KENYA: Mapping Kibera to improve living conditions
NAIROBI, 6 January 2011 (IRIN): It is one of the most densely populated districts of Kenya’s capital and one of the most researched urban areas in Africa.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of NGOs work there, serving a community estimated to number anywhere between 100.000 and a million. Yet, until recently, the sprawling slum of Kibera barely featured on any detailed maps.
As a result, basic information, such as the location and number of schools, churches, health centres, water points and other amenities was simply not available except to people living or working in their immediate vicinity.
The Map Kibera project, launched just over a year ago, has filled in many of these gaps.
Nine Kibera residents were trained to use hand-held global positioning system (GPS) devices and to collect geographic information in the dozen “villages” that make up the slum.
The information they collected is now freely available on Open StreetMap, a map of the entire world that anyone can edit.
– We wanted to make people know more about their own community, for example, where – and which – are the best hospitals. For this to happen, we are in dialogue with the community, we hear about their needs before mapping, said Hassan, one of the Kibera residents involved in the process.
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