Humanitarian OSM Team/HOT Microgrants
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Community Support Program supports local people to leverage OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, tools and community to help solve local challenges. One of the ways in which we do this is by providing OSM communities with microgrants to support local mapping activities.
Open opportunities
Facebook Community Impact Microgrants
Applications open Monday 07 December 2020 (deadline: Sunday 31 January 2021)
Up to $5000 available to OpenStreetMap communities in East Africa and Asia for community mapping projects that respond to a local challenge.
More information and how to apply
Humanitarian OSM Summit 2020
Applications open Friday 04 December 2020 (deadline: Sunday 31 January 2021)
Up to $5000 available to OpenStreetMap communities who attended the Humanitarian OSM Summit.
Current Microgrants
2020 HOT Microgrants
GAL School Peru (Peru)
By training high school and university students, GAL School Peru aims to create map data that supports student research projects on gender issues, such as equal pay and access to health services, and other social issues affecting their community.
GAL School, based in Cusco, Peru, has been teaching high school and university students how to use digital mapping to collect information that is important to them, such as gender discrimination or waste disposal. By teaching mapping, the project aims to not only provide school kids with vital tech skills they wouldn’t be exposed to but also an opportunity for them to learn research skills, how to collect data and provide evidence to be used to improve local services.
GAL is planning to work with a team of mappers to create geospatial data for the regional government that will help to improve health indicators in children under five.
Mental Health aWHEREness (Phillipines)
Mental Health aWHEREness aims to map more areas, train more people how to map, and build an evidence-base to show government and policy-makers where there is a lack of mental health resources available for those in need.
To reduce the stigma and increase access to mental health services, Mental Health AWHEREness aims to use map data that highlights the locations and supports of mental health services and work with policy-makers to increase access for all.
Mental Health aWHEREness created an online platform and crowdsourced map that shows the locations and information on mental health services to make it easier for people to look for professional help. With a map, more people dealing with mental health issues can find the information they need safely, securely, and without judgement. Mental Health aWHEREness not only mobilizes volunteers to map where and what services are available and trains people how to map, but it also provides a non-judgemental space for people to talk about mental health.
Practical Action (Bolivia)
Practical Action in Bolivia aims to train individuals to identify and map their needs, making geospatial data available to NGOs and government agencies providing aid.
This year, the Amazon was hit by raging forest fires, which caused the highest rates of deforestation in a decade. In Bolivia alone, the fires destroyed more than three million hectares in the Amazon region, causing widespread damage to the biodiversity, killing animals and harming livelihoods. For the communities to recover from the wildfires and reduce any further risk to themselves and their livelihoods, critical information must be shared with responders and government.
Practical Action will work to ensure critical, life and livelihood-saving information is no longer missing from the map. They will work with communities in the affected regions to build a community-generated mapping system that will allow the local population to identify and map their own needs. They will be able to record where crops have been destroyed, animals are in critical condition, damaged infrastructure, new fires and much more - to get the right people to the right places at the right time.
OSM South Sudan (South Sudan)
To become the first OpenStreetMap community in the South Sudan, training individuals both in South Sudan, and South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, to map settlements affected by flooding.
Every year, floods devastate South Sudan. This July, almost one million people needed life-saving assistance due to heavy rain leaving large swathes of the country underwater. Humanitarian and local organizations responding to the crisis need maps to know certain facts, like how many individuals are affected and how to reach them.
OSM South Sudan aims to build a representative, inclusive mapping community for all individuals. They will also work with organizations to understand what type of data will make the difference in those critical life-saving moments. Training humanitarian organizations in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, will also be a key part of the project to make sure the map data is used.
OSM Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone)
Since the community’s creation in 2016, OSM Sierra Leone has worked to create university mapping chapters, partner with the Red Cross and other organizations, to increase the quality of maps across the country. The community is seeking to expand its impact, training more individuals and increasing the diversity of their community, particularly with female mappers.
In a country that suffers from floods and even epidemics – the Ebola outbreak in 2014 devastated the country – putting places and people on the map means communities can demand the humanitarian and development assistance they need to thrive. OSM Sierra Leone has even been using mapping to fight female genital mutilation in the country, holding mapathons with the Red Cross to map at-risk areas.
OSM Iraq (Iraq)
Mapping to support humanitarian response. OSM Iraq are looking to create maps that support humanitarian response amidst ongoing conflict and natural disasters, with a focus on training youth to map their surroundings and identify their needs.
Since the war started in Iraq in 2014, millions of people have been displaced, forced to leave their homes and set up in temporary camps, needing ongoing support from aid organizations to survive. Many organizations and government agencies are working tirelessly to assist people during this crisis, but they lack basic information such as how many people live in an area, if they have enough clean water, are the roads to settlements driveable.
OSM Iraq will be the first OpenStreetMap community in the country, with a goal to start populating unmapped areas with evidence-based data so organizations, such as the UN, have the information they need to carry out life-saving operations.
Rapid Response Microgrants: COVID-19
HOT Rapid Response Microgrants: COVID-19. Microgrants, were provided to OpenStreetMap communities to support their local response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
iLab Liberia (Liberia)
iLab Liberia will use OSM to map active healthcare facilities across Liberia including testing and quarantine centers, COVID-19 hotspots and road networks, including collecting data on the services available at each facility. iLab will work with government, private sector, civil society and local community residents to use the data collected to better locate and identify services. iLab Liberia are partnering with the Ministry of Health, and other civil society organizations and networks to implement their project.
MapUganda (Uganda)
MapUganda (OpenStreetMap Uganda) are collaborating with Geo YouthMappers and the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) to remotely map all 40 border entry towns across Uganda. The community will create detailed maps to support and retool the URCS and Ministry of Health surveillance efforts against the spread of COVID-19. By creating projects on the HOT Tasking Manager, conducting mapping webinars, and engaging local community and members of the MOH and URCS, MapUganda will create detailed datasets to identify porous borders where COVID-19 may be being imported into border communities.
Map Kibera (Kenya)
Several government agencies and NGOs have implemented measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya. However, Map Kibera, a local mapping NGO, has recognized that the efforts have not yet been well documented. In response, Map Kibera has launched the Kenya COVID-19 Tracker Ushahidi Instance to document geospatial data and track cases across Kenya. With their microgrant, Map Kibera will improve OSM basemaps in Kibera to allow visualization of current status and hotspots. This will be done in collaboration with OSM Kenya. The community will also be partnering with several other organizations that are already distributing food, sanitation points, face masks and sharing information about the virus within Kibera.
Public Lab Mongolia (Mongolia)
High population density in Ulaanbaatar, access to public health services, and the distance between remote rural communities and healthcare facilities are challenges that will leave communities in Mongolia vulnerable during the global COVID-19 pandemic. In partnership with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Public Lab Mongolia plan to map health service infrastructure and essential services in all 21 provinces of Mongolia to promote disaster preparedness amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The microgrant will enable Public Lab Mongolia to develop a complete OSM dataset on health service infrastructure including health services, pharmacies, banks, grocery stores, and petrol stations.
Humanitarian Mappers (Nigeria)
Humanitarian Mappers will be mapping safe places and quarantine centers in IDP camps as well as isolation centers in Northeastern Nigeria (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe). The project will digitize roads, tag/name features, and provide road attributes by training local community members and ambulance response teams in using OSM and OSM routing tools. The project will work with student volunteers from institutions of higher education in the region, who will conduct remote mapping, and the state COVID-19 Taskforce Team, who are the identified local data users.
OSM DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)
OSM DRC’s Microgrant will fund the development of a collaborative map that will inform the local community whether establishments are open or closed during lockdown in Kinshasa. The project will contribute to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) basemap by focusing on areas of the city where data is sparse and out of date. The platform will also detail what resources are available within the establishments, such as face masks or disinfectant. Once the basemap is complete, the community will consolidate and integrate the data that has been collected from establishments and visualize their findings on ezosala.org.
OpenStreetMap Senegal (Senegal)
OpenStreetMap Senegal and Healthsites.io will be mapping 197 hospitals in Senegal and updating data on the emergency health services available at these facilities. The community will compare the open data they collect for OSM with the datasets developed by the KEMRI-Wellcome Research Program in 2018 to enable an in-country analysis of the healthcare facilities available to support the COVID-19 outbreak. With no in-person visits to facilities, mappers will contact doctors at each facility to confirm the scope of services available. The data will then be used by the Senegalese Red Cross.
Facebook Community Impact Microgrants
The Community Impact Microgrants program is kindly supported by Facebook and is focussed on training and community engagement activities, with priority given to projects which include an approach that engages women and girls in mapping activities.
MapBeks (Philippines)
MapBeks is an online community of volunteers advocating for LGBTQ inclusion and representation through various mapping platforms like OpenStreetMap. They are also engaged in mapping LGBTQ-safe spaces and experiences, HIV/AIDS facilities, and COVID facilities, as well as supporting emerging mapping communities.
The MapBeks Community, led by 14 core volunteers from the Philippines, will be completing basemaps for the 24 most unmapped towns in the Philippines, which are home to more than 500,000 people. They will be training and engaging with LGBTQ organizations, individuals and allies to map out buildings and roads in the selected areas.
Funding from HOT will enable the mapping of three selected municipalities, including San Andres and Ferrol in Romblon and Sultan Sa Barongis in Maguindanao. This will kick-off a year-long project and prepare volunteers to accomplish the 24-town target.
Resilience Mappers (Uganda)
Resilience Mappers will be collecting data on the status of services in informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda. The data has been requested by the Kampala Capital City Authority GIS Department, and will be used to enable the equitable distribution of resources for upgrading informal settlements across Uganda’s capital. During the project, volunteers will be trained in remote mapping techniques including JOSM, ID-Editor, and Mapillary to contribute to OpenStreetMap.
Yer Cizenler Mapping for Everyone Association (Turkey)
The Yer Çizenler Mapping for Everyone Association is a member of the Turkish OSM Community. During the Community Impact Microgrant project, Yer Çizenler will create resources, translate data tools and software into Turkish, and facilitate training events for the community to teach them how to edit and update open digital tools. The aim of the project is to create a sustainable volunteer base. If you speak Turkish and want to contribute, or if you can further support this cause, please don’t hesitate to contact the project coordinator, Oğuzhan Er.
OSM Zambia (Zambia)
OSM Zambia is working with the Lusaka City Council (LCC) in Lusaka, Zambia, to map solid waste management infrastructure and services. During the project, the community will map the boundaries of solid waste zones in seven peri-urban areas, the major road networks in the areas, the coordinates of areas where citizens dispose of solid waste, and the size of those areas. The team will facilitate four days of training for university students and LCC staff for using GIS tools.
OSM Kenya and YouthMappers Kenya (Kenya)
OSM Kenya and YouthMappers Kenya will be mapping health facilities in Nairobi and the surrounding counties. The community will be using data sources published in a survey completed by GlaxoSmithKline in 2019. Services that support female health, such as gynecology and maternal health, will be added to open source platforms. The project will be led by Youth Mappers Kenya and OSM Kenya, and Map Kibera will support the administration of the project and help to host and coordinate its activities.
Previous projects
2019 HOT Microgrants
Action for Resilient Communities (Philippines)
Action for Resilient Communities (ARC) aims to move the city of Manila one step closer in becoming more accessible for persons with disabilities. ARC aims to empower persons with disabilities and youth with mapping skills through workshops, supporting them to map the accessibility of public infrastructure for those living with disabilities. ARC will collaborate with FEUTech YouthMappers and other mapping experts in the area, building professional networks between new mappers and existing communities. ARC’s goal is to create an inclusive environment for all mappers and increase opportunities for individuals of all abilities and ages to take part in their community’s development. ARC.jpg
Code for Africa (Nigeria)
Since 2012, Code for Africa uses civic (open source) technology and open data to empower citizens with local information for better-informed decision making.
CfA will be mapping Makoko, one of Africa’s largest slums. A third of the community is built on stilts in a lagoon off the Lagos mainland, where transport is by canoe. Since land mapping proves difficult in this area, CfA will be using cheap fixed-wing drones to photograph and algorithmically map the community, training 5-7 women as drone pilots. Land-based data collectors will then help annotate the aerial maps with key buildings and infrastructure, and how they are used. The resulting open geodata will for the first time give community leaders, residents, planners, and development agencies exact intel on everything from schools and clinics, to waters sources, sewers, roads, markets and homes in Makoko.
Cuerpo Consultivo para el Desarrollo de Río Piedras (Puerto Rico)
Cuerpo Consultivo para el Desarrollo de Río Piedras (CCDRP) aims to develop the first community-driven disaster preparedness and recovery mapping inventory in Puerto Rico. Created in 2016, CCDRP is an effort to establish a new governance framework for the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. They aim to design a project from the grassroots, community-level, changing the top-down approach of government-led development initiatives. Mapping activities will be completed across the eight communities that form Río Piedras to understand what unmet needs still exist from past disaster events, to identify critical infrastructure needed to support disaster relief efforts, and to identify organizations and individuals who can support future relief efforts. CCDRP4.jpg
Leclara (Ghana)
Leclara introduced community-run, sustainable tourism initiatives in Larabanga, Ghana, in order to generate revenue at the local level. A prerequisite for successful tourism is having a map of the community. Leclara plans to train groups of youth in the region on open mapping, conducting regular exchanges with experienced mappers from OSM Ghana. Using OpenStreetMap, Leclara aims to build a meaningful source of sustainable income and new pathways for youth to gain skills that unlock future job opportunities. Leclara.jpg
OpenStreetMap Cameroon (Cameroon)
OSM Cameroon’s aim is to not only produce data in OpenStreetMap, but also to ensure that the data creates value-added services that have an impact on people’s lives. OSM Cameroon aims to create a free provision of GitHub – the code of the infrastructure they have built – so that the OSM Communities of surrounding African countries have an OSM data recovery infrastructure. Boot camps and work sessions will focus on introducing and training participants from different backgrounds to contribute towards and reuse OpenStreetMap data. They will also be equipped with tools to create their own open source geospatial products and platforms based on OpenStreetMap. OSM Cameroun.jpg
OpenStreetMap Gambia (The Gambia)
OSM Gambia has been building its mapping community for over a year. Placing a high priority on creating a diverse and inclusive mapping community, 70% of the mapping community are young girls from surrounding secondary schools and universities.
OSM Gambia will work with the Gambia Tourism Board and the National Environmental Agency to identify ecotourism areas and capture the current state of vegetation and wildlife to stimulate The Gambia’s tourism industry and assist in planning efforts focused on environmental conservation and preservation.
OpenStreetMap Nicaragua-MapaNica.net (Nicaragua)
OSM Nicaragua-MapaNica.net has a vision to create the most detailed and complete map of Nicaragua that empowers individuals to use open data and participatory technologies to solve common challenges. OSM Nicaragua-MapaNica.net’s aim is to continue mapping the public transit routes in Managua and surrounding cities, expecting to reach at least five new cities. They believe mapping is the first step towards improving the transportation system, while engaging new individuals in mapping. By engaging local stakeholders to use OSM for urban planning, the goal is to improve mobility and transport policies in the country. Mapnica.jpg
YouthMappers Dhaka College (Bangladesh)
YouthMappers Dhaka College aims to address a growing challenge for many mega-cities across the world: waste removal. Dhaka’s population has boomed, causing local leaders to focus on several issues affecting individuals related to health and environment. But a cross-cutting issue is the 4,500 tons of waste produced on a daily basis in the city and few effective measures have been taken to mitigate the issue. YouthMappers Dhaka College plan to map all waste collection points in the city to make them easier to find and bring about behavior changes for better waste management practices. Better data will also help city planners determine the ratio of waste collection points to the population. YouthMappers Dhaka 2.jpg
Fundación OpenStreetMap Colombia (Colombia)
In the Caribbean Darien Zone on the border between Panama and Colombia, there is a sustained migratory crisis, with Venezuelans continuing to seek refuge. The humanitarian emergency is exacerbated by the arrival of refugees and displaced persons from other parts of the world hoping to continue their journey through Latin America. Fundación OpenStreetMap Colombia (pictured at top) will work to map the borders, building relationships with local responders and authorities to use the data for planning response activities.
Mapanica (Nicaragua)
Mapping public transport networks in Nicaragua
OSM Nicaragua-MapaNica.net’s aim is to continue mapping the public transit routes in Managua and surrounding cities, expecting to reach at least five new cities. They believe mapping is the first step towards improving the transportation system, while engaging new individuals in mapping. By engaging local stakeholders to use OSM for urban planning, the goal is to improve mobility and transport policies in the country.
2018 HOT Microgrants
Benin - OSM Benin
OSM Benin was established in 2013 and are based in Cotonou. They will be using their microgrant to focus on mapping areas where communities are at risk from the epidemiological crisis, Lassa fever. Lassa fever is a hemorrhagic virus similar to Ebola, which currently has no known vaccine. OSM Benin will be focusing their efforts on mapping at-risk Lassa areas to provide health data for responders and researchers at the Benin Red Cross and Institut de Recherche en Développement (IRD). This data will help inform health care management, health surveillance monitoring, and epidemiological crisis prevention planning. OSM Benin will be expanding their community with a focus on increasing youth and female participation through trainings and mapathons supported by the microgrant funding.
Mexico - Geochicas
Geochicas is an international community looking to increase female participation across OSM through data collation and curation. In the aftermath of the recent Mexico earthquakes, Geochicas will be focusing their mapping efforts in Oaxaca on a pilot project looking at informal shelters and women’s security after a disaster. Oaxaca has suffered from two major earthquakes in the last six months (September 2017 and February 2018), displacing many vulnerable people from their homes. Geochicas will be working closely with the Humanitarian Latin American Network to create a database about informal provisional shelters and their current usage, and any reports about sexual harassment and gender violence. This will help improve safety measures and shelter provision for future disasters.
Colombia - Fundación OpenStreetMap Colombia
Fundación OpenStreetMap Colombia will be using their microgrant to support Chaparral municipality in Tolima. This municipality is a priority for the Colombian Peace Agreement which is in need of Territorial Arrangement Planning review and the area around the Amoyá River is also prone to landslides. In partnership with the local government, Unidad de Mapeo Humanitario and OSM Colombia will help build risk management and evacuation plans.
Haiti - Potential 3.0
The OSM community began in Haiti in 2010 after the devastating Haiti earthquake. Since then, the community has grown, establishing itself under the name ‘Potential 3.0’. The microgrant will allow Potential 3.0 to expand its mapping efforts in Grande Anse, an area which was badly hit by Cyclone Matthew in 2016, to understand the extent of historical damage from natural disasters. This will influence future crisis mitigation plans and post-disaster development schemes.
Nigeria - UniqueMappersTeam Port Harcourt
UniqueMappersTeam (UMT), is based in the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria and is a student team of over 150 map enthusiasts and citizen scientists. Port Harcourt is the capital city of Rivers state and, as a coastal city, is highly vulnerable to seasonal flooding. UMT will be using their microgrant to map the Harcourt metropolis and Rivers state region. These maps will be used for flood prevention planning and emergency response as well as other common disasters such as oil spillages, malaria and other epidemics. The team includes PHD students who will be using the data to expand and advance research into vulnerable communities.
Mozambique - Mapeando Meu Bairro
MapeandoMeuBairro are a recently formed OSM mapping community, based in Maputo, Mozambique. Maputo has a current population of 2.5 million inhabitants, which is projected to almost double by 2025. The rapid urbanization of Maputo has resulted in many informal settlements, which are largely situated in areas at risk of flooding. In response to this, MapeandoMeu Bairro are focusing on mapping low-income, flood-risk areas. The HOT microgrant will be used to register #MapeandoMeuBairro as a legal entity which will allow them to gain more exposure and legitimacy, increasing data usage for disaster management planning.
Peru - OSM Peru
OSM Peru are based in Lima but operate across Peru responding to ongoing threats from earthquakes and flooding. With the microgrant, OSM Peru intend to work in collaboration with ANPE (Asociación Nacional de Productores Ecológicos del Perú) to run a pilot programme mapping rural farmland where communities are most vulnerable to natural disasters, establish YouthMappers chapters in local universities, and provide training. This data will be shared with the Ministry of Agriculture to find solutions to support farming communities and protect their livelihoods and ecosystems in the event of a crisis.
Sri Lanka - OSM Sri Lanka
Situated at the southern tip of India, the island of Sri Lanka is frequently faced with natural disasters such as floods, landslides, cyclones, droughts, gales, coastal erosion and tsunamis. In recent years earthquakes have also become a more regular occurrence. OSM Sri Lanka formed in 2013 and since then have been mapping the island to prepare for natural crises. The HOT Microgrant will provide them with technical equipment for mapping and allow them to expand their community through trainings and workshops. OSM Sri Lanka will be producing detailed maps to support the Government of Sri Lanka to build emergency management plans and improve mitigation measures.
2017 HOT Microgrants
OpenStreetMap Democratic Republic of Congo
To achieve legal status to enable them to scale their mapping activities, gain equipment to run mapping parties, run training sessions to scale their community, and support a local risk reduction project in Kinshasa.
OpenStreetMap Zambia
To run workshops to grow their local community even further, and enable them to continue their work mapping local areas in Zambia.
OpenStreetMap Niger
To map territory affected by conflict in Niger. The Microgrant will enable them to gain the equipment needed for remote and field mapping, run outreach and training with the local community, and strengthen crisis response/preparedness in Niger
Crowd2Map, Tanzania
To facilitate training and purchase of equipment for volunteers and local partners to become local mappers. The project will support partners working across FGM, land rights, microfinance, and youth entrepreneurship, mapping 346 villages.
Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia
To map coastal wetlands in the Urabá Gulf to help planners and the local fishing community to respond to flooding hazards in the area. The project will map over 190km of coastline, including 2-3km width inland.
Ger Community Mapping Centre, Mongolia
To obtain equipment to increase participatory mapping and decision-making in Mongolia. They plan to establish regular local mapathons, and a Mongolian YouthMappers chapter.
Asian University for Women YouthMappers, Bangladesh
To map arsenic contaminated areas in Chittagong, to identify areas where people are at fatal risk of exposure to arsenic in groundwater. This project will work in collaboration with Chemists Without Borders. The YouthMappers chapter will also receive training and support from the OSM Bangladesh team, and aim to grow their chapter by 100 people.
Mozdevz, Mozambique
with help from a Microgrant, the Mozdevz will be able to gain the equipment needed for their community to independently grow, and complete field mapping of Mafala, an area of 25,000 people. Through mapping Mafala, Mozdevz aim to increase awareness of its cultural heritage and importance within Mozambique’s capital Maputo.