How can the city of Cali improve its air quality and reduce air pollution-related deaths and illnesses? We are Chispa and Tángara, a local nonprofit and grassroots initiative and our goal is to tackle the problem of air pollution in Cali, transforming the quality of the air we breathe through citizen-led science and climate activism.

We aren't scientists, but we were constantly hearing about the terrible effects air pollution has on health, especially on the health of our most vulnerable members of society, such as children and older adults. Worried, we tried to learn more about the quality of the air in our city, Cali. We soon realized there was almost no information available on this important topic and that's when we decided to take action to change this.

Tangara refers to the Tanager species of birds, an indicator species representing ecosystem health, and a metaphor for this initiative’s goal of shining a light on air pollution in Cali. The initiative aims to use relatively low-cost air quality sensors for citizen scientists to understand air quality in Cali and motivate action to reduce contamination.

We seek your support to enable our Tangara network to:

1. Install 100 new, low-cost air quality sensors managed and maintained by residents across the metropolitan area.

2. Develop the knowledge and information infrastructure needed for placing air quality on the agenda of the government, civil society and the private sector.

3. Scale up by twenty-five-fold the number of advocates working to reduce air pollution in Cali, from the approximately 60 people in our current network to 1,500 Caleños.

For more information, please visit tangara.chis.pa