I work for an organization called ThinkZone, it is a social enterprise that is based in Odisha, a state in India. We work with community educators, school teachers, and Anganwadi workers to improve the learning outcomes of the children in rural communities. When I came to ThinkZone as a fellow, my first job was to understand as much as possible about the organization and the work. For that, I had to regularly visit schools and anganwadis in villages, but the name of the villages was so difficult for me to pronounce let alone find them. I did not belong to this state, I was an outsider and hence did not know the language. Google maps came to my rescue, even with a little hint of the village name I would follow maps and reach to the places I had to go. Eventually, I found out about the local guides program, where I could also add a lot of information to other peoples.
Within a month I had put up places in Google Maps which did not exist before, hospitals, local shops, restaurants, schools, etc. In the remote village of Nischintikioli, I had uploaded a bunch of information. Later this became a usual trend in the organization. I taught everyone to be a local guide, and every time our local managers go on scouting for government schools in remote areas they make sure that they upload it for the benefit of other people.
Even remote schools like the one below are now marked on Google Maps.
