Ushahidi – Revolutionizing Disaster Relief

With tools like Ushahidi, humanitarian work can now operate much differently than it has in the past. In the past, humanitarian work was limited in part by the small number of foreign journalists who were able to get to a disaster location and report on events there. Now victims on the ground can supply real-time information to a horde of global volunteers ready to translate the text messages and help orchestrate relief.

Ushahidi represents a new type of innovation. Entrepreneurship derived from hardship and suffering. These innovators concentrate on doing more with less and the consequences have been nothing less of amazing. Because Ushahidi was an idea born out of a crisis, no one tried to capitalize on its launch. The organization used open-source software and was therefore able to let others alter the tool for new projects. “Ushahidi remixes” have been used in Armenia and India to monitor elections; in the Middle East to report on the Gaza War; in Africa to report on medicine shortages; and in Washington DC to map road blockages and the location of available snowplows.

Innovations like Ushahidi and the organizations other data processing tools like Swift River are truly changing the landscape of disaster relief and humanitarian work.