Humanitarian OSM Team/HOT Microgrants/Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Summit Grant 2020/Proposal/Mazingira Safi Initiative and Purdue University
Your project
This is an opportunity for you to tell us about your project. In this section we'd like to hear about your community, which local challenge your project addresses, what you plan to do and how, your sustainability plan, and how you plan to share your stories.
Describe the local challenge your project is addressing
In this section please describe in detail the challenge that your project addresses. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
In July 2014, Purity Wanjohi, Founder and Executive Director of the Mazingira Safi Initiative (MSI), wrote the following when describing her organization: “The notion of volunteerism is often seen as a tool for peace and development. This is mainly due to its benefit to the individual volunteers and the contribution it makes to the peaceful coexistence of people within communities and the development of societies. Volunteering opportunities, especially at community level, tend to bring people together to work in solidarity towards addressing issues and challenges affecting communities. They are a way of giving back responsibly and adding value to community projects. But volunteering is also a major driving force for environmental sustainability and protection of natural resources.” This sentiment both describes the vision for the communal-based environmental projects that MSI has successfully executed since 2013 and highlights why, with minimal training, the non-profit organization is in an ideal position to recruit, engage, and retain OSM volunteers and community members in its hometown of Nairobi, Kenya. This project seeks to bolster OSM participation in Nairobi by combining elements of environmental sustainability and communal responsibility with humanitarian mapping and instruction on open data as a social good.
Describe your project
In this section, please provide specific details about your mapping objectives. This should include: how you will contribute to help solve the local challenge you are addressing, what you aim to achieve with funding, what volume of mapping you plan to complete and how, and the number individuals are you aiming to include in mapping activities. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Mazingira Safi Initiative (MSI) is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven community-based organization in Nairobi, Kenya that seeks to inspire communities to keep their environment clean. MSI, led by Purity Wanjohi, believes in people and nature coexisting in harmony and hosts activities that revolve around 3C's- Community, Culture and Capabilities. Ultimately, MSI aims to develop a proper waste management system and create employment opportunities in Nairobi and across Kenya. In a collaboration between MSI and Purdue University, this project seeks to foster conditions that encourage the recruitment, engagement and retention of OSM volunteers and community members in Nairobi. MSI’s vision—Clean Environment, Communal Responsibility--and seven years of robust, on-the-ground community engagement make it well-suited to recruit and train OSM volunteers. Researchers at Purdue University include Bethany McGowan, lending expertise on strategies for recruiting and engaging university students in Mapathons, and Caroline Marete, a Fulbright doctoral student and native Kenyan with robust connections to universities in Nairobi. This project seeks to leverage the expertise of an established OSM community in Nairobi by hiring one or two consultants to train a 3-person MSI team to host mapathons, execute field activities, and validate map data. Once trained, the MSI team will collaborate with Purdue researchers to develop a recruitment and action plan. Though OSM volunteers will be broadly sought, special emphasis will be placed on the recruitment and retention of college students. At least two Mapathons will be hosted by the MSI team, with a goal of reaching a total of 40 participants. A pre and post-Mapathon assessments will be executed to help measure event success and gather information about improvements, which could be used to further improve retention and program sustainability.
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 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
In addition to the aforementioned use of pre and post assessments to adjust program activities and improve retention and sustainability, several additional sustainability measures will be implemented. The funding proposal includes the purchase of 5 Chromebook laptop computers, intended to be lent to Mapathons participants who do not have laptops or to be used during field activities by the MSI team. These Chromebooks will be stored and maintained by Purity Wanjohi, Founder and Executive Director of MSI and can be used for two or more years after project funding expires. The funding request also includes support for a more robust Wi-Fi connection, which will improve the experience of Mapathon participants and allow for more participants at a single event. One this additional Wi-Fi support expires, Mapathon events will need to be smaller or hosted virtually, where participants rely on their own internet connections. Also, this project relies on a train-the-trainer model for sustainability. MSI was selected as a partner because its record of previous work proves its passion for communal responsibility. This passion, paired with training from experienced OSM consultants, will result in an MSI team trained and prepared to host Mapathons and mapping events as regular activities over the course of several years. Finally, if successfully executed, this project could serve as the catalyst for a more robust research project with longer-term grant funding.
What are your community defined project goals, and how do you define project success?
Please explain you project goals. This can include: setting goals such as "we will train X number of new mappers", "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 intent to be legally registered so that we can receive more grant funding in the future", "we intend to engage X number of women in mapping activities so that we can empower local women" or "we want to build a partnership with X so that our data will be used and trusted". We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Mazingira Safi Initiative (MSI) is a community based organization whose mission is to encourage communities to take an active role in maintaining a clean, green, safe and beautiful environment. We promote cleanliness and provide binfrastructure on our streets, educate communities leading to attitude and behaviour change, and improve economic livelihoods of women and youth through job creation. MSI partners with County Governments to give communities an opportunity to keep our roads and streets litter-free, green and beautiful through a litter reduction program called Adopt A Road® (AAR®). This HOT microgrant will help us to inspire and educate communities to choose and take actions daily that lead to a clean, green and beautiful environment by championing the advantages of a well-mapped community. We aim to train at least 40 new mappers.
What are your community's long term goals?
Please give describe your community's vision. This can include: where you see your community 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 community to grow (or not!). We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
We anticipate that this project will help support MSI's three existing long-term goals to 1. have binfrastructure (litter bins) as part of our country's roads and public spaces. Littering happens because there are no clean, serviced bins; 2. be the go-to resource centre for education, research and data on litter and waste management in Kenya. We want to achieve this by having an e-magazine covering news on litter and waste management and using data from our research to push for better decision-making in the country in this sector; 3. To make environmental matter as important as politics in Africa, worthy of attention, priority in terms of allocation of resources and seats at the proverbial table. We are because of our environment. COVID-19 brought this out clearly. It's time for us to do something about it.
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. For example: "we plan to use HOT's Tasking Manager to coordinate volunteers" or "we will upload our data to X platform because..." We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Our budget includes hardware and Wi-Fi support, which will support data collection. We plan to use HOT's Tasking Manager to coordinate volunteers. We will use the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) to store and update data. Free software applications, such as OpenRefine and Tableau, will be used to clean and update data.
Please give examples of how you will use share your stories with others. This can include: how you will publicise 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 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
We plan to use informal and formal channels to share our stories. Our proposed project team includes women with diverse connections, and our method for sharing is equally diverse. Bethany McGowan is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University and is the Information Coordinator for an international professional association. She is well positioned to share project-related stories formally, in international newsletters, university and departmental newsletters, and as a case study published in a research journal. Purity Wanjohi has managed a non-profit in Nairobi since 2013 and can share stories in local newsletters and professional magazines, blog posts, and on social media. Social media activity could include posts to MSI’s well established Facebook page, @mazingirasafiinitiative. Caroline Marete is a doctoral candidate at Purdue University and the President of the Purdue Fulbright Student Association. She is prepared to share stories on student association newsletters and on social media.
Partnerships
Successful applications will demonstrate one or more partnerships with a local data user. Priority will be given to applications for which the data has been requested by a partnering organisation, or where the partner organisation has expressed interest in collecting the data for a specific use or intervention. Example partners include local non-government organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs), local governments, companies, universities, schools, and other academic institutions.
Describe who will use your 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 a partnering organisation, if there is an established formal relationship with the partnering organisation, 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 you will use the data, and how it ties in with your organisation's work. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Though there is currently no MoU or previous collaboration between Purdue University and the Mazingira Safi Initiative, we are seeking IRB approval for this project through Purdue University. The IRB process includes a data management mandate and both organizations are committed to following FAIR data principles to ensure data findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. We anticipate that the data collected will be the results of pre and post assessments and audio transcriptions from one-on-one interviews or focus group interviews with project participants. Our proposed methods of data collection pose very low risk to participants, however consent forms will be issued to all participants. Because findings from data could be published as a case study or used as evidence in a future grant proposal, data will be anonymized before being published publicly. If published, raw data will be publicly accessible in Purdue University’s institutional repository, e-Pubs.
Describe any other partnerships you plan to mobilise or establish for the purpose of the project
In this section, please describe any additional partners you might be working with. If there are no additional partners (beyond the data user) this must be stated here. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
We hope to partner with one or more representatives from WikiProject Kenya and with local universities in Nairobi. We have a definite connection to Jomo Kenyatta University, of which Caroline Marete is an alumna.
Inclusivity
Successful applications will include a developed strategy for the inclusion of women, girls, and marginalised groups in mapping activities. This includes the number of women, girls or marginalised groups you plan to engage, and the way in which you plan to interact with them.
How will you ensure that your project activities are inclusive?
Please describe how you will engage women and girls, or other marginalised communities in your mapping activities. Please include the number of women, girls or marginalised 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 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
This project is led by three women dedicated to fostering inclusive environments. We plan to utilize Caroline Marete's connections with local organizations to ensure our recruitment reflects a commitment to diversity and inclusion. For example, one target group for recruitment will be women from the Kenya Chapter of Women in Aviation International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of women in aviation career fields. We will also use active learning and participatory learning approaches to further foster inclusion and sense of belonging, through activities such as collecting assessment evidence from every person, every meeting and establishing community norms.
Expansion
Successful applications will show how communities intend to grow community engagement. This includes a practical approach on how many new mappers you aim to recruit and how they will be involved in community activities. Priority will be given to communities that also include a plan for ongoing engagement beyond the grant period. If this is not relevant to your project, please explain why.
Explain how you plan to expand your mapping community
In this section, please include: your approach to recruiting new mappers, how will you engage new mappers, how many new members you plan to recruit, and how will you retain community members throughout the duration of project and beyond. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Our approach to recruiting new mappers is focused on a train-the-trainer model. That is, we plan to use OSM resources available online, consultations with OSM experts, and collaboration between Purdue researchers and MSI to develop a training program for the MSI team. Then, we will develop a robust recruitment plan the mutually benefits both OSM (the funder) and MSI. We will work with the MSI team to ensure the recruitment plan is sustainable and beneficial for the long-term, and that the team is committed to recruiting and training new mappers. We plan to engage a total of 40 new mappers over the course of two or more Mapathons. Our retention of community members is hinged on understanding participant motivation for Mapathaon attendance. We will rely on Bethany McGowan, who has conducted research in this area. Possible strategies include reviewing pre/post assessment findings to ensure participant learning goals are achieved, introducing a team-based competition model, and introducing individual competitions with small prizes to encourage retention.
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Summit
How did you participate in the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Summit?
Please describe how participated in the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap summit, either as an attendee, speaker or volunteer As a speaker
Key takeaways
Please describe any highlights, takeaways, inspiration, or things that you learnt at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Summit 2020.
I gave an OSM Summit 2020 presentation that focused on mapping as a co-curricular instructional tool. Through presenting I learned that my application of learning objectives/outcomes to Mapathons is unique and I was pleased with the interest my talk generated. Though I haven't mapped much, I have spent the past three years hosting Mapathons, actively studying student motivation for Mapathon participation, and measuring participant learning gains. Until recently, my work focused on students at Purdue University but the Summit inspired me to broaden my reach and build multi-national collaborations. I was also impressed with how effectively the Summit organizers host an international event online, which helped showcase and reinforce how possible it is to build international relationships.
Collaboration
Priority will be given to applications that collaborate with other OSM communities in the region. This can be country specific or regional and can include collaboration with Youth Mappers Chapters, or members of the HOT community to help with training, validation (as examples). For support in sourcing collaborators, email microgrants@hotosm.org.
Describe other OSM communities you are already working with
This may include Youth Mappers chapters, or members of OSMF (as examples). If you are not already collaborating with an OSM community, please state this and explain how you plan to work with other communities in your project in the following question.
We are not collaborating with any OSM community, though Bethany McGowan has hosted several Mapathons at Purdue University's main campus in West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Describe other OSM communities you plan to approach, or establish relationships with, for the purpose of the project
We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words..
We plan to approach the OSM community in Nairobi, Kenya.
Project plan and budget
Priority will be given to applications that collaborate with other OSM communities in the region. This can be country specific or regional and can include collaboration with Youth Mappers Chapters, or members of the HOT community to help with training, validation (as examples). For support in sourcing collaborators, email microgrants@hotosm.org.
Budget breakdown
Give your budget breakdown here. If you would like to present your budget in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here
| What do you plan to spend the money on? |
Unit being purchased |
Expected cost (in US Dollars) |
Total cost for budget item | Why is it needed? (please give as much detail as possible) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WiFi internet access |
8 | $150 USD per month for eight months |
$1,200 | This will allow us to run mapathons with up to 30 people at one time. At the moment, internet access will not support mapathons with large groups. Having wifi will enable us to grow our community and achieve our goals. |
| Mobile Hi Speed Modem | 3 | $200 per month for two months | $1200 | To complete our field mapping activities, we will need to travel to different parts of the city and will need reliable internet access . We plan for 3 team members to make several field mapping expeditions over a two-month period, and we allocate 3 mobile high speed modems for each team member. |
| Asus Chromebook C223 or similar | 5 | $200 per Chromebook | $1000 | This will allow us to lend laptops to mapathon participants who are not able to bring computers, and can be used by team members conducting field mapping activities. These will be used during the course of the project. |
| Stipend for expert participants | 2 | $250 per consultation for two consulting sessions | $500 | This will allow us to collaborate with OSM communities in Nairobi and Kenya, specifically by paying for two consultations with regional OSM experts—one consultation focused on training team members to host Mapathons and another focused on validation and field mapping activities. |
| Training for community leadership/team leaders | 3 | $250 per person for three team members | $750 | Three people will be selected to join the project team. These training funds will help to cover the time spent training, organizing, and leading the project. |
| Zoom Pro Video Conferencing | 1 | $150 per year | $150 | A Zoom Pro subscription will allow the training team to receive and training virtually, if needed. It will also allow for the virtual hosting of Mapathons. If necessary, Zoom Pro will allow the project to be conducted wholly virtually. |
| T-Shirts or similar swag items | 20 | $10 USD per item | $200 |
T-shirts and swag items will be used as prize incentives for Mapathon participants and to build a sense of comradery amongst team members. |
| Total | $5000 | |||
Project plan
Give your project plan here. If you would like to present your project plan in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here
| Activity | Month | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 | Month 4 | Month 5 | Month 6 | Month 7 | Month 8 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (the activities listed below are examples only, please update the activities to align with your project description) | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 | w1 | w2 | w3 | w4 |
| Phase 1 (eg. Administration) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 1: Purchasing of projects supplies and equipment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 2: Establish Wi-Fi Connections | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 3: Project Team Meeting: Develop Action Plan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 4: Select Member for MSI team (3 people) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 5: Select OSM consultant to train MSI team/find applicable training material online | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 6: Finalize IRB Approval details (from Purdue University) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phase 2 (eg. Data collection) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 1 : MSI team receives train-the-trainer training and practices field activities (session 1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 2 : Develop learning objectives and pre/post assessments, focus group/interview questions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 3: Execute recruitment portion of Action Plan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 4: Host Mapathon 1: focused on community members using iD editor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phase 3 (eg. Data validation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 1: Validation training for MSI team members | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 2: Mapathon 2: Open data for social good instruction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 3: Focus grops or interviews executed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phase 4 (eg. Closing) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 1: Transcribe interview/focus group data | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 2: Analyze data from transcriptions, pre and post assessments | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Activity 3: Write final report/develop plan for other publications | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Declaration
By submitting this form to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, you certify the information contained in this application is correct, and that if you are awarded a grant, you will use it only for the purposes described above. You will provide written documentation and receipts for all of your expenses to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team to demonstrate this. You understand that the decisions made by the HOT Microgrants committee are final.
Endorsements
Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here! Please note: We will take endorsements into consideration in the final review but credit will be given to the quality of the application as well as the endorsement (this is not a popularity contest). Endorsements will be checked by HOT’s community team prior to selection to ensure the integrity of the endorsement (ie. that applications are not only endorsed by members of the community that submitted the application)
HOT staff, voting members and board members are welcome to endorse, and give feedback to all proposals. However, those who are taking part in the selection process will not be endorsing or giving feedback due to conflict of interest.
Instructions for Endorsement
- Log in to the wiki if you are not already logged in. - Scroll down to Endorsements and click 'Edit source'. - Add your reason for the endorsement followed by four tilde signs --~~~~ Note: The ~~~~ automatically inserts your name and the current date.
Below is an example an endorsement.
- I fully endorse this project - strong idea and detailed project plan --Semower (talk) 15:14, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
I fully endorse this project. It is a great way to contribute to this humanitarian agenda especially because Nairobi is a major city in Africa. Looking forward to what we'll achieve together. Purity Wanjohi (talk) 08:50, 13 January 2021 (UTC)