Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Dagbani Wikimedians User Group 2025 Annual Programs

statusUnder review

Wikimedia Community Fund

Dagbani Wikimedians User Group 2025 Annual Programs

Fluxx IDR-GS-2502-18339

start date2025-07-01

end date2026-06-30

budget (local currency)1270205 GHS

amount requested (USD)81915.52 USD

grant typeWikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)

funding regionSSA

decision fiscal year2024-25

funding program roundRound 2

organization (if applicable)Dagbani Wikimedians User Group

Friendly Space Policy

Universal Code of Conduct

Application Privacy Statement

This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.

Applicant information

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)

Dagbani Wikimedians User Group

Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)

Yes, I have already applied and received a General Support Fund

You are applying as a(n). (required)

Wikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)

Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)

Yes

Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Please provide links to the following documents if they are available

These documentation can be provided in your local language(s), no translations required.

• Organizational website
• Detailed financial reporting and/or audits
• Documentation of the governance structure, board list, governance processes
• Documentation of the general assembly decision on your plan

Official Website: https://www.dagbaniwikimedia.org/

1. Audit and Financial Management report: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qvKImqDDgFGs5C4vA3k8rM6K2lHJxpm9?usp=sharing
2. Governance Structure: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I-OtV_jsbpil9nEdinRiBt7RPXJNp7EO93h5uxGEbF4/edit?usp=sharing
3. User Group's Policy and Code of Ethics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QTgeB4kLPgCqJolf0nvBBK29sWEvA334?usp=sharing
4. General Assembly Desision: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I-OtV_jsbpil9nEdinRiBt7RPXJNp7EO93h5uxGEbF4/edit?usp=sharing

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)

Dagbani Wikimedians User Group 2025 Annual Programs

2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year base funding for 3 years? (required) (only for returning applicants)

No

2.1. Provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan? (required)

N/A

3. Proposed start date. (required)

2025-07-01

4. Proposed end date. (required)

2026-06-30

5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

Yes

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IArJc6kcsdW3jjqL5JiBAyvrqub1IOvFmGV569THhZY/edit?gid=292477021#gid=292477021

6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

Yes

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P9mqMUpwpxo6vbFACMGV9jr3DMhtYSuoiD9090GVs20/edit?tab=t.ookb5n97edk8

7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)

Ghana

8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group is a language affiliate dedicated to promoting and growing Wikimedia projects in Dagbani and other Gur/Mabia languages. Our programs are designed to strengthen content creation, capacity building, and community engagement through structured and impactful initiatives. The community met during the annual 2024/25 end-of-year strategic meeting and awards ceremony to discuss the year-long activities, projects, and programs, their challenges, and how they could be addressed. It was also a moment to award hardworking and active Wikimedians who have shown resilience and dedication. It was also a moment to reflect on the programs and the approaches to adopt in the coming year.. A menti-meter poll was used and later strategically analyzed to select the following programs.

• Disclaimer: As a result of the reduced funding for the 2024/25 fiscal year grant, we had to reduce our activities too. Therefore, some of the proposed activities that were not implemented are repeated for this year's implementation.

Programs, Approaches, and Strategies

1. Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom

Challenge: A significant number of teachers and students in Ghana lack the requisite digital skills to be abreast of the 21st-century ICT trend; they face challenges in navigating and utilizing online resources to facilitate teaching and learning especially in rural communities in Ghana. A recent study shows that only 53% of teachers in Ghana have received any form of training in ICT, making it difficult for them to effectively integrate technology into their classrooms. This lack of training has also contributed to the low levels of ICT literacy among students in Ghana, with only 22% of students having basic ICT skills.

Program and Approach: Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom https://genderanddigital.org/ict-education-in-ghana/#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20only%2053%25%20of%20teachers,students%20having%20basic%20ICT%20skills.

We successfully implemented this program by training 30 Dagbani teachers to develop digital and literacy skills by contributing to Wikipedia and its sister projects. We collaboratively achieved this with our committed and supportive partners, the Dagbani Teachers Association (DTA) and Literacy for Development through Partnership (LDP). We will replicate this same program in a broader form, including our sister language communities. For this fiscal year, we will train 40 Dagbani language teachers and then pilot it for 20 Gurene language teachers. Participants will be taught how to access, contribute, and retrieve information on Wikipedia. Train selected Dagbani language teachers from the Dagbani Teachers Association on how to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool. Train Gurene language teachers on how to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool to increase Wikipedia usage in the Gurene language. Collaborate with senior high schools and academic institutions to integrate Wikimedia projects into formal education to enhance digital literacy.

Strategies: Conduct workshops for educators to build their capacity to use Wikipedia. Partner with schools and educational institutions to integrate Wikipedia into their curricula. Develop localized training materials in Dagbani and other Gurene languages. Organize a 3-week training workshop for Dagbani and Gurene language teachers using the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom training model guides, namely accessing information, evaluating information, and creating information. Train at least 40 Dagbani language teachers on how to access, Evaluate and create information using Wikipedia.

Impact: This program has the potential to improve their research skills, such as the ability to make sense of information and the ability to verify, evaluate, and shift reliable information from information chaos, and the ability to use the information to create new knowledge. By tying Wikipedia to the components of UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy framework, it will also assist instructors to understand and use Wikipedia as a learning tool. In addition, this training will help to bridge the digital gap by encouraging collaboration among students and fostering better relationships.

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmp9kClYNuI https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reading_Wikipedia_in_the_Classroom,_Northern_Ghana https://genderanddigital.org/ict-education-in-ghana/#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20only%2053%25%20of%20teachers,students%20having%20basic%20ICT%20skills

2. Community Engagement

Challenge: Wikipedia volunteer recruitment, engagement and retention remain a major challenge across the movement and as a community working to support different language communities, we recognize the need to create innovative community engagement programs that would help us navigate these challenges.

Program and Approach:

Community Engagement Activities We understand the importance of engaging our large community; therefore, we have designed a series of community engagement activities to engage more volunteers and recruit new editors to participate in our programs. Below are the proposed activities for the year 2025/2026

Strategies

A. Hub Activities We intend to organize 3 editathons each at our Wikipedia hubs to strengthen participation in different regions. We will also provide mentorship and guidance after these workshops to ensure sustainable editing practices.

B. Advocacy Campaign: The goal is to create general awareness about Wikipedia and the ability to edit in indigenous languages. To reach a wider audience, we will adapt the use of: Radio and TV-hosted programs to promote Wikipedia and digital literacy. Social media campaigns to engage the online community and attract new contributors.

C. Article of the Week Campaign The article of the week program is one of the most active community engagement and effective initiatives for us as a community, where each community selects a unique article that the whole community comes together to contribute to and make it fully standard. To make it better, we will: Assign weekly topics for contributors to improve content across Wikimedia projects. Encourage active participation by recognizing top contributors on a weekly basis. D. Workshop Activities We will engage in a series of in-person workshops for each community to train both new and old volunteers on the following activities: Cleaning up Wikipedia: Improve existing stub articles on our various language Wikpedia projects. Language Orthography Workshop: collaborate with linguists to improve the writing system of the Gur/Mabia languages.

3. Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Awards The AGM is a platform that brings together almost all the active community participants to discuss our projects for the year, what worked well, the challenges, and the new programs we should adopt for the coming year. It is also a moment of reconnection, networking, and social interactions among members. We also recognize active participants by giving them prizes and awards.

Approach: Organize a formal event and invite keynote speakers and seasoned Wikimedia community leaders. Award the best contributors and most impactful projects.

4. Wikimedia User Group Ghana and Dagbani Wikimedians User Group Team Capacity Building and Retreat Wikimedia User Group Ghana and Dagbani Wikimedians User Group will collaborate this year to organize a joint annual team capacity building and retreat to train their team members and share best practices that work for both affiliates. This approach will further deepen our relationship for more future collaboration.

Strategies: Organize a retreat for strategic planning and capacity building. Conduct team-building activities and workshops on governance, partnerships, and sustainability.

Impact: Celebrate achievements and recognize outstanding contributors. Strengthen community engagement and future planning. Strengthen leadership skills and enhance teamwork. Foster collaboration between the two affiliates.

5. Wikidata Lexemes and Wikifunctions Challenge: Lexemes and Wikifunctions are foundational projects for the abstract Wikipedia. Existing digital tools (e.g., automated translation services, automatic speech recognition, and natural language processing) often do not support Dagbani due to limited or no access to language data. Dagbani Wikipedia was selected as the first language Wikipedia to deploy WikiFunctions, hence the need to train the community to create relevant functions as well as translate Wikifunctions glossary into Dagbani.

Wikidata Lexemes and Wikifunction Wikifunctions is a new Wikimedia project for everyone to collaboratively create and maintain a library of code functions to support the Wikimedia projects and beyond, in the world's natural and programming languages. Leveraging on the experience gained from the implementation of Wikidata Lexicographical Data by the Dagbani community, we will extend our efforts to contribute to the newly launched WikiFunctions being the first language to be selected for the integration of Wikifunctions. Our technical community at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (College of Science) Wiki hub is well-versed in technical matters and readily suitable for implementation in this program. We are committed to achieving greater heights in Lexeme's contribution beyond our current achievement of over 12,400 lexemes, making Dagbani one of the most integrated languages on Wikidata in Africa. In addition to that, we will extend this effort to cover our sister language projects: Gurene, Dagaare, and Kusaal languages.

To clarify, the Dagbani language will participate in creating functions and translating Wikifuntions glossary, whereas Gurene, Dagaare, and Kusaal languages will pilot Wikidata lexicographical data projects, leveraging the experience and expertise from the Dagbani Wikimedians.

A. Lexemes Workshop We will organize and train contributors on adding lexemes for Gurene, Dagaare and Kusaal languages on Wikidata. This will help us develop structured linguistic data for low-resource languages. As we expand our activities to include Wikidata Lexemes and Wikifunctions, we are addressing key challenges related to language preservation, structured data, and computational linguistic resources for the Dagbani language. We will organize capacity-building workshops to train community members on how to create and edit lexemes in Wikidata. Through these training sessions, we aim to build a sustainable skill base within our community.

B. Wikifunctions Workshop We will train participants on how to translate Wikifunctions glossary. We will train community members to create relevant functions for the Dagbani Wikipedia as part of our efforts to ensure that Dagbani Wikipedia becomes fully integrated on Wikifunctions and abstract Wikipedia.

Impact: Wikifunctions will allow us to create and test functions for processing Dagbani text, enabling future applications like automated translations, language AI and machine learning applications, and natural language processing. We will implement mentorship programs and peer review processes to guide new contributors, ensuring they remain engaged and active in maintaining and expanding the library of functions for Dagbani. By contributing to Wikidata Lexemes, we will help structure the language’s vocabulary, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives, making them accessible for computational use and linguistic research. It will also help us to develop future digital dictionaries for Dagbani.

6. Arts and Feminism Challenges: The Dagbani Wikipedia, though a very small language Wikipedia, which was approved 5 years ago, is already faced with a gender gap challenge. Less than 20% of biographies on the Dagbani Wikipedia are about women. Also, there is currently a higher percentage of male contributors than female contributors in our communities.

Programs and Approach The Dagbani Wikimedians Community User Group, in collaboration with the various language communities, has organized a series of Art+Feminism campaigns over the past three years. These campaigns aimed to create and enhance the biographies of notable Ghanaian women on the Dagbani Wikipedia and its sister languages Wikipedia projects. This project aims to bring together organizers of Art+Feminism campaigns to co-organize events, as well as onboard new, especially female organizers of Art+Feminism campaigns. This year’s weekly community office hours will focus on recruiting and training Art+Feminsm campaign organizers as well as improving the existing gender gap on the Dagbani Wikipedia.

Approach: Address the gender gap by improving biographies of notable women. Recruit more female campaign organizers and editors.

Strategies: Organize workshops focused on creating and improving articles about women. Engage female editors and activists to encourage female participation.

Impact Increase the number of articles on women biographies in the 4 Mabia languages. Increase women's participation and organizing skills Encourage and increase the readership of the Wikipedia contents related gender, feminsim and art.

7. Wiki Loves Campaigns These campaigns promote visual documentation and increase multimedia content creation for marginalized and underrepresented communities and cultures. This year, we will focus on the following global campaigns:

A. Wiki Loves Folklore/Feminism and Folklore Challenge Feminism and Folklore is an international writing contest organized at Wikipedia annually in the months of February and March to document folk cultures and women in folklore in different regions of the world on Wikipedia. This project is the Wikipedia edition of the photography campaign Wiki Loves Folklore (WLF) that is organized on Wikimedia Commons to document folk cultures around the world. The challenge we intend to fix is to document and preserve cultural elements such as traditional dances, festivals, and crafts among the 4 Mabia languages and cultures.

B. Mabia WikiCuisines (local event) Food forms a greater part of our cultural identity, and very little is documented about the culture of food. As part of our folklore campaigns, we will concentrate on creating articles about our local cuisine, including indigenous and traditional beverages. We will work with local restaurant managers and chefs to document local traditional cuisines through photo and multimedia content creation. This will include the documentation of different traditional foods, their recipes and preparation methods. We will also collect multimedia content on local cuisines and upload it to Wikimedia Commons.

C. Wiki Loves Africa Wiki Loves Africa (WLA) is an annual contest where anyone across Africa can contribute free media that is relevant to their experience to Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia communities (the Wikimedia movement) and also make this shared media freely available.

Wiki Loves Africa encourages participants to contribute media (photographs, video and audio) that illustrate the specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and is chosen by the community from a few universal, visually rich and culturally specific topics (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc). The contest will be largely based on visual storytelling to enrich Wikimedia Commons based on the theme for Wiki Loves Africa 2026.

D. Wiki Loves Ramadan Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 is an annual global contest aimed at documenting and sharing the diverse customs and traditions observed during the month of Ramadan. Contributions will span 26 languages across platforms like Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Wikivoyage. Through online events and training sessions, WLR aims to engage diverse communities, fostering knowledge sharing and cultural appreciation.

Strategies: Encourage documentation of Islamic heritage, culture, and traditions. Work with local Muslim communities to create content on Ramadan.

Impact: Cultural Preservation and Promotion Increased Visual Documentation and Multimedia Content related Ramadan Community engagement and knowledge sharing among Wikipedia editors Improved representation and accessibility of cultural knowledge Documentation and localization of Islamic content

8. Microgrant Support We are a diverse group of 4 language communities, and we understand that there could be specific projects that each community will want to carry out that do not work for everyone. Hence, we have implemented the microgrant community support program to help our sister communities and individuals who have specific project ideas that do not require so many resources to apply for a rapid grant or community-based unique projects that were not originally captured in our grant application for the year. This initiative will help reduce the influx of rapid grant applications from our geographic zone or members of our community. This microgrant community support program has been divided into two:

A. Dagbani Wikimedians User Group Communities Microgrants This is to provide small grants to community members to support Wikimedia-related projects and encourage local initiatives to promote knowledge sharing and diversity.

B. Individual Microgrants The individual microgrant program has been added to enable volunteers who want to conduct research, organize meetups, or create content and need resources to support them in achieving that goal.

Impact: This initiative will help reduce the influx of rapid grant applications from our geographic zone or from members of our community. It encourages individuals to keep on with the activities of the use group since they will feel recognized. It encouraged more activeness on the part of the participants. Increase community engagement activities Increase content creation for various language communities

9. Conference participation

Challenge: Due to the high influx of scholarship applications for Wikimedia conferences where participants meet to collaborate and share knowledge, it is usually difficult to get representation at these important conferences.

Program and Approach Conference participation and collaboration in the movement are integral processes that give communities a sense of belonging and an avenue to meet, share, and connect with others for future collaboration. With this in mind, we will be glad to have our community represented at the regional and international levels (Wiki Indaba and Wikimania). We understand that the scholarship program is very limited and can not include volunteers from each language community. But sometimes, because of so many applicants and the need to balance based on sex/gender, community or user groups, as well as regional bases, we do not get represented in these important meetups. To help with this, we intend to support at least one representative who has been actively involved in the community's affairs in the last few years to represent the user group. The individual will be supported with flight booking, accommodation, and stipends to help facilitate the travel. Impact

Strategy A call for applications will be publicly announced for all volunteers to apply to be selected. A review committee made of representatives from all our language communities will be constituted to ensure transparency and inclusivity.

Impact It will be an opportunity to learn about their community projects. Participants will get the opportunity to learn more about different Wikimedia projects and skills that they can bring back to our community.

11. Ghanaian Language Wikimedia Communities Meetup

Challenge: Most Ghanaians who contribute to the local languages have similar challenges, and bringing them together will give them a sense of belonging and boost their confidence in digitizing their languages to prevent them from going into extinction and also close up the digital divide that keeps people disconnected from the internet because of language barriers.

Program and Approach The Ghanaian Wikimedia Languages Meetup is a mini-conference designed to bring Wikimedians together to work on the Indigenous language Wikipedia project in Ghana. The Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Community Meetup 2025 will be the third edition of a mini-conference that brings together Wikimedians working on indigenous language Wikipedias in Ghana. The Wikimedia Ghana User Group and the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group jointly support this year’s event. As part of growing collaborations and partnerships with other Ghanaian affiliates, both user groups have decided to create a joint application for the Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Community Meetup. One of the breakthroughs of this project is that we are funding it using the general support grant from each affiliate instead of the limited rapid grant. This way, we will be able to support more volunteers and inivte more language communities. This is done to learn from the various communities in Ghana. Every community has its strengths and weaknesses, and bringing all the language Wikimedia communities together will provide fertile ground for brainstorming on how to understand the various Wikimedia language technical tools and platforms. Also, every community has a special skill and experience, so bringing these communities together would help us share skills such as community development, volunteer retention, leadership development, and others.

Target Participation Total Participants: 80 (an increase from 60 in the previous edition due to additional affiliate support). Participant Categories: Returning Wikimedians from previous meetups. New volunteers who are interested in language preservation. Representatives from Twi, Ga, Dagbani, Kusaal, Gurene, Dagaare, and other language communities in Ghana. 3. Budget and Resource Planning

Past application Ghanaian Wikimedia Language Community Meetup 2023 Ghanaian Wikimedia Language Community Meetup 2024

Proposed Budget: GHS 102,600.00 / $6,622.99 (to be split between the Dagbani Wikimedians user group and Wikimedia Ghana).

Breakdown: Venue and logistics Participant support (transport, accommodation, and meals) Workshop materials and resources Ghanaian Language Meetup Budget 2025 Funding: Contributions from both affiliates’ general support grants.

Impact: To recruit new volunteers: The meetups will provide an avenue for creating awareness about the existence of Wikimedia volunteers, which attracts the attention of the general public, hence leading to the recruitment of more volunteers. Participants will get the opportunity to learn about the projects and strategies of other communities and can replicate it for their language communities to increase content, retain volunteers.

12. Wikidata Birthday

Challenge: The majority of community members are still new to Wikidata and how to contribute to it. Again, those who are familiar with Wikidata are not familiar with how to use different Wikidata tools to edit Wikipedia.

Program and Approach The Wikidata birthday celebration is an annual event that is marked by various related events across the globe between September and November, with the actual date of the founding of Wikidata, the Wikimedia Foundation's largest project, being on October 29, 2012. The event seeks to celebrate Wikidata's 13th birthday anniversary and to conduct a meetup of old and new editors to edit lexemes on Wikidata , create new Wikidata items, and add databoxes to articles on Wikipedia. The top four editors are win gift prizes.

Strategies: Celebrate with members through cake cutting and a birthday party session. Organize breakout room sessions for participants to learn about the tools and how to use them to contribute to Wikipedia. Open Mic session for Q & A

Impact: Participants will learn more about Wikidata and how to contribute to it It will be an opportunity to network among the different communities To recruit more Wikidata editors Increase Wikidata contribution within our communities.

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)

Category	Yes/No
Education	Yes
Culture, heritage or GLAM	Yes
Gender and diversity	Yes
Community support and engagement	Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests	Yes
Public policy advocacy	No
Other	No

Education

9.1.1. Select all your programs and activities for Education. (required)

Wiki Club, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom or other Reading/Evaluating Wikipedia Training, Editing Wikipedia Training, Translation, Wikidata programs, Wikimedia Commons programs, Other Wikimedia project programs

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

9.1.2. Select all relevant audience groups for Education. (required)

Secondary school students, Vocational, tertiary, or higher education, Teachers or professors, Senior citizens

Other groups if any: N/A

Culture, heritage or GLAM

9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required)

Documenting or incubating languages on Wikimedia projects, Introducing new approaches to underrepresented culture and heritage, e.g. decolonising or reparative work; oral and visual knowledge; outreach to communities of origin, indigenous and first nations self-determination, Supporting institutions to open up their collections, data, metadata, and research, Supporting GLAM professionals to incorporate use of Wikimedia in their work, through documentation, training, or Wikimedian in Residence programs, Partnering with institutions, professional associations, and allied organizations to raise awareness of open culture, ethical sharing, and related issues

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Gender and diversity

9.3. Select all your programs and activities for Gender and diversity.

Bringing in women and/or gender diverse participants and editors, Focusing on creating content about women and/or gender diverse groups, including biographies, intersectional topic areas and/or adding images, Focusing on creating content about marginalized (underrepresented) communities and their knowledge, Focusing on knowledge equity by bringing in contributors from underrepresented communities, Building organizer skills in women and diversity groups, Fomenting female leadership within the movement (either staff, members or boards), Sensitize and educate for gender perspective among Wikimedia projects stewards and editors

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.

On-wiki training of community members, Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events, Supporting community members' participation in events and conferences, Offering micro-funding and other financial support to community members , Offering non financial support and services to community members (equipment, space, books, etc.)

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Participation in campaigns and contests

9.5. Select all campaigns that apply. (required)

Art+Feminism, Feminism and Folklore, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Folklore, Wiki Loves Monuments, Wikipedia Birthday or Anniversary

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IArJc6kcsdW3jjqL5JiBAyvrqub1IOvFmGV569THhZY/edit?usp=sharing

11. Describe your team. (required)

Project Advisors

Iddrisu Alhassan Sibdow Board chairman-dean of students, Tamale College of Education Abukari Mohammed Awal, Advisory member-A teacher and Secretary for the dagbani teachers association Abdul-Mumeen Iddrisu, Advisory member and lecturer at University for Development Studies Iddrisu Ziblim David, Advisory member, Marketing Manager, Sagani TV Pumaaya Abdul-Latif, Advisory member and a teacher Dr. Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, Observer and Associate Professor, Cornell University Amir Aharoni, Observer and Translate wiki administrator

Core Team Members

Details about each role			Link
S/n	Name	Position	About	Role	User Name	Gender	Status
1	Sadik Shahadu	Executive Director	He is the Executive Director (ED) of the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group (DWUG). He has been a longstanding volunteer for the Wikimedia Foundation since 2016 who has served in different capacities both at community and committee levels including but not limited to the grants committee, Wikimedia Executive Directors group, Steering committee member of the Language Diversity Hub, among others. He co-founded the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group that has given birth to the Gurene Wikimedia Community, Moore Wikmedia Community, Dagaare Wikimedia Community and the Kusaal Wikimedia Community.	https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I-OtV_jsbpil9nEdinRiBt7RPXJNp7EO93h5uxGEbF4/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.u87rl218i650	Shahadusadik	Male	Paid Role
2	Yussif Abdul Rasheed	Programs Manager	He is the Project Manager (PM) for the DWUG and is a salaried staff member. He has been a volunteer contributor since 2015 with vast experience in project management.		Din-nani1	Male	Paid Role
3	Khadija Iddrisu	IT Director	She is the IT Manager for DWUG and is a volunteer staff member. She is a PHD candidate pursuing artificial intelligence at Dublin City University and has a lot of experience with data analytics and information technology.			Female	Volunteer
4	Fuseini Mugisu Suhuyini	Social media and Communication officer	He is a volunteer staff member in charge of communications and social media management. He has served in that capacity with other organizations in the past and has garnered a lot of experience with public relations and management.		User:Sir Amugi	Male	Volunteer
5	Fuseini Musah	Partnership Manager	He is a volunteer staff member, a former facilitator for Dagbani Wikipedia Saha and a former co-lead for the Kusaal Wikimedia Community. He is a longstanding educator with leadership and community management skills. He is an indigenous language activist and an open education resource (OER) enthusiast.		User:Musahfm	Male	Volunteer
6	Abdul-Rafiu Fuseini	Community Facilitator	He is a volunteer staff, formally co-lead for Moore Wikimedia Community. He's a community developer of longstanding experience in team management and community engagement skills and Vice President of Ghana School On Internet Governance (GhanaSIG) EC		Alhaj Darajaat	Male	Volunteer
7	Mohammed Kamal-Deen Fuseini	Grants Manager	He is an active Wikimedian, a member of the regional fund committee for SSA and community facilitator. He is a regional proxy for the Black Lunch table and a former co-lead for the Gurene Wikimedia Community and former Wikimedian in Residence for the Wikidata for Education		Dnshitobu	Male	Volunteer
8	Hamidu Rukaya	Logistics Officer	She is the logistics manager for DWUG and a volunteer staff member. She organize and coordinates all the User Group events		Ruky Wunpini	Female	Volunteer
9	Vacant	Finance Officer	Vacant			NIL	Contract
10	Daniel Abugre Anyorigya	Co-lead for Gurene Community	Daniel Abugre Anyorigya is a journalist and the project lead for the Gurene Wikimedia community, with over 6 years in leading Wikimedia community projects. He was a jury member of the Wikimedia journalism awards.		Uprising Man		Volunteer
11	Bukari Zakaria Tunsung	Co-lead for Dagaare Community			Zakaria Tunsung		Volunteer
12	Mahamud Mohammed Nurudeen	Co-lead for Kusaal Community					Volunteer
13	Vacant	Administrative Assistant (Contract)				NIL	Contract
14	Alhassan Abdul Wadud	Hubs Coordinator			Achiri Bitamsimli	Male	Volunteer
15	Tonon Abdul Shafiu Mahamud	Graphic Designer			Father Shafiu	Male	Volunteer

12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

Academic Institutions Partnerships

These academic institutions form the central pool for new members, and we are to recruit and engage community members through our community engagement activities.

Academic Institutions

• University of Education, Ajumako
• Tamale College of Education
• Bagabaga College of Education
• Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (College of Science)

https://w.wiki/9LZi

Wikimedia Affiliates

1. Ghanaian Wikimedia Languages Meetup

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group collaborated with several Ghanaian Wikimedia Languages Communities to organize the Ghanaian Wikimedia Languages Meetup in Tamale, which brought together all 9 language communities in Ghana to reflect on the challenges and how to promote indigenous languages in the online ecosystems.

References: https://www.myjoyonline.com/ghanaian-wikimedia-languages-meet-ups-begin-in-tamale/ https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/05/31/the-ghanaian-wikimedia-language-communities-join-hands-to-host-a-language-mini-conference-in-ghana/ https://firstnewsroom.com/2023/05/20/ghanaian-wikimedia-languages-organisers-first-mini-conference/ https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2023/05/10/wikimedian-meet-up-to-celebrate-ghanas-linguistic-diversity/

1. Art+Feminism

The user group will continue to collaborate with Art+Feminism to increase the biographies of women on our various language Wikipedia projects. This partnership will help us consolidate the continuous participation in feminism and folklore activities to create content around heritage and women. Having participated in the A+F campaigns over the past few years, the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group has helped increase the visibility of women in all its language communities. The user group celebrated the 10th anniversary of the A+F in Tamale. During the celebration, the community brought together event organizers and participants of A+F to share their thoughts on the successes, challenges, and way forward for future events. References: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WELD-wnI50hhfMEBsB2a3DnfqcVYDboOY1Clu29ohS8/edit

• Wikimedia User Group Ghana

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group has gone into partnership with the Wikimedia User Group Ghana to develop the southern-based languages. This relationship will lead to an exchange program of best practices and capacity building for the team members of both organizations.

1. Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub

Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub Since 2022, the Dagbani Wikimedians user group has been a key partner with the Language Diversity Hub, working to address some of the changes faced by minority languages and to develop language support tools for Wikimedia language communities. The Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub is a proposed Wikimedia hub for affiliates and volunteers who are working on new language versions of Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects. The Dagbani Wikimedians were selected to participate in a research program organized by the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub. The research, which included 6 members of our language communities, focused on the barriers experienced by small language contributors.

References: Research paper: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barriers_experienced_by_contributors_to_small_language_versions_of_Wikipedia.pdf https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_Diversity_Hub/Interested_partie

Non-Governmental Organizations

1. Rising Voices

Rising Voices is a not-for-profit organization that helps bring new voices from new communities and speaking endangered or Indigenous languages to the global conversation by facilitating the creation of peer learning networks to leverage the internet and digital media for their self-determined needs. We are going into a partnership to get training for our community leaders on digital security and other relevant concepts.

Reference: https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2023/05/10/wikimedian-meet-up-to-celebrate-ghanas-linguistic-diversity/#:~:text=The%20Ghanaian%20Wikimedia%20Languages%20Meet-up%20will%20bring%20together,focus%20on%20decolonizing%20the%20internet%20through%20local%20content. https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2023/09/10/rv-newsletter-the-ghanaian-wikimedia-languages-meetup-and-language-digital-activism-around-the-world/

1. XIR Global

It is a technology company that exists to enable organizations to utilize multilingual language models for their downstream use cases. They are on a mission to enable speakers of every language to flourish through the development and deployment of language technologies. Dagbani has entered into a partnership to translate datasets for the Dagaare language and hopes to scale up to cover other languages under the Dagbani Wikimedians User group.

References: https://www.xriglobal.ai/

1. Dagbani Language Teachers Association

Our partnership with the Dagbani Language Teachers Associations will help us implement ‘Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom’ by training 50 members on how to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool to facilitate teaching and learning. We will train the selected language teachers in digital and information literacy skills focused on contributing to Wikipedia to enhance their ability to retrieve and disseminate information effectively. References: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reading_Wikipedia_in_the_Classroom,_Northern_Ghana

1. Ghana Natural Language Processing

We are extremely delighted with our partnership with the Ghana Natural Language Processing Community (Ghana NLP). Through this partnership, the user group produced over 15000 audio contributions on Wikimedia Commons that are used to train the NLP Ghana automatic speech recognition and language translation app for Dagbani and Gurene languages. This mobile application, even though it's still under development and machine learning, has proven to give 80% more accurate translations into Dagbani and Gurene than most contemporary translation applications for African languages. Most of the data used for the AI modulation were unbiased content curled from the Dagbani and Gurene Wikipedia articles, and as the content keeps growing on this Wikipedia platform, more data will be made available to strengthen the algorithmic training.

References: https://openreview.net/pdf?id=lje9lI9zV8 https://azunre.medium.com/khaya-african-language-translation-and-speech-recognition-ai-demonstrates-major-improvements-e13d9fb26fb8 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350483842_NLP_for_Ghanaian_Languages

1. Sopala

We are delighted to have four of community members (Rukaya Hamidu, Khadija Alhassan, Sadik Shahadu and Musah Fuseini) being part of the Sopala initiative as OER developers working to provide offline access to rich online resources for rural schools in Africa. The Dagbani Wikimedia community members, through this partnership, collaborated on a research paper that was published in the MIT LAB journal and have received a total of 16 tablets to be distributed in rural community schools in northern Ghana. Sopala is a collaboration of individuals and organizations focused on innovative uses of OER (Open Educational Resources).) Sopala means ‘innovations’ in the Dagbani language. This partnership in collaboration would help us distribute digital learning materials such as tablets with Kiwx moodlebox contents, including Wikipedia, to students in rural schools in northern Ghana.

References: https://sopala.org/ https://aiopeneducation.pubpub.org/pub/7npwm2su/release/4?readingCollection=06969c6d

Media Partners

#Sagani TV

The user group will be an island without media coverage, and as a result, we have partnered with Sagani TV, a renowned media house on the multi-TV digital platform, to capture and broadcast our activities and projects to the larger audience watching and following their media outlet. This has been a gateway to community outreach awareness creation and volunteer recruitment. Through their platform and our activities, our overall article views have increased significantly, so people are noticing the content we create and are using it in different ways to better the lives of students, increase knowledge and awareness about the culture, and create a narrative episode of the histories on the internet.

References: https://w.wiki/9LdP

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Ensure Equity in Decision-making, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers

Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	1000	This will be the total number of participants (new and old) to be engaged.
Number of all editors	500	This will include all editors who will contribute and/or attend events throughout the year.
Number of new editors	150
Number of retained editors	350
Number of all organizers	20	A total of 20 wikimedia organizers will be engaged across 4 language communities and Wikipedia clubs. Up to 5 individual grant winners will be selected to organize Wikimedia events.
Number of new organizers	5

14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects

Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia	2000	3000
Wikimedia Commons	3000	500
Wikidata	5000	5000
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki	300	400
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage	100	200
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia	100	200

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)

Yes

Other Metrics	Description	Target
Teachers trained	The number of teachers trained as part of our Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project for both Gurene and Dagbani teachers.	80
Number capacity building programs	The total number of capacity-building programs	4
Number of new projects launched	This will include total number of new projects implemented individuals and at local community level.	8
New Wikimedia project	We will pilot a Wikisource project for the 4 language communities.	1
N/A	N/A	N/A

Budget

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)

Yes

16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

Our partnership with Rising Voices will support our digital skills training for Wikimedia language leaders.

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)

30000

17. Your local currency. (required)

GHS

18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)

1270205 GHS

Multi-year funding request summary

Year	Amount (local currency)
Year 1	N/A GHS
Year 2	N/A GHS
Year 3	N/A GHS

Requested amount in USD

81915.52 USD

Multi-year funding request summary in USD

Year	Amount USD
Year 1	N/A USD
Year 2	N/A USD
Year 3	N/A USD

19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)

Yes

19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)

Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.

The general support fund will cover 2 paid staff and 2 contractor staff:

Executive Director (Paid Staff) and Project Manager (Paid Staff). Administrative Assistant (Contract) Finance Consultant (Contract)

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)

Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.

Executive Director (Paid Staff): 10 USD/hr X 120 hrs/month = USD 1,200. Total annual = USD 14,400

Administrative Assistant (Contract): 2 USD X 40hrs/month = USD 80. Total annual = USD 960. Project Manager (Paid Staff): 6 USD X 100hrs/month = USD 600. Total annual = USD 7,200. Finance consultant (Contract): 2 USD X 40hrs/month = USD 80. Total annual = USD 960.

19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)

We have reduced the hourly rate and the working hours for both finance consultant and administrative executives because we employ a national service person for 1 year whose compensation will be partly covered by the national service secretariat.

Our audit cost will cover part of the finance consultant's hours. We have created 2 volunteer roles (Partnership Manager and Grants Manager), which will reduce the project mamager working hours.

20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).

Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contractor costs	364795 GHS
Operational costs	326000 GHS
Programmatic costs	579410 GHS

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MMsjt2VNyYViQOJQ4-pvl8LChEqrUSgP/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108295047142609504446&rtpof=true&sd=true

Additional information

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

1. Micro grant applications guidelines: https://docs.google.com/document/d/132sGFW-DyJxY4itnrCXtyVccvUo42bKm6pnSqpkyxW0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.mk5ze8cvh98f
2. Dagbani Wikimedians user group policy and code of ethics: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QTgeB4kLPgCqJolf0nvBBK29sWEvA334?usp=sharing
3. Dagbani Wikimedians User Group Strategy Plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P9mqMUpwpxo6vbFACMGV9jr3DMhtYSuoiD9090GVs20/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a link to our 4 language Wikipedia projects:

Dagbani Wikipedia: https://dag.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol%C9%94%C9%A3u Gurene Wikipedia: https://gur.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C9%9Bgezure Dagaare Wikipedia: https://dga.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gamp%C9%9Bl%C9%9B_zu Kusaal Wikpedia: https://kus.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zug_lakir User Group's official website: https://www.dagbaniwikimedia.org/ User Group on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dagbani_Wikimedians_User_Group News and blog posts: https://www.dagbaniwikimedia.org/blogs/index.html

Our social media pages:

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/dagbaniwikimedians?mibextid=ZbWKwL&_rdc=1&_rdr Facebook group: https://web.facebook.com/groups/485522059893346 Twitter: https://x.com/dagbanliwiki Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/dagbaniwikimedians LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/69053450/admin/feed/posts/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcfmzQWeOu21IRqxN3kaH_Q Wikipedia Saha YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dagbaniwikipediasaha4011/videos

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By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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