Help where help is needed

KENYA: Earthquakes, riots, terrorist attacks – in times of crisis, it’s important to send help to the right place quickly. Thanks to a new collective mapping tool, everyone can take part in informing helpers where to go.

When aid workers are flown into a disaster zone, they have the resources to help. What they don’t have is information on the extent of the disaster and the location of victims. Inhabitants, on the other hand, are only aware of details in their immediate environment.

The collective mapping tool Ushahidi.com was developed when chaos broke out after the Kenyan elections in 2007. Kenyan computer programmers designed it to give the crowds a voice. People were encouraged to send text messages reporting trouble or acts of violence. Because many Kenyans do not have internet access, the system was designed to work with mobile phones.

Since the Kenyan elections, Ushahidi has also been hugely useful for finding victims of both the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes. During the disaster in Haiti, for example, an emergency mobile-phone number was broadcast via radio. People sent in text messages reporting trapped victims, and this information was compiled on Ushahidi’s crisis map. The map gave aid workers the overview they needed so they could provide effective help.

Ushahidi has helped aid workers to find victims of earthquakes

Of course, even a tool like Ushahidi is not fail-safe. People can always lie, exaggerate their situation, or simply get their location wrong. But if there is enough information, it will form patterns. “We’re moving beyond the idea that information is completely true or completely false,” Ushahidi support worker Patrick Meier told The New York Times. For a tool like Ushahidi, average truths are good enough.