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In 2017 aid agencies and NGOs spent £27bn responding to emergencies around the world

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But raising funds is only half the battle

ASTON RUPERT

RUPERT

In any disaster, the most important thing is to get the right resources to the right people on the ground

RUPERT

Without a map that can be almost impossible

RUPERT

Let me give you an example.  2014, the Ebola outbreak.  Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiere are trying to deal with this massive influx of patients who are all presenting with these Ebola symptoms.  They’re asking questions, ‘where’s your village and how far have you travelled?’  They’re hearing three days and they’re hearing the name of a village, but they don’t know where on earth it is.  There’s no map of Sierra Leone that’s even remotely up to date.

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Rupert’s team are on a mission to make sure help gets to those  who need it most

RUPERT

Today around a billion people on this planet don’t exist on a map or in any kind of universally understandable way. 

RUPERT

We’re In Northern Uganda here close to the Congolese border, in an area that’s never ever been mapped before.   We’re looking into the villages here for the first time and putting them on a map.

Really we’re creating the first comprehensive map of the world that’s ever been made.

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The map making process begins with volunteers around the world using satellite imagery

CARLY

I’m Carly.  I live in London, and I volunteer with Humanitarian Open Street Map. 

CARLY

I’ve just finished work, I’ve come along to a mapathon.  It’s essentially an event, it’s a group of people getting together to put people on the map.  

CARLY

So the task is for us to just draw outlines and trace over buildings and roads, things we can see. 

CARLY

Something like this is so easy to do. I just trace around the corners of each building and I’ve added it to the map.  Then community mappers on the ground can go in and say exactly what that building is and what it’s used for. 

CARLY

For me, the reason I got involved is I take maps for granted, so if I want to get from a to b, I’ll just get out my phone and there’s a map there.  But actually there are parts of the world where people aren’t on the map and these are parts of the world that are really vulnerable to humanitarian crises, disasters, and disease outbreaks as well.

CARLY

The value of having a map is huge.

RUPERT

What I’ve got on the screen here is I’ve got a map.  The London mapathon has been mapping this area.  It’s got shapes on it, but we don’t know what those shapes are.  They might be hospitals, they might be schools, they might be churches and we’ll go in there and tag them with the characteristics that can be useful for emergency response

RUPERT

I’ve got a team of surveyors out here on motorbikes and they’re going through the bush, and going to every outpost and every village.

RUPERT

Each time these guys do a survey in a village or a community they ask certain questions

SAMUEL
How many children are in this school?

CHAIRMAN
Eighty

SAMUEL

How many teachers are in the facility?

CHAIRMAN

Two only.

SAMUEL

Two teachers.

RUPERT
So what were polygons, just unknown shapes, boxes and lines, now become roads, houses, schools and hospitals, with values added to them, and the map becomes a real live information system.

SAMUEL

Thank you so much

CHAIRMAN

Thank you

RUPERT

What’s getting created is an operational map, whereby if there’s a massive flood or an epidemic that breaks out in a community then agencies and charities can get into disaster situations effectively and precisely.

We can re-plan interventions in the field. we now able to map these areas and represent them to bodies who can bring assistance to them.

RUPERT

Thanks for sending me the position.  What’s he saying about it?

DAYAN

He’s telling me this water point here, they started using it three years back

RUPERT
They’re drinking straight from the ground.  Now we have these animals here, so they’re wanting the water.  Everybody’s sharing it, but this can lead to infection and things.  So we can put it on the map and then it can alert people to the fact that they’re badly serviced for water.

RUPERT
We’re doing ground-breaking work here.  It’s never been done before.  And we’re involving everybody in it.  It’s a communal collaboration with everybody on the planet.

So in our own humble way, we hope that we’re changing the world.