Session Spotlight — Mapping Rural Tanzania

Janet Chapman is a volunteer for the Tanzania Development Trust which supports grassroots projects across Tanzania. One of their projects is working to protect girls and young women from female genital mutilation. She is running a session on Sunday at 12.15pm on level 7, working to create a digital map of areas around a safehouse for young women and girls at risk of FGM.

Janet visits very rural areas of Tanzania which aren’t on any digital maps. Deciding it was in everyone’s interest, she and others began to create the map in Open Street Map. In the session, people will be mapping the areas around a safehouse using satellite imagery and plotting data into OpenStreetMap. The plan is to finish the task on Sunday — it’s currently 84% complete so come along and get involved!

The project also has a stall at the Science Fair on Friday evening so do drop by and say hello. If you aren’t able to attend, you can still help the mapping project here. An excellent graphic novel has been created to accompany the projects. You can find it here and learn more about the project at crowd2map.org. The short video below explains in more detail why this work is so important.