Peace Corps Volunteers and Trainees participated in the Mappy Hour remotely from Sydney, Australia.
On Monday, through the wonders of technology, Vanuatu Peace Corps Volunteers and trainees were linked to a roomful of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) half a world away for a collaborative “mappy hour” event at Peace Corps headquarters. Together, they created digital maps of Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Kiribati’s inhabited islands for use in disaster relief and rescue efforts using OpenStreetMap, an online wiki map of the world.
A roomful of RPCV mappers.
The results?
47 participants who contributed to digital maps for disaster relief in the South Pacific
20 DC participants
22 Vanuatu PCV/Ts
5 remote participants in the US
2,087 map edits for Vanuatu
8,391 map edits for Tuvalu (99% of the entire country)
521 map edits for Kiribati (100% of the entire country)
RPCV Connects Resources
Vanuatu RPCV Mariko Schmitz briefs participants.
Mariko Schmitz is the president of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, D.C., and a Peace Corps Vanuatu alum. Like many RPCVs, she keeps tabs on her country’s current events, and here she tells how her fellow returned Volunteers rallied to assist their host country:
“I woke up Thursday morning (March 12) and checked my Yahoo news digest. Vanuatu, which only makes the news as a tourist destination, was in the #2 spot because a megacyclone was about to hit it, dead on. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve served, and five years since I’ve been there. Even with that distance in time, I remember what it was like when storms blew away the food, the roads were seemingly impossibly flooded and the water was suspect. Add to that the destruction of houses and the possibility of deaths. It was hard to get through the day.
For those not familiar with Vanuatu, RPCVs shared what life at their sites was like. Third Goal!
On Facebook, the Vanuatu RPCVs had come out of the woodwork. Everyone wanted to help—by going there, by fundraising, by sending thoughts and prayers—but there was no word from our friends in Port Vila for a couple of days.
I remembered Peace Corps’ work with Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and emailed Patrick Choquette (Director of Innovation at Peace Corps) to see if we could hold a “mappy hour” for Vanuatu. I also found some old instructions on how to program on OpenStreetMap, and posted them to the Facebook discussion group, Vanuatu Cyclone Pam 2015 page, and Yumi Wan Big Famli (“We Are Family”), a website a site for Vanuatu friends and RPCVs).”
As it turns out the Red Cross had asked for mapping help. The Office of Innovation coordinated with the Vanuatu country desk officer to facilitate the participation of Peace Corps Volunteers and Trainees, and RPCV/W advertised the event in its newsletter.
Model for the Future?
First-time mappers got assistance from Peace Corps Innovation Fellow Courtney Clark
Over the years, RPCVs have consistently responded to host country crises. The Peace Corps’ Response Program got its start as a National Peace Corps Association initiative (the Emergency Response Network) to deal with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and in recent times the community has organized around the southeast Asian tsunami, Haiti earthquake, Pakistan floods and Ebola Crisis, to name just a few examples.
Leveraging the intimate knowledge that Peace Corps Volunteers and Returned Volunteers have of their host communities, and using that knowledge to produce high value maps that can be used by disaster relief teams, is a new and exciting way that RPCVs can help in times of crisis.
“Contributing to OpenStreetMap for Peace Corps countries is a simple yet highly effective way for RPCVs and friends of Peace Corps to provide direct assistance to Volunteers and their communities.” says Courtney Clark, Innovation Fellow at the Peace Corps Office of Innovation.
“These groups typically support Volunteers in the field and Peace Corps countries largely through donations to grant funds or, in the case of Vanuatu, disaster relief funds. Donations remain a critically important resource, but OpenStreetMap opens up an entirely new way for Americans to play a direct role in both Peace Corps projects and disaster relief efforts. The digital maps we created Monday night will be used by disaster relief and other aid organizations in Vanuatu to navigate to affected areas, plan supply shipments, identify shelters and prepare for future natural disasters.”
The Vanuatu RPCVs aren’t finished! See below for an announcement about an upcoming Kava Night and fundraiser.