Online mapping of villages, roads and buildings in rural Tanzania to protect girls from FGM

Details

Mission and objectives

Tanzania Development Trust has been working with grassroots organisations in the poorest areas of Tanzania for 40 years. We are all volunteers and so every pound donated goes directly to projects. TDT was founded as a Charitable Trust in 1975 by the Britain Tanzania Society (BTS). BTS remains our parent body and pays the small administrative costs of TDT. That’s why we can promise that every pound donated is spent on projects. The people who run TDT and BTS are all volunteers who know the country well. No salaries are paid. We have no offices. When we visit projects we all pay our own expenses. Project requests come from Tanzania via our website, from visits, by word of mouth, through the BTS branch in Dar es Salaam or from NGOs in the UK. Applications are carefully checked. We ask for full estimates from contractors. We get clear evidence of community participation and approval from local Government officials. The system is designed to be as transparent as possible. In over 30 years we have had almost no loss by fraud or theft. We have built a safe house for girls refusing FGM and supported over 100 projects including bore holes for villages without water, school resources and solar panels for dispensaries

Context

Much of rural Tanzania is extremely poorly mapped, hampering navigation and community development. Improvements made to digital, online maps of Tanzania speed up rescues of girls at risk of FGM. Mapping volunteers help by tracing roads and buildings from satellite images into OpenStreetMap. Training and feedback given via our Slack channel. A Certificate is issued after volunteers' fulfill the required mapping duties. Volunteers contribute to the team's efforts and learn useful skills.

Task description

The online mapping volunteers will liaise with volunteers in Tanzania and worldwide and add data to openstreetmap, buildings. This will allow better delivery and monitoring of services, and improved navigation and visibility. We are currently concentrating on areas where girls are at risk of Female Genital Mutilation. This is a flexible, ongoing project which can be done at any time to fit in with volunteers' schedules.