So a few months ago when I began organizing the Kampala Facebook Garage I was initially a little daunted. I was worried bout getting the word out and finding people interested enough and skilled enough to make it a success. Then Barcamp Kampala happened and I was reassured that there were tons of developers who’d be interested in the Facebook Garage. Then a there was a big surprise. I was invited by Kaushal Jhalla to attend Barcamp Africa at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, Ca. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t return until the day the Facebook clinic was originally scheduled so it had to be postponned.

It turns out that serendipity was going to change things for the better. While I was in California, I met a woman with extensive contacts at Facebook named Leila Chirayath Janah, founder of Samasource and a member of the Facebook NBI team. She offered to help organize the rescheduled Garage, and offered to arrange for some staff members to attend! Well that’s all happened and on December 13th, Uganda will have it’s first ‘one on one’ with the Facebook Staff!

A few months back there was a similar event in Nairobi, this one will take place in Kampala, Uganda at Makerere University. Topics covered will include using Facebook to fundraise, market a business, and of course the Facebook Developers Garage, a hands on workshop that allows developers to learn how to use the platform to make widgets and applications.

For details join our Facebook Group, visit the event on Facebook or the Appfrica Wiki. I want to especially thank Leila Chirayath (Samasource) and Michael Niyitegeka (Makerere University) for helping this event to finally manifest.

If you live in Kampala and you missed out on events like Campala2008 and MiniBarcamp, then make up for it by attending this one!

Help us out by spreading the word! Write about this event and tag related media with #fb08uganda

About the Author: Jonathan Gosier is a software developer, writer and social entrepreneur. He currently lives in Kampala, Uganda where he incubates and invests in East African entrepreneurs as the CEO of Appfrica Labs. He's also a 2009 TEDGlobal Fellow.

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