Finally, after months of struggling, and tons of support from the hacker community, I’m proud to introduce you to the HFC hackerspace in Jinja Uganda! We will be teaching all kinds of advanced technology in here, including information security, mobile programming, electronics, robotics and more. The idea is that we will take students who have graduated from our Computer Training Center, who can prove their aptitude and have an interest in advancing their skills and provide them the training, resources and equipment they need to go even further. We will offer some free and paid classes to the community on all sorts of topics including welding, solar, robotics, 3D printing, digital fabrication and much more. We will also offer paid memberships for those that wish to spend more time in the space and want to support the space and take more advantage of the resources available here.
We have lots of equipment ready to move in, but first we have to complete the security lockup cage for the equipment and a high-end security system (yes, we could be a juicy target for thieves if we aren’t careful), finish fabricating some tables and chairs and get the curtains completed and hung. We’ve also run into an unforeseen problem. We have a lot of delicate equipment to roll in and there is a lot of dust in Uganda so our plan was to keep the doors and windows closed and run fans to cool off the environment. We tried this, and it’s not going to work. The fans circulate 100-degree heat, making the space a furnace. So we’re shopping for air conditioning units. I’ll post more about this, but it’s looking like we need to raise about $2,000 to get in a decent unit that won’t be over-burdened in our space. But we’re moving ahead, confident that we’ll find a way forward.
Thanks to everyone that pitched in to make this happen. We’re super excited!
