africa-wide and international drone camp opportunities
africanDRONE is building a real-world community of drone pilots, mappers, journalists, entrepreneurs, public-sector actors and others working in Africa and internationally. To support this, we run periodic drone camps and story camps designed to:
Share current tools, methods and emerging practices
Connect practitioners, organisations and opportunities
Support promising story and mapping projects through small grants
Provide hands-on flying, mapping and data skills development
Our training camps and story grants run on a rolling basis. Join the network to receive updates and opportunities as new camps and calls open.
Drone Camp: Nairobi
In partnership with IPAEA, africanDRONE hosted a drone workshop and flight demonstration in Nairobi in July 2025 with Kenyan pilots from Customized Aviation Solutions and East African journalists, covering conservation mapping, network building and safe drone operations.
The African Drone Forum in Kigali brought together regulators, engineers, entrepreneurs, governments, academics and grassroots organisations to advance Africa’s drone economy. africanDRONE convened the African Drone/World Bank Youth Scholars, uniting 20 innovators from 11 countries to collaborate and accelerate careers, alongside global partners exploring the lower skies’ potential for inclusive growth.
Drone Camp: Lagos
africanDRONE, Code for Africa and Workstation Lagos hosted a drone journalism camp in Lagos, training local journalists and community mapping experts in safe drone use, aerial storytelling, community mapping and data skills to strengthen reporting across the city.
Drone Camp: Ca
pe Town
In Cape Town, South African journalists and civil society organisations explored mapping, storytelling and inequality-focused drone journalism, alongside regulation and safe operations. This first national drone camp introduced newsroom participants from the country’s media to hands-on flight and practical reporting applications.
Drone Camp: Johannesburg
Held at Wits University during the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC), africanDRONE and Code for Africa explored how AI, OSINT and state surveillance are reshaping investigative journalism in Africa, highlighting the use of drones and technology in aiding that mission, alongside practical flight training and regulations discussions.
Drone Camp: Mexico City & Buenos Aires
africanDRONE delivered drone training in Buenos Aires’ Barrio 20 and Mexico City’s Naucalpan neighborhood with the UNU-EHS Urban Lab, enabling community activists, government representatives, and drone mappers to visualise urban inequality, climate interventions and settlement change through aerial imagery and community-generated spatial data.
Drone Camp: Zanzibar
africanDRONE convened journalists from East Africa and the UK in Zanzibar during ZanSEA for hands-on drone journalism training in safe flight, aerial storytelling, data collection and responsible editorial use. Innovative and groundbreaking drone mapping of the entire island of Zanzibar (the largest in the world up to that point) was accomplished by africanDRONE founding partner Uhurulabs and the World Bank.
Drone Camps: USA
africanDRONE took a tour of US drone journalism programmes and conferences with the help of Google News Lab, the University of Nebraska, Poynter and the University of Oregon. This included The Baltimore Sun, KQED and The Seattle Times. This innovative programme brought African practitioners to train, exchange skills and engage newsrooms to advance cross-continental learning, professional standards and safe drone journalism practices learnt in Africa and practicable in a US setting.
Drone Camp: Sydney
In Sydney, Australia, africanDRONE convened journalists and drone journalists for hands-on flight training focused on safe operations, aerial storytelling and drone journalism, strengthening practical skills, professional networks and responsible newsroom use of drones in complex urban environments.
Lake Victoria Challenge, Tanzania
The Lake Victoria Challenge in Mwanza, Tanzania explored how drones can expand mobility, healthcare access and economic opportunity across one of Africa’s most infrastructure-constrained regions. As a founding partner, africanDRONE contributed pilots, technical expertise and training to connect regulators, innovators and communities around practical lower-sky solutions.
africanDRONE at the ZanSEA event in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania.