A PRECIOUS STONE WORTHY CELEBREATED A CASE OF STATE OF MAP AFRICA 2023.

The State of the Map Africa (SotM Africa) is a bi-annual regional conference that celebrates the culture of open mapping, open data, GIS, and its impact across Africa. The OSM community in Uganda hosted the first SotM Africa conference in 2017. In 2021, It was hosted in Abidjan and Grand-Bassam in Ivory Coast. The 2021 conference planned in Nairobi, Kenya was virtually hosted (online). This year’s conference was hosted in Yaoundé, Cameroon under the theme “Open Mapping as a Support Tool for Local Development in Africa“ [https://2023.stateofthemap.africa/about] The OSM Africa community has rapidly grown in recent years and as a way of embracing Africanism, SotMAfrica has been practised since 2017 and is regarded as the biggest gathering for all OSM African communities. Again this year from 30th November to 2 December 2023 the African biggest gathering was hosted in Yaounde, Mbankomo - Cameroon.

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YouthMappers A Bank of Sustainable Skills for students.

What I learned in YouthMappers when I was a student.

I have never forgotten what happened when I was a student that day in the afternoon. I can’t unveil the whole incident without highlighting what caused it and in this case, YouthMappers started it. In fact, that was in the 2nd year, when YouthMappers continued to give students an equal opportunity to thrive and find their path in their career side. In my case, I don’t regret that I chose YouthMappers as a student over many other organizations. Career-wise, I wanted to be a computer or Data scientist but the University never gave me the chance to choose what I wanted, therefore I was pushed into Records and Archivist management and I graduated as an information specialist.

In YouthMappers as a student, I learned different skills in both academics and leadership. I have never learned any course related to mapping or GIS in my profession, but I freely acquired these skills from YouthMappers. Further, among the most important things YouthMappers value is inclusive and equal access to opportunity. I came from a background that has nothing to do with geospatial and geography but I was allowed to join YouthMappers and gained a lot of skills which I have also taught to many communities. As a student, I acquired skills from theories and practical points of view without learning them in class but through YouthMappers, open source, and mapathons.

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              #STATE OF THE MAP TANZANIA

STATE OF THE MAP TANZANIA

State of the Map Tanzania is a national conference that celebrates the culture of open mapping, open data, GIS, and its impact across East Africa. The conference took place on 20th-22rd January 2023 in Dare salaam, Tanzania. The conference had the following goals

-Learn from one another to improve OpenStreetMap and Open Data in Tanzania.

-Promote cartographic innovations in Tanzania.

-Place OpenStreetMap as a governance and sustainable development tool.

-Bring together all OpenStreetMap Tanzania Communities to share their experiences and achievements. For more info about the conference visit https://stateofthemaptanzania.org/

activities Joined

• I participated in the Mapbox and how to utilize it for free. it was my first time understanding that Mapbox can be used for free by the communities. I learned that MapBox allows individual subscriptions and enjoy their services.

In 2022, I had the big privilege to join the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team for the southern and Eastern Africa Hub in Zambia as a volunteer. My experience can not be explained on one plain paper or page. I have received more skills than I expected and overwhelming lessons. In fact, I am not geospatial by profession but a records and archivist manager. I have learned all my spatial life off my profession through the help of #YouthMappers #Crowd2MapTanzania and #HOT. In addition, today I can simply say I am an expert in the Geospatial spectrum and I do train massive of people in this field. I have no paper but the skills and knowledge that i have acquired directing through networking, collaboration, and Mapathons. Lastly, i have done a lot of self-development to ensure that at least I make sure i do something daily in spatial and open mapping areas. Contact info charlesmchilufya@gmail.com +260962256767 (calls and WhatsApp).

Leadership and #Volunteerism

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YouthMappers Pre-conference meeting.

On the 18th August YouthMappers called its members to meet. This was a great moment ever for YouthMappers member to meet again for second conference since 2017. This gathering was the combination of the 2020 research fellows, regional ambassadors, YouthMappers technical supporters, director, communication officer and the board members.

The first meeting created a space for YouthMappers members to be updated, knowing one another, interacted, collaborated and above discussed the major impacts in their communities as a collective. In the process of continuity in the building of young people who define their future through community works and actively engaged in identifying problems and offering solutions, YouthMappers awarded certificates of appreciation to all its young people. This was a great motivation to Youths who tirelessly and selflessly contribute to open sources.

Highlights:

In 2022 during the conference YouthMappers @[youthmappers.org] launched the first ever documentary in history, highlighting the major impact and voices of young people inclusively. Additionally, in recognizing the efforts of young people across the #67 countries with #327 YouthMappers chapters, young people combined their voices and released the book around all sustainable development goals. This book is a true reflection of YouthMappers current, Alumni, technical team and board of directors voices. It has showcased some major impacts, works and efforts of the young people in their different communities.