Erik’s newest project

Erik and a few of his friends developed a cool web application (yes, I did not even know that word existed a couple years ago, and now it’s part of my vocabulary!!) this weekend  called Ushahidi (which means “to see” in Swahili.)  Ordinary people can submit reports of acts of violence that have occured since the December elections, and then they’re flagged on a map of Kenya.  They can submit via the Ushahidi website or via SMS - which is really important since many Kenya’s don’t have internet access.  When you click on a town, you can see the acts that have happened there.  There are a couple people in Nairobi that verify the truthfulness of these events before they’re mapped.

I’m really proud of Erik for combining his knowledge of the web and his love of Africa into something that’s neat and useful and has the potential the help people and change lives.

So tell others about it, especially if you know of people in Kenya who can help add to the database.