First and foremost, there is a revolutionary step towards making women matter in society which is aimed at making the old dogma regarding them fade into their achievements, especially in Africa. The girl child education was not in existence in Africa decades ago but positive platforms set out to bring girls into every facet in the society have made it possible for girls to be positively recognized in the society.
Pioneer LetGirlsMap members of LionMappersTeam, Enugu Campus
The Let Girls Map wing of LionMappersTeam-Enugu Campus chapter, which have a set mission, vision and a well-defined agenda though activities, plan on actualizing girl child empowerment. YouthMappers accomplishes this through their #LetGirlsMap campaign by empowering the girls with the right insight, knowledge, and exposure regarding global mapping which is a delicate tool in solving world problems and specifically aiding in rapid response to vulnerable communities, provides disaster mapping solutions for humanitarian purposes around the world.
Certainly, with the formation of LionMapperTeam-Enugu Campus as a chapter of YouthMappers, our female students now have an international platform to network with female students of other universities in Africa and beyond. We look forward to leveraging on this opportunity to map communities with vulnerable women and girls especially in the area of HIV, Girl Child trafficking, terrorism and violence. We hope to participate in remote mapping for initiatives providing aid to communities that are vulnerable to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), infant child mortality, and mothers’ primary healthcare challenges. In Nigeria, so many rural women are vulnerable to poverty due to rural livelihood and poor educational system. We need to use this empowerment by YouthMappers’ LetGirlsMap Campaign to place these vulnerable and sensitive issues on a global web map for rapid response and economic development.
The beauty of Girls empowerment is the freedom from ignorance and the ability to ability to be innovative and productive in the society. Just a single training and exposure to the geospatial capability of OpenStreetMap and I am already empowered to contribute to a global effort of proactive disaster management. During the training, I could see myself responding to save lives in disaster prone communities, providing geospatial data that boost our digital economy and sustainable development.
I therefore, look forward that our female students will key into the vision of LetGirlsMap campaign. We look forward to a day soonest when only female students in Enugu campus would host a Mapathon and organize openstreetmap training for primary health care of vulnerable women in rural areas of Enugu State, Nigeria. We look forward, that, soon our girls will no longer go to places without first of all checking to know whether their destination buildings are found on a map. Surprisingly, I discovered, that our Team Leader does not visit or embark on a journey without tracking his ‘location to destination’ on Maps.me mobile app, to know the actual location, travel time and distance, and even post it on group chat for others to learn and follow up. That’s the path to empowerment, very essential for our campus girls, as making use of this geospatial data will actually make us Smart Girls in a world of growing smart cities.
I would appreciate having a dedicated WhatsApp chat group exclusively for LetGirlsMap wing of LionMappersTeam to drive this vision to heart and action of many female students in our campus. I am optimistic that, given the necessary support from YouthMappers, my university management, my team leader and faculty advisor Professor Okpala-Okaka, C and our team mentor Victor Sunday, as well as the entire female students in my department, faculty and other departments, LetGirlsMap of LionMappersTeam-Enugu Campus would be full of fun, mapping on openstreetmap platform. And with these efforts by several platforms like the LionMappersTeam (LMT) .it is a powerful stepping stone for the recognition of the capacity and capability of girls in the society.
Chidinma Anne Johnson is a currently in her M.Sc. Geoinformatics Programme at the Geoinformatics and Surveying Department, Univeristy of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. She is the Director, LetGirlsMap of LionMappersTeam-Enugu Campus. She sells jewelry and other ladies items as a means of financial empowerment to fund her programme.
To learn more about the YouthMappers #LetsGirlsMap campaign, please visit