Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for a company anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up a team for you.
Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for a company anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up a team for you.
Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for companies anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up your team.
Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for companies anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up your team.
Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for a company anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up a team for you.
work out what it’ll take for the country to not need it and try to get there
I moved to Africa to get a better understanding of this and related questions. What is the actual situation of developing countries? What does it take to make things better? What can I do as an individual with no resources other than the income I get from work?
I am still at the beginning. I have only been here for two years. What I have learned so far is very limited but my observations so far suggest that:
The exploitation of natural resources (oil, gold, minerals, etc) need to be done in a way that the money flows back into the countries. The countries then can/should invest that money into the improvement of local infrastructure (health care, better roads, trains, water, electricity where it is still missing...)
Education needs to be done in a way that doesn't disrupt local culture. Currently schools are based on colonial models, and I don't feel they are a good fit. Children are forced to live away from home in boarding schools and get a western style education that ignores or changes their culture. Poor families can't send their children to school because they live off their farm and can't even get the money to pay for the school uniform or the materials.
On the other hand, just giving them those things creates exactly that dependency that we don't want. What is needed is an education system that remote villages and nomadic tribes can implement on their own without being forced to send their children away and change their lifestyle just to be able to afford the costs.
What can I do as an individual? I am still figuring that out. My approach is to try to hire local junior developers to work on my projects. I am not paying them a western salary. That may sound unfair and exploitative, but with the average income being so low, western salaries would only create a few rich people and depend on trickle-down-economics to make that money work. I feel that instead giving multiple people a decent local salary would accomplish more. On top of that, a single local salary can be funded easily from anyone working in IT in developed countries. You don't need to run a business to be able to do that. Besides that I am also trying to sponsor a few children to help them pay for school. This is not a big project. The families are friends I made along the way, and it's more of a boost for a few kids down on their luck. Kids who lost one parent or both and are living with relatives who are struggling to feed their own kids.
There is a lot that I am still missing. And I don't even know if the things I am doing so far are right or effective. Only time will tell.
Btw, I am looking for work. If you want to support my efforts, please reach out.
I don't donate money to projects, instead give my time where I can. I am hiring junior developers when I can afford it, mentor students to work on FOSS projects and contribute to the FOSS community in various ways. I am also supporting a few children so they can go to school. Effectively, I am targeting the long game, raising the next generation of FOSS contributors. So far this is all funded by myself. If you would like to contribute, please contact me. http://codingforafrica.at/
Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for companies anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up your team.
Remote: yes
Willing to relocate: yes, to any location in Africa, where I can get the necessary permission to live and work. Occasional travel is possible.
Technologies: Linux, Front or Backend Web Development, General Software Development, System Administration.
Résumé/CV: on request (software development, CTO, mentoring, training, fluent in English and German, german citizenship)
Contact: Email: see profile or http://codingforafrica.at/
Like this Ask HN: Recommend employers with positive social impact [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31518945], I am looking for similar work, but I am open to work on any interesting project. I am a European software developer who has lived and worked on four continents. Now it's time to move on and so I am in the process to relocate to Africa.
I have more than a decade of experience running a company, doing software development, support and training and mentoring adults and students, as well as working on educational projects, and I am willing to take on a mixture of roles as needed to support a project.
I value good teamwork over fancy tech, and I don't shy away from working on legacy code. I am primarily motivated by solving problems, so let me help you solve your problems.
I am open to work for a company anywhere as long as the work can be done fully remote from Africa.
While I could find a job elsewhere I believe that the experience living in an area where my work is going to have an impact gives me a better understanding of the needs of the location I am serving. Whether it is through direct contact with clients and users or just by being part of a local community and learning about the reality of living there.
In addition, I want to use some of my income to hire local interns and junior developers and train them in order to pass on my experience. I also sponsor children that otherwise can't afford to go to school (see my website). If you want to support this, I would love to work with you. Also if you are interested in hiring African developers yourself. I can help you build up a team for you.