MapAction GIS volunteers to join Royal Wedding celebrations

3 May 2018 - Seven members of humanitarian mapping charity MapAction, of which Prince Harry is patron, have been invited to take part in the Royal Wedding celebrations at Windsor Castle on 19 May.

Six MapAction volunteers are among 200 representatives from charities with whom Prince Harry and Ms Markle are closely associated that have been invited to enter the grounds of Windsor Castle on the morning of the Wedding. They will watch the arrival of the guests, hear the Service live and see the departure of a Carriage Procession after the Wedding Service. The charity’s Chief Executive, Liz Hughes, will attend the Wedding Service itself in St George’s Chapel.

MapAction’s mission is to save lives and alleviate suffering for people affected by humanitarian emergencies by mapping the needs of those affected and helping to coordinate the response, so that the right aid gets to the right places more quickly. Prince Harry has been MapAction’s patron for over ten years, and attended an international humanitarian training exercise in Norway with the charity in 2016.

MapAction volunteers are highly skilled mapping and information management specialists who deploy at very short notice in response to disasters anywhere in the world.

The volunteers that are invited are:

Vickie Plewes of Swavesey, Cambridgeshire – Vickie is a longstanding MapAction volunteer and former trustee who has contributed to all areas of the organisation’s work. Her first deployment with MapAction was to Sri Lanka in 2004 in response to the Boxing Day tsunami. She has also spent time in Iraq supporting the Mines Advisory Group to clear landmines and went to the Philippines in the immediate aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Emerson Tan of Stoke Newington, London – Emerson helped develop MapAction’s field IT systems and has been on numerous missions including in response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013. He also played a pivotal role in developing Kenya’s National Disaster Operation Centre. Emerson is Chief Executive of a financial technology company.

Rachel Alsop of South Tottenham, London – Rachel joined MapAction as a volunteer in 2014 and leads on the charity’s work on health mapping (mapping that helps provide better and more cost-effective healthcare). She took part in MapAction’s response to flooding in Peru in 2017 and met Prince Harry on a humanitarian training exercise in 2016. She works as a consultant, primarily with the NHS, focusing on better use of data in operational and strategic decision-making.

Andrew Kesterton of Dundee – Andrew has been a MapAction volunteer since 2014 and has participated in many missions, as well as supporting the organisation’s technical development.

Ian Coady of Warsash, Hants – Ian joined MapAction as a volunteer in 2017 and has contributed to the charity's preparedness work and response for the Hurricanes that swept through the Caribbean in the Autumn of 2017. Ian works as head of geospatial policy, research and international work with the Office for National Statistics and has been responsible for developing global frameworks for the United Nations that support the integration of statistical and geospatial data, and building geospatial capability in the statistical offices of developing countries.

Rupert Douglas Bate of Aylesbury, Bucks – Rupert is one of MapAction’s founders, having seen the need for mapping to help coordinate emergency responses while working as a water engineer in Bosnia in 1994. He began working fulltime on establishing the charity, then known as Aid for Aid, in 1999. Rupert still works in humanitarian mapping, focusing on mapping for sustainable development. He remains closely affiliated with MapAction.