#EndFGM Mapathon by SfGH Cambridge, Crowd2Map Tanzania and HGWT
Event Information
About this Event
👉The Sexual and Reproductive Health Subcommittee is excited to host a mapathon in collaboration with Crowd2Map Tanzania and Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania, marking International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation by putting rural areas of Tanzania on the map!
During our mapathon we will be adding schools, hospitals, roads, buildings and villages to OpenStreetMap, which is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Detailed maps can help build local knowledge and can mean that activists and healthcare workers can reach girls facing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) more efficiently.
We will start our event at 4pm GMT with a short introduction from Sexual and Reproductive Health subcommittee of SfGH Cambridge followed by an introduction from Janet Chapmen (Chair, Tanzania Development Trust, founder of Crowd2Map Tanzania)and an introduction from Rhobi Samwelly (FGM survivor and director of Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania). Then we will start mapping! Beginner mappers are very welcome (we are beginners too!) and hopefully some more experienced volunteers will be available to support our work on zoom or on Slack messaging.
Useful pages where beginner mappers can learn more about crowd mapping and try out OpenStreetMap prior to the event:
- How we map by Crowd2Map Tanzania
- The work of Hope for Gils and Women in Tanzania
- Learn to Map by Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Tasking Manager
- Ongoing mapping projects to map Tanzania
🎞 Prior to our event, there will be an online screening of the award-winning documentary In The Name Of Your Daughter. Meet Rhobi Samwelly and the inspiring girls from the documentary after the film, then join us on our mapathon! You can find the eventbrite link to the filmscreening here.
❓What is FGM and how does the Tanzanian context look like?
Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is widely regarded internationally as a violation of human rights. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines FGM as including all ‘procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons’.
In Tanzania, nationally approximately 10% of women aged 15 to 49 report having undergone FGM, but prevalence is much higher in the Mara region at 32%. The prevalence of FGM varies greatly by ethnic identity and within Tanzania these procedures are predominantly performed as a component of girls’ social initiation. FGM when performed on minors under the age of eighteen became illegal in Tanzania in 1998 and is punishable by up to fifteen years in prison. However, prosecutions and successful convictions have been very limited.
Finding remote villages in Tanzania can be extremely difficult as rural areas have not, historically, been sufficiently mapped. There is almost always time pressure to reach girls in villages as activists are often made aware at night that FGM is due to take place with just hours to spare. Crowd2Map plays a key role in being able to access remote areas of Tanzania where FGM takes place in secret. Their maps are used by police and rescue teams to reach these areas more efficiently.
🇹🇿What is Crowd2Map Tanzania and Hope for Girls and Women?
Crowd2Map Tanzania is an entirely volunteer crowdsourced mapping project putting rural Tanzania on the map. Since 2015, they have been adding schools, hospitals, roads, buildings and villages to OpenStreetMap with the help of volunteers worldwide and on the ground in Tanzania. They do this so that communities can better navigate, plan their development and progress towards the SDGs, and to help activists better protect girls from FGM.
Hope for Girls and Women was founded by the Tanzanian activist Rhobi Samwelly in 2017. Rhobi’s personal experience of being forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) as a child inspired her lifelong commitment to fight for the rights of girls and women. Their organisation runs two safe houses in the Butiama and Serengeti Districts of the Mara Region of Tanzania, which shelter and support those fleeing FGM, child marriage, and other forms of gender based violence.
📍So what is a mapathon?
A Mapathon is simply a coming together of a group of people, either virtually or in-person, to participate in mapping over a few hours or throughout the course of a specific period of time.
💻What do you need to participate?
To be able to participate you will need a laptop/desktop, an internet connection, a mouse and enthusiasm (a mouse isn’t absolutely necessary but it makes mapping much faster).
📣How to set up your HOT account?
To be able to map with us, you will first have to sign up to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). You can do so here, just click on the 'Sign up' in the top right corner, and an OpenStreetMap (OSM) account will be created in the process. Then you can start mapping!
The purpose of the HOT Tasking Manager is to divide a large mapping project into smaller tasks that can be completed rapidly and collaboratively, with many people contributing to a collective project goal. The tool shows what needs to be mapped, which areas need to be reviewed and validated for quality assurance and which areas are completed. This approach allows the distribution of tasks to many individual mappers. It also allows monitoring of project progress and helps to improve the consistency of the mapping (e.g. elements to cover, specific targets to use, etc.)
All work is done through OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap is the community-driven free and editable map of the world, supported by the not-for-profit OpenStreetMap Foundation.
📌How to join the event?
You just need to register through Eventbrite, then you will receive the zoom link where you will be able to join. We will post further information about the event in our Facebook event, keep your eyes peeled!
