HOT 2020 Microgrant

Goals

The OpenStreetMap Community was selected to be beneficiaries for the 2020 Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team Micro grant

The project is to sustainably revive and expand the community in order to make it capable of executing sustainable development projects.

In a bid to revive our community we conducted training for our existing YouthMappers chapters that were considered to be dormant. We revived them and reestablished them with executives.

We established new YouthMappers chapters and trained non YouthMappers to expand our community and ensure inclusion.

After giving all our participants the prerequisite training, we embarked on mini projects such as mapping health facilities and bus stops in order to utilize the skills for social benefits.

The goals of this project include the procurement of computers, internet gadgets, training of existing and new youth mappers and secure an MOU for a permanent space to conduct Mapathons and other training activities

Activities

  • Procured 2 Laptops, 4 internet equipment : We did this because the funds became insufficient due to rapid inflation of prices.

  • We thought it fit that we should contribute towards the fight against Covid-19, therefore, we sent out applications to map health facilities. For this purpose, we trained twenty individuals on OpenStreetMap, Mapillary and Kobo Toolbox via WhatSapp

  • As part of extending our community we trained 10 students of the University of Makeni on OpenStreetMap via Zoom and Mapillary. This led to the establishment of the Unimak Youth Mappers.

  • We also trained 10 students of the Canadian college on OpenStreetMap via Zoom and we have established a Youth Mappers chapter there.

  • Weare still in the process of signing a MOU with the GIS Laboratory at Fourah Bay College so we can use their facility frequently.

  • We also partnered with the Youth Mappers to set up tasks that were used for the Power Grid mapping project


Stakeholder Engagement

We signed a MOU with the GIS-Laboratory at Fourah Bay College. This would enable us to start holding frequent mapathons there.


We made efforts to collaborate with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Directorate of Science and Technology, Freetown City Council and the Sierra Leone Red Cross, but unfortunately we were not successful as most of them didn't see the need for mapping or had high priority projects to focus on.


We were successful in engaging with Lecturers of University of Makeni and Canadian college to become advisors of the Youth Mappers Chapters.


We engaged students of the mentioned University of Makeni and Canadian college and established Youth Mappers Chapters there.



Social Impact

With the goal of sustainably reviving and expanding our community we thought of it to train existing members of our community and train new ones.


For our existing members, we had refresher training before we kick started the project, therefore they were co facilitators for all our training with new mappers. They gave all the required assistance to new mappers and facilitated the establishment of our new Youth Mappers Chapters.


We further introduced non-students to OpenStreetMap, Mapillary and Kobo collect. Most of these individuals became volunteers that collect data on Health facilities across the country. This is part of our drive to kick start citizen GIS .


With our project, we have created awareness about the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team , Youth Mappers and OpenStreetMap in general.


We have put mechanisms in place to enhance inclusion within our community. This why we have established an all female mapping club that would facilitate and ensure the inclusion of women in our community.