Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/DCW January 2026 - June 2026 Strategic Activity Plan
Applicant
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Aafi (DCW)
- Organization
Deoband Community Wikimedia User Group
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
I'm a board member or president of a Wikimedia Affiliate or mission-allied organization., I'm a group leader of a Wikimedia User Group (submitted to the Affiliation Committee).
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
My work includes overseeing the overall development of the Deoband Community Wikimedia. I manage collaborations, plan and support events, and offer universal support to our volunteers and Wiki Clubs. Additionally, I chair the executive board of the usergroup and help the board take decisions aligned with the best interest of the movement and the community.
Project
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
DCW January 2026 - June 2026 Strategic Activity Plan
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-01-01 - 2026-06-30
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
India
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
As a continuation of our previous plans, our major challenge revolves around advocacy, capacity, and sustainable development of our affiliate and the clubs that we have helped establish. Since our inception in 2021, we have identified two significant challenges while exploring the open knowledge ecosystem. There are extensive knowledge gaps related to our theme, and participation from our community within these ecosystems remains notably low. This gap in representation perpetuates systemic biases, despite the fact that the community possesses valuable knowledge and has the potential to be leaders in these open spaces. Our surveys have found that many of our community members are often uncertain about how to engage effectively and feel uneasy navigating open spaces. We have implemented several initiatives, including our monthly open conversation hour, to support the strategic development of our affiliate and address these challenges. More recently, we conducted the second edition of our residential leadership development program, Train a Wikipedian, to sustain our efforts in capacity-building and leadership development, at the Ibn Sina Academy in Aligarh. We look forward to organising its third edition in February or March 2026, engaging another cohort of Wikimedians from our community. Targeted edit-a-thons like DCW-K Editathon, and initiatives like Heritage Lens and Wiki Clicks have been significantly impactful. The latest edition of Heritage Lens not only helped bring 3 impactful new editors but also more than 500 images to Wikimedia Commons. We will continue working through the principles of evaluation, iteration, and adaptation, hold conversations, and additionally contribute in the following key areas:
# GLAM: We will do this particularly through supporting the GLAM IIT-Delhi project initiated by two of our community volunteers. This is important because we have had representation at the GLAM-Wiki Conference 2025 for the first time ever, and we look forward to using the learnings from there.
# Leadership and Capacity: We will do this particularly through the Train-a-Wikipedian residential leadership development program.
# Content: Through Heritage Lens, DCW-K editathon, and a special edit-a-thon for Urdu Wikipedia, we aim to improve Urdu Wikipedia with at least 200+ impactful articles. We will revisit the partnership plans with the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language.
# New Users: Although we continue to keep our current user base retained and sustained, we look forward to bringing new people to the community. We will do this particularly through the our Youth Focus Group.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
Kindly see the detailed activity plan here: Deoband Community Wikimedia/Activity plans/Strategic plan for January 2026 - June 2026
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc.
DCW is led by a volunteer board of 5 voting and one non-voting members, and all of them equally contribute to the decision-making. The board is supported by core organising teams of Wiki Club AMU, Wiki Club Deoband, and Wiki Club Jamia. The only paid role is that of the program management which is currently held by Aafi, while we also provide an honorarium to the community member responsible for maintaining DCW Conversation Hour program. The usernames of board members:
* Aafi (chair)
* Durre Shehvaar
* Koshur
* Khanahmedsam
* Raydann
* Aqueel23 (non-voting)
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
The target participants are students, and scholars from Muslim minority institutions such as Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, and madrasas such as Darul Uloom Deoband, among others; and our volunteers at Wiki Club AMU, Wiki Club Deoband and the Wiki Club Jamia, which we helped establish through our previous programs. Our agenda focuses on supporting these Wiki Clubs in sustaining their initiatives and actively engaging students in a variety of free knowledge activities. We plan to engage participants through our monthly conversation hours, as well as productive activities such as training workshops, edit-a-thons, and community meetups. We also maintain follow-up communication through our private WhatsApp groups. We also utilize social media to stay connected with our members, consistently reaching out to attract new individuals into our community. In our recent board meeting, we decided on an important activity parameter that every participant in our community events, such as Mehfils or other learning sessions, will be required to make three uploads or three edits right there. This helps increase the activity level and instigate the sense of questioning.
- 9.1. If your project includes in-person activities, are there any international participants travelling to India for them? (required)
- No
- 9.1.1. List all countries of participation. (required)
- 9.2. Will the project be transferring funds to any international participants? (required)
- No
- 9.2.1. List all international participants receiving funding and their countries. (required)
N/A
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
- Yes
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
We will adhere strictly to the Wikimedia friendly space policy, WMF Youth Safety policy and the Universal Code of Conduct all through the project activities.
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
The plan and its components have been discussed in our internal communication channels, such as WhatsApp, and also through virtual meetings and discussions. We will continue improving the broader activity plan in our subsequent calls and events. More recently, it was subject to the board meeting in Aligarh on 19 October 2025.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Advocacy
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt
Metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
Due to the late arrival of resources for the April-October 2025, we have had several challenges. Given that, we still look forward to working on learning questions described on Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/DCW April 2025 - September 2025 Strategic Activity Plan#Metrics.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 40 | |
| Number of editors | 35 | |
| Number of organizers | 15 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 500 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 1300 |
| Wikidata | 500 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | 500 |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | 100 |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
Yes
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Translation Administrators | Train our community members and those from other collaborating communities. This targets multilingual wikis such as Meta, Commons, and Wikidata. | 3 |
| Translation Administration Backlog Reduction | Help reduce TA backlogs across multilingual wikis | 300 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
Usually EventMetrics.
Budget
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in Indian Rupees. (required)
389310 INR
- 22.1. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD. (required)
4394.22 USD
- By submitting this proposal request you agree with the Institutional Partner Privacy Policy, Application Privacy Statements, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
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