By Zahra Muhammad
ASHENEWS reports that 75 Young Nigerians from eight universities have been trained on the impact of power supply on health care delivery systems in underserved areas.
The workshop convened with the theme “YouthMappers Open Mapping for Heat and Health Workshop”, according to the organizers is a critical step in launching a Power Africa project.
Supported by the USAID and YouthMappers International, a global network of University student-led chapters dedicated to coordinating and executing mapping initiatives in response to worldwide development needs, the program trained students in healthcare facility electricity status data collection and the profound impact of urbanization on local climate and air quality using Akure as a case study.
According to the facilitator of the workshop, who is also the Deputy Director of West African Service Centre for Adapted Land Use, WASCAL, Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA Professor Ifeoluwa Balogun, the objective of the workshop was “to build the capacity of Nigerian university students in Open Street Mapping (OSM) and to enhance their skills in modern day mapping tools such as Mappilary and Kobo Collect.”
He said students were trained in healthcare facility electricity status data collection as the participants engaged with healthcare professionals across various medical facilities and got their permission to map these centers and capture photographs of their electrical infrastructure.
“To achieve the ultimate goal, updated information on where healthcare facilities are located, as well as the state of their current power supply was accessed.
“The workshop thus serves as a pilot project in Nigeria with the USAID/GeoCenter’s (GeoCenter) YouthMappers program (YM) with the data collected significantly contributing to knowledge of healthcare infrastructure and electricity access in underserved areas.”
On his part, a co-founder of Youthmappers International, Chad Belvins, who is also the Technical Advisor of the group, took the participants through the significance of incorporating Mapillary, a platform offering access to street-level imagery.
He said that the workshop has engendered a meaningful global learning experience in the participants and using them as enumerators in the pilot project brought out the potential of the students.
He also commended the unwavering enthusiasm to learn and get the job done during the practical fieldwork exhibited by the participants.
Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Professor Adenike Oladiji, said that the workshop has shown the potential of young Nigerians who if properly guided will continue to make great contributions to the Nigerian project.
“In FUTA we don’t just teach our students but we are also training them to become relevant to their community and the larger society and be able to hold their own on the global stage,” the Vice Chancellor said.
This online platform reports that YouthMappers is a global network of University student-led chapters dedicated to coordinating and executing mapping initiatives in response to worldwide development needs. The main mission is to generate openly accessible geospatial data and information, fostering experiential learning, leadership development, and global impact.
