Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Bridging the Rural Gender Gap:WikiLovesWomen Residency at Elandskop Museum & Rhino Heritage Park (ID: 23943895)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Mmaditopo (talk • accounts • contributions • edit count)
- Organization
N/A
- 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)
Other
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
I am a coordination lead for The Lubombo-Maloti Wikimedia User Group, a Southern African volunteer Wikimedia User Group founded on 23 December 2025 and focused on documenting, preserving, and expanding freely accessible knowledge about the histories, cultures, languages, and political traditions of Southern Africa.
The group is called 'Lubombo-Maloti' be
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Bridging the Rural Gender Gap: WikiLovesWomen Residency at Elandskop Museum & Rhino Heritage Park
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-09-01 - 2027-03-31
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
South Africa
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Wiki Loves Women
- 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 systemic gender and geographic bias on Wikipedia is a well-documented crisis, but it reaches a breaking point within indigenous language platforms like the Sesotho Wikipedia. Currently, content regarding human rights, notable African women, and LGBTQ+ histories is nearly non-existent.
Rural women bear the absolute brunt of this digital exclusion. Due to a severe lack of structural support, prohibitive data costs, and limited hardware access, the rich histories, struggles, political contributions, and cultural legacies of rural South African women go completely unrecorded. When open-knowledge platforms ignore these narratives, it perpetuates a false reality where rural women have no history and no voice.
The change
This project is an intentional intervention aligned with the global WikiLovesWomen framework. We are choosing not to look at this gap as just a lack of words on a screen but as a systematic denial of heritage.
My project seeks to shift the paradigms, the status quo from passive exclusion to active, community-led documentation. This residency will empower local women to become the authors of their own history, transforming consumers of digital media into open-knowledge creators and permanently shifting how rural African women are represented on the global internet. To drive this change, I will be permanently based at the Elandskop Museum for the entire six-month residency. The museum will provide me with a dedicated, permanent workspace and desk to conduct my daily Wikipedia editing, translation, and community curation.
Crucially, this onsite placement grants me direct, unrestricted access to the Elandskop Museum’s physical library and historical archives. This localized repository of reliable primary sources, regional literature, and oral history records will serve as the factual foundation needed to verify, write, and back up the targeted articles, ensuring the highest standards of verifiability on the Sesotho Wikipedia.
- 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.
Main Planned Activities 1. Institutional Setup and Archival Mapping (Month 1)
Establish a permanent, dedicated Wikipedia workstation for the Residency within the Elandskop Museum.
Review, index, and map relevant primary reference materials, local literature, and oral history records within the Elandskop Museum library and archive to back up article creation.
Recruit 20 local women from the surrounding community to participate in the upcoming capacity-building workshops.
2. Intensive In-Person WikiLovesWomen Workshops (Months 2–4)
Session 1: Introduction to Wikimedia: Hands-on training covering basic Wiki mechanics, creating accounts, navigating the visual editor, and understanding core policies (Verifiability, Neutral Point of View, and Notability).
Session 2: Translation & Expansion: Focused workshop on utilizing the Wikipedia Content Translation tool to translate relevant gender, human rights, and biography articles from English to Sesotho, alongside expanding existing low-quality stubs.
Session 3: Wikidata,Wikimedia Commons & Media Literacy: Training on open licensing, taking high-quality encyclopedic photographs, and uploading local cultural artifacts and heritage sites to Wikimedia Commons.
3. Strategic Content Generation & Translation Drives (Months 2–6)
Execute daily editing and research tracks by the Resident using the museum’s archival files to write 100 new articles on notable women, women's rights, and LGBTQ+ topics in Sesotho.
Run continuous peer-led translation sprints to convert 600 targeted articles from English to Sesotho.
4. Onsite Archival Digitization Sprints (Months 3–6)
Organize systematic photography and digitization loops of physical museum exhibits, historical artifacts, and regional geographical landmarks to upload 1,000 free-licensed images to Wikimedia Commons.
5. Mentorship and Editor Retention Loops (Months 4–6)
Provide daily, onsite workspace mentorship and remote troubleshooting support (backed by distributed internet data packages) to keep local trainees actively editing.
Track individual contributions via a central Wikimedia Programs & Events Dashboard to monitor progress and maintain engagement.
6. Evaluation, Incentive Distribution, and Reporting (Month 6)
Assess dashboard metrics to identify the top-performing, sustainably retained editors.
Hand over the 2 smartphone hardware incentives to the top 2 editors to ensure their continued contribution infrastructure.
Compile and submit the final financial and narrative grant impact reports to the Wikimedia Foundation.
- 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. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
Dieketseng Josiphina is an open-knowledge advocate and community leader with a proven track record of grassroots mobilization. She is a founding member of the Lubombo Maloti Wikimedia User Group and has extensive experience working as an online volunteer and facilitator. Notably, she has led and facilitated critical localization and capacity-building initiatives within the Basesotho community, driving the preservation and expansion of digital content in indigenous languages.
As a female leader spearheading this project, I frequently work as the only woman within an otherwise entirely male leadership and institutional team. This first-hand experience gives me a unique, profound understanding of the structural, social, and cultural barriers that women face in entering digital spaces—making me uniquely equipped to lead this localized WikiLovesWomen initiative. Institutional & Community Support The Elandskop Museum Team: The museum administration is fully backing this residency by providing Dieketseng with a permanent workspace, full daily desk facilities, and complete administrative support for the duration of the 6-month project. The museum staff will assist in logistics for the three scheduled in-person meetups and safeguard her integration into the space.
The Basesotho Community network: This established network of language advocates and volunteers will serve as a core support system to help amplify the training outreach, source potential participants, and assist in peer reviewing the target 600 translations and 100 new articles on the Sesotho Wikipedia.
The Museum Library & Archives: The host institution is granting unrestricted access to its physical reference library, oral history collections, and local records. This provides the project team with the rigorous primary source material necessary to verify the newly created profiles of notable women. Project Advisor & Technical Mentor: Twin Mosia The project will be strategically advised and mentored by Twin Mosia, a veteran heritage practitioner, digital archivist, and experienced Wikimedian based in the region. Twin brings an elite level of technical expertise and institutional alignment to the residency.
He is currently a member of the African Wikipedian Alliance (AWA), a continental network supported by Code for Africa (CfA) dedicated to strengthening information integrity and closing representation gaps across indigenous languages. He is an active fellow in the Code for Africa Fellowship 2026, specializing in leveraging open-source civic data and knowledge ecosystems to combat digital exclusion
Twin will provide direct oversight, dashboard management training, and technical guidance to Dieketseng and her cohort, ensuring that the project adheres to global Wikimedia standards while directly addressing the specific informational gaps of rural South Africa.
- 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 primary target participants for this project are 20 local women from the township of Mamafubedu in Petrus Steyn, Free State, South Africa. This cohort will intentionally focus on unemployed young women, community heritage enthusiasts, and local language speakers who possess a strong interest in preserving their culture but currently lack the digital literacy, hardware, or connectivity to do so. Engagement Strategy: Before and During Activities
Before the Activities (Mobilization & Trust-Building) Rather than relying solely on digital channels—which fail in low-connectivity areas—Dieketseng will conduct direct community outreach in Mamafubedu. This includes visiting local community centers and women’s forums and leveraging the museum's existing community networks. A pre-workshop open day will be held at the museum to demystify Wikipedia, explain the vision of the WikiLovesWomen initiative, and outline how learning these digital skills can empower the participants economically and socially.
During recruitment, the team will map out the specific digital literacy levels of the 20 selected women to ensure the training paces itself to their comfort levels.
During the Activities (The Safe Space & Active Support)
The workshops will be hosted inside the secure environment of the Elandskop Museum, providing an environment free from distraction where the women can learn collaboratively. Because I will be based at my dedicated museum desk for the full six months, the workspace transitions from a static training room into an active, open-door incubator. Outside of the three formal group sessions, participants can drop into the museum at any time for personalized, one-on-one mentorship, trouble-shooting edits, or using the museum library archives together to verify articles.
To keep engagement high and eliminate attrition, the project actively provisions internet data packages and provides catering during meetups so that participating costs them nothing out of pocket.
Post-Activity Follow-Up & Long-Term Retention Immediate Support Following the three intensive workshops, community engagement will transition into a hybrid model. The team will maintain a dedicated WhatsApp support group for rapid troubleshooting, collaborative translation sprints, and article peer-reviews. This allows the participants to continue editing flexibly from home using the data packages provided by the grant.
Structured Milestone Tracking I will use a Wikimedia Programs & Events Dashboard to monitor the editing frequency, article creations, and image uploads of each participant. If a trainee’s activity drops, I will proactively reach out and invite them back to her museum desk for a targeted one-on-one refresher session to get them over any technical hurdles.
Engagement Strategy: Before and During Activities Before the Activities (Mobilization & Trust-Building) Rather than relying solely on digital channels—which fail in low-connectivity areas—Dieketseng will conduct direct community outreach in Mamafubedu. This includes visiting local community centers and women’s forums and leveraging the museum's existing community networks. A pre-workshop open day will be held at the museum to demystify Wikipedia, explain the vision of the WikiLovesWomen initiative, and outline how learning these digital skills can empower the participants economically and socially. During recruitment, the team will map out the specific digital literacy levels of the 20 selected women to ensure the training paces itself to their comfort levels.
During the Activities (The Safe Space & Active Support)
The workshops will be hosted inside the secure environment of the Elandskop Museum, providing an environment free from distraction where the women can learn collaboratively.
Because I will be based at my dedicated museum desk for the full six months, the workspace transitions from a static training room into an active, open-door incubator. Outside of the three formal group sessions, participants can drop into the museum at any time for personalized, one-on-one mentorship, trouble-shooting edits, or using the museum library archives together to verify articles.
To keep engagement high and eliminate attrition, the project actively provisions internet data packages and provides catering during meetups so that participating costs them nothing out of pocket.
Post-Activity Follow-Up & Long-Term Retention
Immediate Support Following the three intensive workshops, community engagement will transition into a hybrid model. The team will maintain a dedicated WhatsApp support group for rapid troubleshooting, collaborative translation sprints, and article peer-reviews. This allows the participants to continue editing flexibly from home using the data packages provided by the grant. Structured Milestone Tracking I will use a Wikimedia Programs & Events Dashboard to monitor the editing frequency, article creations, and image uploads of each participant. If a trainee’s activity drops, I will proactively reach out and invite them back to her museum desk for a targeted one-on-one refresher session to get them over any technical hurdles.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 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.
N/A
- 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.
As the only woman on an otherwise entirely male institutional and heritage management team at the Elandskop Museum, my first step was to introduce the concept of the WikiLovesWomen residency to my direct male colleagues. I initiated formal and informal internal alignment meetings to discuss the structural exclusion of rural women from local archives and digital platforms. I advocated for the necessity of a dedicated female-led workspace within the museum, securing unanimous institutional backing. The team committed to providing me with a permanent, secure desk for the full six months, along with unrestricted access to the museum's library and archives to facilitate this critical work.
2. Consultation with the Lubombo Maloti Wikimedia Usergroup As a founding member of the Lubombo Maloti Wikimedia User Group, I brought the project proposal to our core community members for strategic review. Given our shared focus on the cross-border preservation of the Sesotho language, the community provided valuable input on how to scale the target deliverables sustainably. The discussion focused on ensuring that the translation of 600 articles and the creation of 100 new articles would align with the user group's existing linguistic guidelines and standards for the Sesotho Wikipedia.
- 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)
Content Gender gap
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Gender and diversity
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Sexual Orientation
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Ensure Equity in Decision-making
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
I want to learn What are the most effective intervention strategies to transition rural women from complete digital newcomers to active, autonomous Wikipedia editors when facing high data costs and lack of personal hardware?
How does placing a dedicated WikiLovesWomen Resident permanently within a physical museum archive impact the speed, verifiability, and depth of content creation on Indigenous-language Wikipedias? How can a female-led open-knowledge initiative successfully carve out sustainable, independent user circles (like a Sesotho WikiLovesWomen group) while embedded within traditionally male-dominated heritage leadership teams?
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 20 | |
| Number of editors | 20 | |
| Number of organizers | 1 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 700 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 1000 |
| Wikidata | 50 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| 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)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 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)
Dashboard and XTools
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
41000.7 ZAR
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
2500 USD
- By submitting your proposal/funding request you confirm that you have read and agree to the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy, and the Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).