The OpenStreetMap Foundation had quite recently launched a worldwide membership campaign with the objective of growing and diversifying OSMF membership in regions where there are very low or no OSMF members. And I am proud to say that I was/am part of this campaign. I should say that it is also my very first time volunteering for the OpenStreetMap Foundation and the experience has been & continues to be very enriching to say the least. In late January, I had responded to a call for volunteers & campaigners to help grow OSMF membership on Slack & since then, I’ve been part of a very diverse, talented & committed group of campaigners & volunteers.

On the first few virtual meet-ups via Google meet, I had promptly signed up for the visual comms/mapmakers role as I believed I could use whatever little designing skills & experiences I had to aid in creating & designing comms material for the campaign. In doing so, I had been thrown into a mix of incredible volunteers from around the world. Our work as visual comms/mapmakers volunteers had revolved around creating posters, pubmats, infographics, maps, etc. and these materials feature a lot about the OpenStreetMap Foundation, testimonials, how to join, membership types, why join, etc. However, generating these materials wasn’t an easy feat as the process often involved planning, a lot of discussions, facilitating, reviewing, and amending the materials as per suggestions/recommendations from the OSMF Board.

I believe that this volunteering opportunity has helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have imagined because in the short period of only two months, I have learnt a lot about community, having being part of a group with shared or common interest but also acknowledging the different ideas, strengths & capabilities that each one of us had & brought to the table allowed us to effectively work together to bring about the outputs we were tasked to deliver.

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Open Geospatial Data for Disaster Recovery/Response

Fiji is a small island developing state and has been and continues to be severely affected by the obvious impacts of climate change, i.e. increase in sea level causing coastal erosion, water shortages due to salt water intrusion and the more apparent impact of the increased occurrence of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, storms, floods, droughts etc. Having personally experienced some of the worst tropical cyclones that has ever made landfall in Fiji, the project has been developed in light of the after effects of these extreme events. It takes time, resources and finance to begin rebuilding after a tropical cyclone hits and many are ill-prepared for this recovery process. For years, many Fijian communities have been all too aware of and much too dependent on the disaster relief packages they receive post disaster occurrence from the Fijian government, FRCS, NGOs and even international aids. However, it should be made known that there are alternative forms of assistance available for individuals, businesses etc. in regards to disaster relief/rehabilitation packages. The aim of this legacy project was to map and update points of interests entailing locations and relevant information relating to financial institutions/bodies that offer or have in the past offered disaster recovery/relief packages to members of Fijian communities within the Northern and Central divisions.

Area of study

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Data Collection

A survey was undertaken to gauge respondents various level of awareness of current, available disaster recovery/response packages in Fiji. In addition, certain financial institutions were also contacted via face to face office visits and through email. The financial institutions targeted are as follows; (i) Sugar Cane Grower’s Fund (ii) Tower Insurance (iii) Fiji National Provident Fund (iv) Home Finance Company Ltd

Results

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