ast month a local freelance journalist in Tanzania – Sophie Tremblay (follow her for more amazing local news) – reached out to us, wanting to cover the work we do – mapping to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Serengeti region, Tanzania.
See the amazing video below by AJ+ news, featuring Mugumu Safe House & how maps WE create at Crowd2Map help them do their important work:
We are presenting today at HOT Summit in Brussels! Here is our talk:
[slideshare id=66433764&doc=hotcrowd2mapwithexplanationboxes-160926172245]
Our State of the Map lighting talk & workshop “Improving canvas for participatory mapping in Tanzania” are coming on Saturday!
We’ve been mapping the are around Mugumu in Tanzania, where female genital mutilation (FGM) – the tradition that threatens the life and health of women – is still prevalent.
With the help of our online volunteers and an army of recent mapathon mappers, our task on HOT tasking manager, which covers a large proportion of Mara region, is already 65% done!
Rhobi Samwelly, the founder of Mugumu Safe House & Vocational Training Center explains why mapping helps her cause:
Before we started mapping, there were 1, 522 km of roads in the region of Mara.
Now there are 7,005 km.
Before we began, there were 2, 807 buildings in the area of Mara.
Now there are 47,480.
Yep, that’s all you need – and your efforts may help protect thousands of girls from FGM next winter.
Janet is currently travelling and doing important work on the ground in Tanzania- including mapping more essential points of interest, and interacting with our dedicated local mappers!
While there, Janet has discovered the magic of Maps.me app, which allows one to: 1) download OSM maps of the area to your phone; 2) mark points of interest (schools, dispensaries, shops etc.) directly on the map as you go; 3) upload the points directly to OpenStreetMap once you have broadband connection & log in with your OSM username.
Here’s only some of the points Janet mapped in Kibirizi yesterday, which I accessed directly from openstreetmap.org:
Note that for anyone participating in Mapping Competition in Tanzania, points added to Maps.me will count exactly the same as they did in EpiCollect+ – just let us know your username using this form: http://goo.gl/forms/CufyKMe576.
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Here’s how you add a point via Maps.me:
1. Open the app and click the menu button at the bottom right corner.
2. Click on the + icon at the bottom.
3. Drag the map so the + location marker is exactly at the location you want to map; click Done at the top right corner.
4. Select the type of point it is (e.g. School, a type of Shop etc.).
To send the points you added to openstreetmap.org, and this is very important!
5. Click on the menu button on the main screen again; then click Settings.
6. Click on Profile.
7. If there are any “Not sent” points, click on the -> icon at the top right corner. You will have to log in with your OpenStreetMap username or register for a new one.
The points will then be sent directly to publicly accessible map, which you can check on openstreetmap.org!
As part of our Crowd2Map project, we are organizing a COMPETITION for local communities in Tanzania to contribute as much resources to the map as possible!
You can win a 1 st prize of 100,000 Tz for the contributor of the most mapping points into EpiCollect Plus that are accurate and valid* by 6pm EAT on Thursday 24th March.
Additionally there will be a 2nd prize of 50,000 Tz and a 3rd prize of 25,000 Tz. Furthermore, everyone who contributes at least 10 such points will be awarded a personalised certificate praising their achievement. And you will have the satisfaction of helping your community getting on the map.
*Accurate means within 50m accuracy; valid means a correctly labelled point of a point of interest (eg school, water point, mobile phone signal, dispensary, church, office, shop, etc – but not an individual’s home) in Tanzania excluding Dar es Salaam, that has not already been added to EpiCollect Plus or OpenStreet Map.
The competition takes place through our usual EpiCollect+ platform. The app will guide you through adding each point, grab its location, allow to add photo and ask a couple of questions about it. Instructions for downloading, using the app and adding the points can be found here: bit.ly/EpiTz
The points already collected can be looked up here: http://bit.ly/TanzMap
You can collect any points that seem relevant to you, particularly: schools, dispensaries, shops and business, transport facilities, repair shops, water points and so on.
We will be using the data you collect in our 3-way hackathon on 7th May, taking place in three cities: Dar es Salaam, London and Vilnius at the same time, and add the points to Open Street Map!
If you need any help collecting the resources you can join the discussion on our Facebook page, email us at crowd2maptanzania@gmail.com, or use the form below to get in touch:
[contact-form to=’crowd2maptanzania@gmail.com’ subject='[Mapping Competition’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]
Official brochure about the competition: http://bit.ly/TZbrochure
