Voice of the Community

Our best contributors, on one page

We love to know more about you!

In this page, you can meet the best members of our community, volunteers that have distinguished themselves from the crowd due to their exceptional achievements and contributions to the UN Mappers community goals and objectives.

Every month, one member of the UN Mappers community will be showcased on this page, which also displays previous awardees. You could be the next one!

In order to be showcased on this page, you can contribute as a UN Mapper in different ways:

Edit our projects and keep track of your data through our UN Mappers Leaderboard. We will be awarding the mappers positioned at the top of this leaderboard.
Please keep in mind that we evaluate not only the quantity of data, but also the quality! 
Organize collaborative events with your community and let us know through our social media or mail! The more people you have an impact on, the better.
Expand the UN Mappers community by organizing a local group of mappers to edit our mapping projects!
We are also looking for the empowerment of local and under-represented communities!
Provide help not only with mapping, but also by doing community activities like translations, logo designs, illustrations and so on!

The UN Mapper of the month

João Pedro de Andrade Eduardo

João Pedro de Andrade Eduardo is a brazilian geographer with a master’s degree in Geography from the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
He has distinguished himself during the “OSM and Humanitarian Mapping” training that was conducted in Portuguese.

“It's important to highlight that collaborative cartography is essential, especially in places where geospatial data is still sparse.”

Past awardees

Sango Bishiri Narcisse

Sango Bishiri Narcisse is software engineer based in Chad.
He has distinguished himself during the global training that was conducted in French.

“I often map to improve myself and gain a better understanding of the tool. Also, I map to positively manage my free time after my daily tasks.”

Ingrid Reine Fotso Tuedjo

Ingrid Reine Fotso Tuedjo is our mapper of the month for April 2023. Ingrid is a student in surveying and topography at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Travaux Publics in Yaoundé. She is enthusiast in all aspects about all aspects related to GIS. She organized a training course for the students at her university to introduce OpenStreetMap and approach it with great dedication.

“I feel useful and proud to contribute to OpenStreetMap and look forward to getting more engaged in social and humanitarian projects.”

Said Turksever

Said Turksever is a Geomatics Engineer, OpenStreetMap contributor and community builder. Together with the OSM community in Türkiye, he coordinated the disaster response and global mapping work on OSM from day 0 after the devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Türkiye on the 6th of February 2023.

“Open geodata is critical for responding to disasters during emergency and recovery response. OpenStreetMap data has been used for supporting rescue teams and humanitarian effort, understanding damage and decision making during recovery activities.”

Sajeevini Sivajothy

Sajeevini Sivajothy is a Geography student, passionate about GIS, at the Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Batticaloa, who contacted us a few months ago to organise a training course for students at her university. During the training, Sajeevini was very active and committed to the involvement of the participants.

“I really love mapping. Maps are a great tool for disaster response and urban planning and they give me the opportunity to learn about other places in the world.”

Ronald Ontiveros

Ronald Ernesto Ontiveros Capurata, Ronald Ontiveros in OSM, is our mapper of the month for January. Ronald, a researcher in remote sensing and GIS based in Mexico, recently participated in the UN Maps workshop held at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in November. Since then, he has continued to contribute, trying to transmit his passion among his students and collaborators.

“Mapping allows me to contribute to a subject I am passionate about: geographic information. It is an opportunity to "know" other places through maps and knowing that the data created is used by UN Peacekeeping missions makes the work more attractive.”

Frans Schutz

Frans Schutz, Frans S in OSM, is our mapper of the month for December. Frans is a retiree living in Hulst, the Netherlands, devoting his time to validating data, working to increase the quality of OSM, and helping new contributors improve their skills.

“In recent years I have been working "full time" as a validator as far as you can work full time as a retiree. I get satisfaction from knowing that my contributions matter.”

Włodzimierz Bartczak

Włodzimierz Bartczak (Cristoffs in OSM) is a Polish mapper who actively participates in his country's OpenStreetMap community and has recently discovered UN Mappers. He is interested in tourism, cartography and new technologies.

“Maps have always fascinated me. When I grew up, they were a window on the world. Over the years, I used them to plan my leisure time. Then I discovered OpenStreetMap and found that I could also create them and help others with my work.”

Theresa Vieira

Theresa Vieira, a retired project manager living in California, is the UN mapper of the month for October. Theresa, Tess2344 in OSM, has been contributing to UN Mappers' projects for over a year, making a valuable contribution in supporting peacekeeping missions. In mapping, she has found both a way to apply her technical skills and a way to support causes that matter to her.

"I missed the technical part of my job and this was a way for me to do something technical as well as support great causes. It has almost become part of my daily routine to map with my morning coffee."

Bartosz Racławski

Bartosz Racławski, “ptarac” in OSM, is our Mapper of the Month of September. Bartosz is a Polish forester, a passionate naturalist and ornithologist who participates both in national and international Openstreetmap humanitarian projects.

"OpenStreetMap offers a wide range of information that is useful in providing help and in emergency situations"

Arne Kimmig

Arne Kimmig (AwoowoArne in OSM) is our Mapper of the Month of August. Arne is a German retired mathematician who enjoys volunteering in archeological and humanitarian projects. From the very beginning he made a great contribution to our projects in Somalia, being one of our first contributors and one of the most active mappers in the country.

"Apart from doing my bit for humanitarian projects, mapping gives me insight into landscapes and how these might influence the living and the culture of the inhabitants and vice versa how the people shape their environment."

Yunita Sari

Yunita Sari from Jakarta is an experienced mapper who firmly believes in the usefulness of open data for disaster response. Yunita recently joined the UN Mappers effort in Libya, doing a fantastic job mapping buildings together with the members of Perkumpulan OpenStreetMap Indonesia.

"My motivation for carrying out mapping is to contribute to disaster response, especially in affected areas. Furthermore, mapping results can reduce the risk of disasters in the future."

Yacouba Diarra

Yacouba Diarra, a young geographer from Mali, is an excellent trainer, committed to the mission of making OSM and its tools known in his community. He has participated in our courses and was the best mapper during the buildings mapathon in Tripoli, conducted together with OSM Libya.

"I love mapping, first out of passion and then to save the World by contributing to facilitate access to cartographic data. Mapping is an excellent communication tool for governance."

Abdurahman Al Furjani

Abdurahman, Chair of OpenStreetMap Libya Association, with over 28,000 edits in OSM provided his precious contribution to peacekeeping missions and the UN Mappers project in Libya aimed at delivering a 3D digital replica of the city of Tripoli. Furthermore, he is also involved in the translation of our Learning Hub into Arabic with OSM Libya.

"Mapping is essential to enable digital transformation and sustainable development. Mapping is the key to Location Intelligence."

Derick Ssekitoleko

Derick, a humanitarian mapper from Uganda, has distinguished himself not only by his contributions to mapping projects but also by being one of the most active members of the community. He indeed participates actively in our Discord server, by asking several interesting questions to improve his skills

"I enjoy mapping because I believe the data I provide is being used for humanitarian purposes and I truly value helping others."

Pedro André Faria

Pedro, from Portugal, won the 2021 UN Map Marathon. He is dedicated to have a positive impact on the world. For making a difference he has participated in different humanitarian mapping projects, including UN Mappers.

"Participating in mapping seems like a simple way to make a big difference in the lives of real people from my laptop"

Carine Moukom

Carine partecipated to the 12 hours training course held in collaboration between UN Mappers and Eureka Geo, a Cameroon based learning center with the goal to develop local entrepeneurship with young professionals. She classified as best mapper all over the training.

"Participating in this training was a great experience for me, I was able to make my modest contribution to promote peace in these areas, it also allowed me to better orient my career choices. This initiative would be beneficial for Cameroon, it would allow poor people to participate in economic and social environments to enjoy a decent life."

Charly Ebeh

Charly partecipated to the 12 hours training course held in collaboration between UN Mappers and Eureka Geo, a Cameroon based learning center with the goal to develop local entrepeneurship with young professionals. He classified as best mapper all over the training.

"Collaborative mapping is very beneficial for Cameroon, because it integrates actors from various horizons in order to solve territorial problems and improve decision making within institutions. Participate to this kind of initiative is very instructive for my career as Geomatics specialist."

Yves Emmanuel Nikoyo Emougou

Yves is a young professional from Cameroon. He won the UN Map Marathon event, classifying as the best mapper over a 5-day mapping activity in occasion of the OSM GeoWeek.

"I like the UN Map Marathon because it brings together several contributors who produce data for a humanitarian cause. This event also inspired me: in the near future I plan to organise a similar activity with my community."

Limo Kipchirchir Collins

Limo is a young student from Kenya, who has been selected after a competitive logo contest to bring his design to be the official logo of UN Mappers. After an initial logo revision, he had the possibility to cooperate with our Design Squad to produce a professional and outstanding brand.

"Thank you for providing me with such an honor. It has been amazing to work with the UN Mappers team and
get acknowledged for my efforts. I will keep supporting UN Mappers at the best of my possibilities!"