Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/DCW July 2026 - December 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)., I'm a staff member or contractor in a Wikimedia Affiliate, group, or allied organization.
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
I chair the Executive Board of the Deoband Community Wikimedia and lead its programs. In my volunteer roles, I am an administrator on Wikimedia Commons, Meta-Wiki, Urdu Wikiquote, and Urdu Wikipedia. I also hold bureaucrat privileges on Urdu Wikipedia and translation administrator rights across several Wikimedia projects. In my role with the DCW, I oversee operations, partnerships, management, and decisions, and help our volunteer groups and clubs with making impactful decisions.
Project
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
DCW July 2026 - December 2026 Strategic Activity Plan
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-07-01 - 2026-12-31
- 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)
The core changes that we aim to bring include helping bridge knowledge gaps related to global Muslim academia, history, culture, and heritage on Wikimedia projects and increasing participation and representation of our community members in Wikimedia spaces. Over the years, we have demonstrated this and curated several initiatives to address these challenges; however, these challenges have not been easy. Through our Wiki Club network, we have been trying to empower students and scholars from Muslim minority institutions and madrasas such as Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, and Darul Uloom Deoband to transition from passive consumers of information to active contributors and leaders who can shape open spaces with confidence.
Our efforts and initiatives address several problems, including systemic bias and knowledge inequity. Our programs focus on challenges such as participation barriers, sustainability, capacity, and representation gaps. Our approaches follow the principle of evaluation, iteration, and adaptation. For the July-December 2026 term:
- We will continue our residential "Train a Wikipedian" program, following a cycle of Identify, Learn, Think, Mentor, to help build capacity and leadership. This is complemented by Mentorship Bonds, which pair at least 10 newcomers with experienced community members to ensure personalized learning and retention.
- We will host online and offline workshops on general and technical areas of Wikimedia spaces, helping our community members learn and share. Our focus would also be on developing Wikimedia technical skills within our community.
- We will be organising special writing contests on Urdu Wikiquote and Urdu Wikipedia with a focus on curating around 700 articles.
- We are expanding the Heritage Lens initiative to a full-fledged photographers' club and looking forward to connecting about 20+ photography enthusiasts with the Wikimedia Commons platform. It would help us ease the administrative burden on the board while increasing media contributions to Wikimedia Commons. We would also continue supporting individual initiatives of our community members, such as targeted photowalks.
- We will implement the Mehfil-e-Wiki model across all Wiki Clubs, where every attendee is required to make at least three edits or uploads on the spot.
- A priority for this term is the development of Women's Safe Spaces to support our female editors (who already make up over 40% of our active user base and board). We are planning a dedicated female-only residential training program where we will also invite expert Indian female Wikimedians as mentors. We will base this on the learnings from Strategic Convening on Gender Equity in Wikimedia Communities.
- We would also celebrate our 5 years of existence in July 2026.
- We will host our 2nd Annual Convening to review metrics, honor top contributors, and refine our community strategy for the following year. The convening will bring more than 40+ contributors together in Delhi. We have learned from our previous convening about challenges that impact the attendance of our community members.
- 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 find the detailed activity plan here: Deoband Community Wikimedia/Activity plans/Strategic plan for July 2026 - December 2026. Our major activities for this term include:
- Our Fifth Anniversary Celebration: This will engage about 30+ participants in Delhi.
- Fourth edition of Train a Wikipedian: This will bring 15 new Wikimedians to expand their knowledge and practice of the Wikimedia movement.
- DCW Conversation Hour: We will consistently organise 6 conversation hours throughout the term. Over the past several months, we have worked on an outreach strategy to attract more participation in these conversations.
- Heritage Lens: Led by DCW Photographers Club this time, we aim for 3 iterations during this term, together with a special photography competition on Wikimedia Commons.
- Wiki Club events and other workshops: Our Wiki Clubs will continue organising their activities, such as Wiki Clicks programs, and workshops with the student community.
- 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.
Aafi, Muntaqibah, Musical starlight, and Shadabgdg are part of the revised DCW Executive Board. Sammmm23 will help us with financial management. Other team members include members of the core-organising teams of our clubs. These include Wikimedians such as Shzshb and CosmicCodex and ObsidianMasha. The only paid role is that of the program manager.
- 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)
Our primary target participants remain the same as in our previous programs; we look forward to expanding our reach to Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow whilst strengthening the current initiatives. In the July-December 2026 term, we also focus on engaging existing volunteers within the established network of the Wiki Club AMU, the Wiki Club Deoband, and the Wiki Club Jamia. We have very specific targets this time, including Youth, Women, and Photography enthusiasts. We will do this through our Youth Focus Group and the DCW Photographers Club. We are also majorly focusing on supporting our female contributors. This would be achieved through Mehfil-e-Wiki discussions and a dedicated female-only leadership development program.
We utilize social media, monthly conversation hours, and contribution competitions to reach potential new members and attract them to the community, and discuss our plans and ideas in advance through internal WhatsApp channels and virtual meetings to involve community members in the planning process. At times, we also issue and publish formal calls on our website, particularly for Heritage Lens fellowships.
For our Mehfil-e-Wiki program, we have idealised that every participant is required to make at least three edits or three uploads on the spot. This "contributor retention technique" is designed to instigate immediate activity and a sense of inquiry. The Train-a-Wikipedian program provides. To keep our existing members connected, we are pairing them with newcomers to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and personalized guidance during their initial contributions. Our long-term retention strategies include continuous communication through our private WhatsApp groups, quarterly check-in calls to share updates, talk about challenges, and seek guidance. Our Annual convening is designed to review community-wide metrics, honor top contributors, and refine our strategy for the following year.
- 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.
Our youth safety policies rely on the Youth Safety policies of the Wikimedia Foundation.
- 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.
This has been internally discussed with our board members.
- 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)
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 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)
Invest in Skills and Leadership Development
Metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
Developing on the principle of Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt, which guides our strategy, we aim to transform our program data into actionable insights for the wider movement. For the July–December 2026 term, we have identifiable learning questions that will help us measure the success of our interventions and refine our approach going forward. The data collected will be reviewed during our 2nd Annual Convening in Delhi (scheduled for the end of this term), where we will bring together 40+ contributors to analyze metrics and honor our best contributors. We will publish these learnings in our 2026 Activity Report for wider community benefit.
Our questions include:
- To what extent does the Mentorship Bonds model (pairing 10+ newcomers with experienced editors) increase long-term retention compared to those who only attend one-off workshops? We will track the edit counts and activity duration of mentees over the period and compare them against participants who did not have assigned mentors.
- Does a dedicated female-only residential training program significantly improve the confidence and skills of female editors compared to mixed-gender training environments that we have usually offered in the past years? We will conduct pre- and post-event surveys focusing on confidence in navigating Wikimedia spaces and self-sufficiency, alongside tracking the number of female editors who transition into leadership/organiser and other administrative roles.
- Can the transition from a fellowship model to a structured DCW Photographers Club effectively reduce the administrative burden on the executive board while maintaining or increasing the quality of media contributions? We would also explore how effectively this model helps us reduce resource burnout. We would also focus on learning how effectively the club model helps us to outreach and train new Wikimedians as compared to individual Heritage Lens fellowships.
- Does the three-edit/three-upload rule implemented during Mehfil-e-Wiki sessions result in continued independent editing, or does it primarily produce activity only during the events? We will track spontaneous edit activity of Mehfil attendees on days when no official community events are scheduled.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 110 | Participants across our initiatives. |
| Number of editors | 70 | We currently have 45+ active editors and hope to expand this base to 70+ this term, particularly through our DCW Photographers Club, which is focused on Wikimedia Commons, and a standard focus on Urdu language projects. |
| Number of organizers | 25 | Consistent organisers across DCW and its sub-initiatives and clubs. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 900 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 1500 |
| Wikidata | 1000 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | 800 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Partnerships | Collaborations and Partnerships with Wikimedia communities and external partners | 2 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 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)
We usually use EventMetrics because of its easy management. However, we are open to exploring other choices.
Budget
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
DCW July-December 2026 Budget Sheet
- 22. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in Indian Rupees. (required)
469100 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)
4971.05 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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