Central America, Asia, and Africa—Freedom Youniverse GeoCenter Contractors have been scattered about the planet for the past several months working on a number of incredible projects. Wondering what these world travelers have been up to? Brian, our GeoCenter and USAID Program Manager, gave us a recap.

Lalaina—Lalaina left for Nepal just after the New Year where she supported training on the use of the ArcGIS Server, the ArcGIS Collector App, and an Amazon cloud server for data management. Incredibly successful with both our mission and training, these resources are already seeing implementation in this area of South Asia.

Baboyma—Boarding one of the last flights out of Dulles before the blizzard buried the region, Baboyma left for a three-week TDY to Guinea in West Africa at the end of January. Having worked remotely on this mission for quite some time, he was present during the development of a food security program design for Feed the Future.

Chad—Focused on training Peace Corp volunteers, Chad left for Mozambique to support the Mapping for Resilience program in Quelimane, the capital of the Zambezia Province. To prevent malaria, both USAID and an implementing partner have employed the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) project, an indoor mosquito-spraying program. Using Open Street Map, Chad trained volunteers on how to develop improved base maps for that region—an integral tool in ensuring all homes are treated.

Mariam—For nearly two weeks Mariam provided GIS training in the West African country of Ghana as part of a larger “Digital Development” training that the lab was conducting. Additionally, she conducted the first of its kind evaluation of a Foreign Service GIS Specialist that the GeoCenter is supporting.

Mike—Splitting his time between El Salvador and Honduras, Mike spent two weeks in Central America. In El Salvador, he and a partner conducted training for mission staff and USAID implementing partners. And in Honduras he led a GIS needs assessment with the mission where he shared the results of a child vulnerability assessment.

Tiring, challenging, and at times logistically complicated, we thank everyone involved in these efforts, from our travelers and HR, to Security and Biz Ops, for their dedication, time, and support in carrying out the mission of Freedom Consulting Group.

Onward!