A cooperative effort by bloggers and developers across the world has developed a Web site to help Kenyans report and track post election violence in the country. Among other things, the tracking can help non-government organisations (NGOs) direct help and resources.

The site is Ushahidi.com. (The name means "witness" in Swahili.) It uses a Google Maps in a mash-up with data collected by the site. People can report incidents online or via SMS. The reports are not posted to public view until they are verified.

You can listen to a 14 Jan 2008 audio report about this effort from The World radio programme.

This project is an example of the Swahili expression Harambee, "pulling together".

J.D. Abolins