OpenStreetMap’s, Mikel Maron came to Kenya with one mission – to map Africa’s largest slum!

Wow! What a mission. And what a relevant one too. Kibera has been a blank spot on online maps for a long time. Yet it’s interesting that up to 700,000 people (by some estimations) live in the slum. You would think there would be a map of such a densely populated area somewhere, right? Well, unfortunately this was not the case. But the OpenStreetMap team of which Mikel is a part of did something about it (aint that cool!)

Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, widely known as Africa’s largest slum, remains a blank spot on the map. Without basic knowledge of the geography and resources of Kibera it is impossible to have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of residents. This November, young Kiberans create the first public digital map of their own community

Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, widely known as Africa’s largest slum, remains a blank spot on the map. Without basic knowledge of the geography and resources of Kibera it is impossible to have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of residents. This November, young Kiberans create the first public digital map of their own community.

What’s even cooler, is how they did it. They did not land a team of mapping ‘experts’ on the ground to map kibera. Nope. In fact, as far as I can tell, Mikel was probably the only one who has been working on maps for the longest time. The actual team that did the mapping learnt how to do it in a 2-day crash course (ahem ‘workshop’) and they were commissioned and sent out into the slum carrying paper (yes, paper), pens and GPS devices. The team was actually made up of residents of Kibera. One from each of the villages that make up the slum.

Now this is amazing! This is what it means to empower people. These young ladies and gentlemen were not only given new knowledge, and skill. But something far more amazing – a different experience and new exposure to something beyond the slum (remember TEDx Kibera?).