The team of three evaluators at the Cloneshouse Nigeria’s Center for Learning, Evaluation and Monitoring (CLEAM) and three data nerds, at Dataphyte, have decided to aggregate information about the COVID-19. This time on a Ushahidi map called the COVID19 Nigeria Map.The idea around this is to document information about COVID-19 in Nigeria from verified news sources and channels, assess the extent to which fake news is peddled during this time and provide real-time information about people that need help to use the Ushahidi platform.

In the last week alone, there have been more than 200 covid related maps created on our hosted service, and many other self hosted ones. They’re collecting information, organizing their communities, and making sure that those who need supplies, food, or help are connected to those who can give it. And this number is growing daily.

These deployments are being run by non-Ushahidi staff, using our platform. This is important, we’re a small team of 11 full-time staff, which means we have a binary choice to make: dig into a single deployment of the software (as we’ve done with elections in Kenya and the locusts invasion) or support many at a global level. We’ve chosen the latter: to effectively serve everyone who needs our support.

Guest blog post by Sean Bonner, Co-founder & Director of Safecast, and Associate Professor at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan ( adapted from original safecast map launch announcement )

Guest blog post by Pablo Ruiz-Muzquiz, FrenaLaCurva Maps Technical Coordinator on how they're using Ushahidi to help spanish speakers connect to critical resources during Covid 19 lockdowns

In response to the growing need for platforms like ours to surface additional information and support coordination efforts, we want to do our part in making Ushahidi accessible to those who need it.

As a result, for the next 90 days, starting March 18th 2020, we will be waiving full fees for the Ushahidi basic plan, allowing all users to access the full feature set of the platform