SUZA Youthmappers
General Information
Email address
raya.ahmada@suza.ac.tz
Primary contact's full name
Raya Idrissa Ahmada
Do you have an OSM account?
Yes
If yes, what is your OSM username?
raya187
Please indicate the name(s) and OSM usernames of any additional individual(s) who will be leading the execution of the project if this application is successful
JRBartist, Abdulhafidh, cdelism, siyah7300, Khamis Juma, MUHSIN HILALI, Asya_haj
If you have an OSM account, please check the boxes that apply
I am a rarely active mapper, I am a beginner mapper
What is the name of the community group/organization this pitch is being submitted on behalf of?
SUZA Youthmappers
Is your organization/community group legally registered?
Yes
If you indicated "No" above, please indicate the name of an organization who would be able to accept the funds on your behalf
N/A
Proposed project location
Zanzibar
Have you previously been AWARDED any grants?
No
Please indicate the total funding amount you are requesting
11,450,000tsh
Information About the Project
What is the problem that you are working to address in your community?
(In this section please describe in detail the challenge that your project addresses. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
In past years, school performance in Zanzibar and Tanzania as a whole is believed to be affected by various factors including inadequate facilities and teachers at schools, as well as un-proportional geographical locations of schools.
In urban areas especially, this problem is worse due to urban increased populations. Since there are no relationship maps that show the location of available schools and other education facilities, it is difficult to know if the needs of students will be solved. It is due to the same reasons that the provisions of school solutions do not consider what is already available hence the plan has poor results.
Youth mappers are mapping around the world to help provide fundamental spatial data that supports responders and aid organisations. Since there is an active Youth mappers chapter at SUZA, there is a great potential of using the mappers to identify and map the school buildings and other educational facilities across Zanzibar.
The review of the current datasets of Zanzibar schools shows that most education data in the OSM have been lastly modified since four years ago(4). Also, the available schools currently in OSM miss important information like names, address and other education facilities. Currently, the data available in the OSM is very small as compared to the current statistics and available data set. In addition to this, even though individual contribution in OSM is allowed, this critical information needs to be collected and validated by authorized users to ensure quality and relevance of the data set.
What motivates you to work on this issue?
(what is the reason that triggered, inspired you to work on this issue, we recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
At SUZA we are working closely with the Ministry of Education in Zanzibar in various development projects. As we have discussed with the Ministry about what Youthmappers are doing, they have requested help on the GIS component of their system. As their mentor, I find this a great opportunity for the students to collect the schools data and make a contribution to the community. This data is also very important for researching various matters concerning education and it can be used to make better decisions to improve the education system within Tanzania. It can also be used by researchers and students for research purposes.
Have you worked on solving the same issue before?
No
If yes, what have you already done to solve this issue?
(Please be specific and highlight your greatest accomplishments, We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) If none, write N/A
N/A
If yes, what challenges have you faced in your work to solve this issue, and how did you respond to these challenges?
(Please be specific and highlight your biggest challenges and how did you solve them, We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) If none, write N/A
N/A
If no, what do you anticipate as challenges while working towards solving the issue?
(Please be specific and highlight the biggest challenge you might face when working on this project ,We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)If none, write N/A
The biggest challenge would be on the days that the schools are opened. They are open from Monday through Friday and the students and myself are attending lectures in the University in the same fashion. Also, since we need some more information in addition to the schools spatial information, it is going to take us some time based on the availability of the information we need at each particular school.
In rural areas, the schools are too far from each other, which may result in taking longer than in urban where the schools are located near.
With this we are planning to group ourselves so that the data collection task doesn’t affect the students attendance in the University.
Also, we are planning to start in urban areas, where most of the schools are located, and for this project, we are going to involve more graduates, since most of them are free at the moment.
Describe your sustainability plan
(In this section please describe how your activities will continue post-funding. If you are applying for funding to purchase equipment, explain who will store/use the equipment you purchase, and if you have long term sustainability plans for your community's development. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
Since we are sometimes faced with the situations where some students can not perform their activities due to the lack of computers, we plan to buy four used laptops so that they can be shared and if anyone from the community or outside the community such as SUMAIT students could borrow the laptops for sometime. We will make sure that they sign when they take it and the laptops remain under SUZA Youthmappers. We are also planning to continue to offer training to new members, as well as to the existing members, so that they continue being active. We are also planning to be the center for Geospatial knowledge and other skills, by encouraging our students to learn new skills and use their GIS skills to include GIS components in their final year projects. We have also started to initiate a partnership with IAYG Family and they have promised to volunteer to offer training on some GIS related topics such as basic data visualization. To motivate the students, they will be given some amount for Internet access, travel cost and food. After finishing the grant period, we will try our level best to find clients who are in need of data use, or data analysis, and they will contribute to the stipend paid to the students.
Project Goal
What are your community defined project goals
(Please explain your project goals. This can include: setting goals such as "we will train X number of new community, "we will register as a legal entity", or "the data will be used by X", and why these goals are important to your community such as "we intend to engage X number of women in mapping activities so that we can empower local women” We recommend your response be a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
We will partner with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training Zanzibar. Actually we have already sent our proposal and they have requested us to help them finish the GIS component of their internal system regarding schools information and management system. For that we need to collect the data for all the available schools for us to be able to complete the system. For this, we have seen an opportunity to be able to contribute to both open data, as well as creating useful data in our community by helping the Ministry with the GIS part of their system. We are also planning to train other mappers in the Universities across Zanzibar, and we have already started to train new members at SUZA and at SUMAIT University, which is still a new established chapter. Our aim is not to stop there, but to also expand in other campuses at SUZA, as currently all the trainings are offered at Tunguu main campus. We also target other Universities such as Zanzibar University which is located near our Main Campus, Tunguu, Zanzibar.
What are your project long-term goals?
(Please describe your project vision. This can include: where you see your project in five years' time, how you want your data to be used, future partnerships you'd like to establish, or how you would like your project to grow (or not!). We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words)
Our vision is to be the centre for Geospatial solution in Zanzibar. We are thriving at making open data understood, and how people can use open source GIS tools and technologies available to help in solving existing problems in our community. I see a strong, well-known acceptable chapter which will be used as a consultant of the GIS related projects in Zanzibar. The data collected can be used by students, researchers and the government to help in solving existing problems in the society and to make proper decisions. Currently the Commission for Land is working with some students who are Resilience Academy Internship program interns and give them some microwork to help in their work, we will soon require a formal relationship between the Youthmappers chapter and the Commission for Land in Zanzibar. We would like to extend partnerships and collaborations with both local and international organizations, who in one way or another would benefit from the collected data. We have started communicating with the GeoICT4e project, on partnering with SUZA Youthmappers and continuing to equip the youth with tools, skills and knowledge to address challenges in our community. In the near future, we plan to have chapters in different campuses of SUZA across Zanzibar as well as in other Universities, and we plan to extend the knowledge to school teachers and high school students across Zanzibar
List the tools you intend to use during your project and why
(Please describe which tools you plan to use to collect, update, clean, or store you data and why. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
Our vision is to be the centre for Geospatial solution in Zanzibar. We are thriving at making open data understood, and how people can use open source GIS tools and technologies available to help in solving existing problems in our community. I see a strong, well-known acceptable chapter which will be used as a consultant of the GIS related projects in Zanzibar. The data collected can be used by students, researchers and the government to help in solving existing problems in the society and to make proper decisions. Currently the Commission for Land is working with some students who are Resilience Academy Internship program interns and give them some microwork to help in their work, we will soon require a formal relationship between the Youthmappers chapter and the Commission for Land in Zanzibar. We would like to extend partnerships and collaborations with both local and international organizations, who in one way or another would benefit from the collected data. We have started communicating with the GeoICT4e project, on partnering with SUZA Youthmappers and continuing to equip the youth with tools, skills and knowledge to address challenges in our community. In the near future, we plan to have chapters in different campuses of SUZA across Zanzibar as well as in other Universities, and we plan to extend the knowledge to school teachers and high school students across Zanzibar
What additional knowledge or skills do you need to improve the effectiveness of the project?
(if there is any addition training you will need example how to use open source tools ,how to write good report etc please identify them below and why, We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) If none, write N/A
To improve the effectiveness of this project we would like to get more training on good report writing. As most of the students are not good at writing. Most of them are so much interested and good at technical work as most of them are coming from Computer Science and IT. Even the students from the Geography department are very active at the field during data collection, but they have some issues with report writing. The main reason for this is the English problem that exists with most of the students.
We need several training and workshops on report writing to help us in disseminating the work we have done, and share the data with other people.
Explain how you plan to share your stories
(Please give examples of how you will use to share your stories with others. This can include: how you will publicize your news, where you will collect media content, how you will use social media channels, and if you will reach out beyond your immediate network to share your stories. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
The stories will be shared through our chapter’s social media, twitter account and Instagram account, as well as our individual social media. In addition to that, we are planning to organise a Public Talk (workshop) at the University and invite other stakeholders from different organizations to attend. Through this, project information will be shared and there will be people from the media invited in order to share the project’s information to the public. We are also planning to prepare a documentary and share it through YouTube and share the link to the SUZA Community and to the public. We will also seek help from SUZA Multimedia and Animation Club to help us share stories, as we have been working closely in creating Awareness to the students regarding these two initiatives; the Multimedia club and SUZA Youthmappers. During the microgrant period, we are going to open an official website for SUZA Youthmappers in order to publish information regarding the project. We are also going to share the data with the Centre for Digital Learning (CDL) at SUZA as well as HOT and they can help us share the story, through their TV channel and social media respectively.
Ownership
Describe who will own/access and use the data
(It is important that the data you generate during the project is useful, and that it will be used to advance humanitarian and/or development challenges locally. In this section, please include: if the data you will be collecting has been requested by who , if there is an established formal relationship with any organization , and if there is an existing MoU between you and the partnering organisation, and how long have you been working with the partnering organisation. If your organisation or community is going to be the data user, please describe how will they use the data, and how they will access the data also is there possibility of other similar organizations to access and own the data . We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 400 words.)
The collected data will be shared with the Ministry of Education and Vocational training and can be used to implement and integrate the GIS component into an existing Schools information and management system at the Ministry. This has been requested by the Ministry after sending a proposal to collaborate with them on the schools mapping project. There is an established relationship between SUZA and MOEVT, and SUZA has been working with the Ministry and helping them in different development projects. There are also other NGOs such as Milele Zanzibar Foundation who work on several development projects including Education projects, who will find the collected data useful to them and will help them make proper decisions on where to prioritize help to, based on the available data.
Also there are Network Service Providers who can use the data to improve connectivity among the schools and see what is missing. For example, there is Liquid Telecom who is working on a project to create and improve connectivity in schools across Africa. We have started to talk with them, and the data will be so helpful to them as well.
And as for us, we will upload the data to OSM which is open to any other stakeholder to use.
Describe any other community/organization you plan to approach and share data for the purpose of the project impact
(In this section, please describe any additional partners you might be working with or share data with since they have indicated the need of data that will be collected. If there are no additional partners (beyond the data user) this must be stated here. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.) if none write N/A
We are aiming to partner with Milele Zanzibar Foundation, which is an organization which works under several development projects including education and health across Zanzibar. We have already had an initial discussion, and they were so much interested in what we do, and they believe the data would be useful to them as well. They have requested a proposal explaining who we are, and what activities we are conducting, and how we can collaborate with them and what is the advantage of doing so. As of this time, we have already sent the proposal and it is under discussion. Since Milele is working with different education projects such as STEM for Success Zanzibar project, which aimed at improving teaching Science subjects and help students especially girls to like Science subjects and remain in the STEM career fields, it is important for them to know where to start implementing their projects and where they will have large impacts. The collected data will definitely help them in making proper decisions.
Also, we are currently trying to reach out to Zanlink, a common service provider to see which data they are interested with, so that we incorporate them in our work.
And as for the GeoICT project, discussion is on the table on how we can collaborate and work together in these issues.
Inclusion
How will you ensure that your project activities will consider gender/children?
(Please describe how you will engage women/girls and school children in your project activities. Please include the number of women, girls or marginalized groups you plan to work with and how, and at which point in your activities you plan to engage them. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words).
During the microgrant period, SUZA Youthmappers is planning to work closely with SUMAIT University Chapter and it is now establishing a relationship with Zanzibar University, another big University in the island to motivate them to join the Youthmappers community. SUZA Youthmappers will be providing training to these chapters and will ensure at least 50% of the participants are female students. During application for this training, priority will be given to female students and there will be a rewarding scheme for female students who register themselves for the training. There will be special rewards to female students who are active mappers as well, and who have changed their level from beginners to intermediate level in a given time. This is done to motivate the girls to participate in the mapping activities.
Open Knowledge Evolution
Explain how you plan to expand your mapping community
(In this section, please include: your approach of working in a peripheral area to expand the knowledge, how will you engage new members from an unexposed community, how many new members you plan to recruit, and how will you retain community members throughout the duration of the project and beyond. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
The Youthmappers Awareness campaign will be launched and will look to engage close to 50 new OSM community members from various SUZA Campuses. SUZA Youthmappers is planning to include at least five students from the SUMAIT Universities to participate fully in the project, so that they get experience and go back and share with their community. SUZA Youthmappers also plans to work closely with the faculty mentors and all the supporters of the chapter and invite students from other Universities (even those without chapters). Since most of the participants are expected to be new mappers, a series of training sessions shall be conducted. The current active SUZA Youthmappers will volunteer and will orient the new mappers that have never contributed to OSM about what OSM is and how they can start contributing, before they are introduced to field mapping. Those who have participated in the project will be awarded Certificates of participation and there will be membership cards for all the active members.
Free training will also be offered to school teachers, and high school students and we are planning to initiate a program of GIS / Youthmappers clubs at school level.
Cooperation
Describe the communities you are already working with
(This may include local government, private sector, institutions or OSM communities (as examples). If you are not already working with any of the above communities, please state this and explain how you plan to work with other communities in your project. We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
During this microgrant period, we are going to collaborate with the SUMAIT University Youthmappers chapter and we will invite some of their students to enable them to learn how a real project is conducted and thus motivates them more to make their chapter sustainable. We have already given them initial training for the Chapter and though there were some challenges, we are still planning to have training sessions with them so that they understand more about Open mapping and Open Data. We also recently participated in one of the projects with Zanzibar Volunteers for Environmental Conservation (ZAVECO) on Open Data Day. And we are planning to extend the relationship that exists. We also offered a helping hand and train Zanzibar Climate Change Alliance (ZACCA) interns and assisted them in mapping flood areas.
Describe other communities you plan to approach, or establish relationships with, for the purpose of the project
(We recommend your response be a minimum of 100 words and a maximum of 300 words.)
For this project, we have already talked with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Zanzibar, and the Minister is happy with the project and positive about it already. We are also in discussion with Zanlink as we believe this data could be helpful to them and the Milele Zanzibar Foundation as well.
We have also talked with the Dean of School of Education at SUZA about the idea, and see how we can incorporate the data they need that will help in making proper decision to advance education in Zanzibar and Tanzania as a whole.
The data collected is also very important to Universities across Tanzania, we are planning to extend our relationship with the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training in Tanzania.
Supporting Documents
Please share a PDF version of your proposed budget
(Your budget must be detailed and realistic. The calculations should be correct, and budget lines should reflect with the activities detailed in the project plan. You must provide an explanation of why you need the item that you’re budgeting for. By using this budget template https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LYNfZLQqpD6j1NexI4i8tCscIPxiBdnarXIudplE/edit?usp=sharing make sure you write the name of the project as your budget name name.)
Please share a PDF version of your proposed project plan
(The project plan must be realistic, and must provide a detailed timeline for the activities outlined in your application. We recommend that you articulate your activities succinctly and clearly align the activities with your project description and your budget. By using this working plan template https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ETbSEoqzaol4fVVOjV4P89Y2WCMPqCMWgzhXtPG4j8/edit?usp=sharing make sure you write the name of the project as your work plan name)
Submission
If applicable, please provide a link to your organization's website
N/A
If applicable, please provide a link to your organization's/community Facebook account
N/A
If applicable, please provide a link to your organization's/community Twitter account
https://twitter.com/SUZAYouthmapper
Will this grant co-fund an already established project?
No
Please confirm that you have checked your application, and answered the questions to the best of your ability
Yes - I'd like to submit my application