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It's Community Mapping Day!

10 Dec 2020

Today, on World Human Right's Day, help the School of Environment, Education and Development map the way for prosthetic and orthopaedic surgeons to reach those in need of healthcare and prosthetic limbs in Northern Uganda

Community Mapping Day

On World Human Right’s Day, Thursday, 10 December, the School of Environment, Education and Development are asking University of Manchester students, staff, alumni and supporters to come together as a global community to help us make a difference in one big social responsibility volunteering effort. Together we have a chance to change the lives of thousands of people in Northern Uganda suffering from limb loss following a 20 year conflict and all it takes is a few moments of everyone’s time to help us create a map… 

What is Community Mapping?

Community Mapping is an organisation based in the School of Environment, Education and Development. Our goal is to create maps of previously un-mapped areas of the world, helping address chronic humanitarian crisis. 

What is Community Mapping Day?

Today (Thursday, 10 December), we’ll be asking volunteers to help map the Acholi Sub-Region of Northern Uganda to ensure our team of prosthetics and orthopaedic surgeons can track down those who have been left in urgent need of healthcare and prosthetic limbs following a devastating 20 year conflict that ravaged their region. 

What does mapping involve?

Mapping is free and can be done wherever you are in the world, all you need is access to the internet and some time to draw around huts and tracks. Intructions and a short demonstrative video are available on our Community Mapping website for volunteers. You’ll be able to volunteer your time at any time or place during the day and you can map for as long as you like. Our research shows that, on average, for each 50 huts accounted for, we are providing another person with a prosthetic limb – a great incentive to take part.

How do I take part?

If you’d like to get involved in mapping today, head to the Community Mapping website and follow the instructions provided. There’s also a video to help walk you through the process. You can map at any time for as long as you like, meaning you can fit your volunteering around your schedule.

This is a fantastic opportunity to make a positive difference during a year which has been difficult for many of us. We’ll be logging the actions of our volunteers so at the end, we can share just how many square kilometres of mapping we’ve achieved as a community.