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COSMAH-Stm, St Marc
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COSMAH is a group of Haitian youth who were trained on mapping by the international organisation of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and are engaged in literally and figuratively putting Haiti on a map.
OpenStreetMap is a global platform for open-source geographic data, and the Humanitarian
OpenStreetMap team is a team of volunteers who go into countries post-disaster and help to build a more robust geographic data set to help with relief and recovery. Haiti’s maps were notoriously bad, and this was a great obstacle to the earthquake relief in 2010. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team came in and trained a group of Haitians on how to use a GPS, collect geographic data, and edit the data on OSM’s online platform, and this contributed greatly to the availability of data post-earthquake (in addition to the effort of hundreds of remote online volunteers).
OpenStreetMap team is a team of volunteers who go into countries post-disaster and help to build a more robust geographic data set to help with relief and recovery. Haiti’s maps were notoriously bad, and this was a great obstacle to the earthquake relief in 2010. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team came in and trained a group of Haitians on how to use a GPS, collect geographic data, and edit the data on OSM’s online platform, and this contributed greatly to the availability of data post-earthquake (in addition to the effort of hundreds of remote online volunteers).
After the success of the trainings in Port au Prince, the Haitian mappers formed anorganization called COSMAH (Community OpenStreetMap Haiti), and both began looking
for ways to train more Haitians. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap and COSMAH arranged a
project with USAID to train 30 young Haitians from every section of St Marc to map their
own community and create a professional map of the area. Over a period of 3 months,
they trained these 30 youth in all of the skills they would need to be mappers. They then
meticulously divided up the commune of St Marc to map all of the points of interests:
schools, roads, churches, businesses, etc. The map was then edited online and the data
became open source for the use of anyone who wanted to use it.
Now that the official project is over, the mappers in St Marc decided to create their own group called COSMAH.Stm, and they continued to map voluntarily, training other young people on mapping, and contributing to other volunteer mapping projects. They are now a group of young professionals who are thinking about how to use their skills not just for themselves but for their community and their country.
Download full report (in english):
GPS coordinates:
Primary contact:
Louisius Wedens, tel: 3743 3959, Charles Shamar, 3884 5895
English
Success gradient:
Commune:
St Marc
Partners:
USAID, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
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