, with a spectacular view of the city. Your room already has a bed and a frequently treated mosquito-net and towels so there’s no need to bring these things.
About Kampala
Kampala is a very metropolitan city in the African-context of the word. It’s largely Christian and 90% English speaking. It has a shopping mall, expensive hotels, restaurants of all types, coffee shops, internet cafes, a large university, and is generally pretty easy to get-by in. It’s also fairly diverse with lots of European and American expats, and immigrants from India and China. People here have been dubbed ‘the friendliest in the world’ and Kampala, Uganda is certainly a lot ‘easier’ for foreigners to get accustomed to than some of the other major cities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Crime is extremely low and the traffic is the hardest part for people to cope with. You’ll work for five days a week, 9 to 5 with your weekends and days at the end for travel in case you want to visit other parts of Uganda (gorilla tracking, chimp camping or a Safari). Those things usually require arrangement and payment in advance. If you need help organizing these things before you get here, I’ll be happy to assist as I’ve done some of them before and it’s easier for me to contact them locally.
There is no health insurance offered, so make sure if you plan to do more than just work at the office and hang out at the house (like going on Safaris, staying out late in bars and clubs, wildlife trips or trips outside the city) that you are covered. We have malaria medicine for emergencies but your clinic will encourage you to bring your own, as do we.
Who We Need
Again, ideal participants will come because they share the philosophy of Appfrica the company and want to support it. We’re a group of hackers, programmers and developers trying to pair peers from different continents so that they can learn from each other. Because we are for-profit, Fellows can’t write any of this off as a donation but if you own a small business this might be considered a business expense as you’ll be working as a contractor.
What we need are people with a background in software development, largely for the web. People with experience in XHTML, CSS, MySQL, CouchDB, Flash/Actionscript, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, Django, various CMS’ like WordPress and Drupal, are all encouraged to apply. If you’re more of a base level programmer (Python, Ruby, Java, C++, C#, Symbian etc.) there’s also a need for your expertise. If you have a background in mobile programming/hacking your skills are very much in demand.
Unlike similar programs that have existed in the past, it’s our goal to create more than just capacity for businesses, Appfrica builds on that capacity by creating businesses and funding entrepreneurs. Thus, this is great opportunity for people interested in learning more about the African private sector, exploring business opportunities and making International contacts.
For details on how to apply, email j.gosier@appfrica.org