Abstract:
Access to affordable, nearby daycare is a pressing concern for many parents, particularly young mothers who seek to continue their education or participate in the workforce. Yet, in many parts of Africa, spatial data on childcare facilities remains sparse, outdated, or completely unavailable.
This talk will present a community mapping initiative that aims to address this data gap by identifying and mapping daycare facilities in a Nairobi neighbourhood using OpenStreetMap tools. Through a participatory process involving local youth and community groups, the project collects geolocated data on operational daycare centers, including their names, services, capacity, contact information, and safety features.
To achieve this, the project utilizes QGIS for planning, digitization, and visualization of the data layers, while QField is used for efficient, mobile-based field data collection. With the JOSM plugin in QGIS, the cleaned and verified datasets are uploaded directly to the OSM platform, ensuring that the information becomes globally accessible and contributes to the growing body of open data supporting African communities.
The use of these open-source tools enables community members, including those with limited technical backgrounds, to engage in the full mapping workflow. The project ultimately empowers local mappers, supports better decision-making for parents, and enables local leaders and planners to identify service gaps and allocate resources more effectively.
In alignment with the conference theme, this initiative showcases how grassroots open mapping can connect communities to essential services, promote gender equality, and foster sustainable collaboration among residents, developers, government officials, and open data advocates.

Key Learning Outcomes:
• How to use QGIS and QField to implement a local community mapping project
• Publishing collected data to OpenStreetMap using the JOSM plugin
• Engaging local stakeholders—especially women and youth—in a participatory mapping approach
• Practical lessons from mapping social infrastructure that serves vulnerable populations

Speaker Bio:
Maurine Oyugi is a Geomatics Engineer and GIS Consultant passionate about using geospatial data to address community needs. She was the Regional Ambassador for YouthMappers in Kenya and has led open mapping campaigns across universities and humanitarian contexts. Her work integrates spatial technology, grassroots engagement, and social impact, rooted in both technical expertise and lived experience as a young parent.