Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Expanding the Visibility of Minority Languages across 19 States of Northern Nigeria (ID: 23519753)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
The Expanding Visibility of Minority Languages across the 19 States of Northern Nigeria project was designed to strengthen the documentation, preservation, and online visibility of minority languages across the region using Wikimedia platforms. The project addressed the underrepresentation of many indigenous languages by empowering local communities to actively contribute knowledge about their linguistic heritage. Through a combination of photography campaigns, in-person trainings, and online editing sessions, the project engaged participants from multiple states to document cultural and linguistic expressions, create and improve Wikipedia content, and upload media to Wikimedia Commons. New and existing editors were trained on Wikimedia policies, language documentation, and ethical community engagement. By involving diverse participants across all 19 northern states, the project increased awareness of the importance of minority languages, expanded multilingual content on Wikipedia and its sister projects, and fostered a sustainable community of contributors committed to preserving Northern Nigeria’s rich linguistic diversity.
- Photo Walk and Documentation
As part of the Expanding the Visibility of Minority Languages across the 19 States of Northern Nigeria project, a series of photo walks were conducted across some selected State in Northern Nigeria and surrounding communities to document the everyday lives, cultural practices, and linguistic heritage of minority language speakers. From the early stages of the project, participants actively captured visual representations of community activities, traditional artifacts, and oral storytelling sessions that reflect the use and transmission of indigenous languages. In total, over 350 photographs were produced and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, making them freely accessible for global use. These images serve as open educational resources that enhance the visibility of minority languages and cultures, while supporting Wikimedia projects with authentic, community-based documentation that reflects the rich linguistic diversity of Northern Nigeria.
- Physical Trainings / Edit-a-thons (8 Sessions across 6 States)
As part of the Expanding the Visibility of Minority Languages across the 19 States of Northern Nigeria project, a total of eight (8) in-person trainings and edit-a-thons were organized across six (6) states in Northern Nigeria. These physical activities were designed to build local capacity in Wikimedia editing, language documentation, and community led content creation. The sessions introduced participants to Wikimedia projects and emphasized their role in preserving and promoting minority languages.Participants received hands-on training in Wikipedia article creation and improvement, uploading media to Wikimedia Commons, and contributing structured data through Wikidata. Collectively, these activities resulted in the creation and improvement of over 1.08k articles related to minority languages and linguistic communities. The trainings were facilitated by experienced Wikimedians Muktee1494 with support from local language advocates and community coordinators.
- Online Trainings (3 Sessions)
To complement the physical activities and ensure wider regional inclusion, three online training sessions were conducted, enabling participation from additional states beyond the physical training locations. These sessions focused on:
- Raising awareness about the importance of documenting minority languages
- Practical guidance on account creation and contributions to Wikipedia
- Strategies for sustaining editor engagement and strengthening community-led initiatives
- Partnerships & Community Engagement
The project was implemented in collaboration with key language and research institutions, including:
- National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN)
- Centre for Research in Nigerian Languages, Translation and Folklore (CRNLTF)
- Language Development Center (LDC)
These partnerships strengthened the project’s credibility, enabled access to linguistic expertise, supported participant mobilization, and reinforced advocacy for minority language preservation within academic and community spaces.
- Outcomes
- 8 physical trainings/edit-a-thons conducted across 6 states in Northern Nigeria
- 3 online training sessions delivered, enabling broader participation
- 350+ photographs documenting minority languages and cultures uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
- 3.08k articles created or improved on Wikipedia
- New volunteers recruited and trained to contribute to Wikimedia projects
- Increased awareness of Wikimedia platforms as tools for preserving and promoting linguistic diversity
- Conclusion
The Expanding the Visibility of Minority Languages across the 19 States of Northern Nigeria project successfully combined documentation, capacity building, and institutional partnerships to address the underrepresentation of minority languages on Wikimedia platforms. By working across multiple states and collaborating with leading language institutions, the project strengthened community participation, expanded multilingual content, and laid a sustainable foundation for continued advocacy and documentation of Northern Nigeria’s linguistic heritage.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Strongly agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Strongly agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below:
- We hope to learn whether long term plan activities can solve the aforementioned challenges.
- We hope to learn whether the participants engagements would accelerate.
- We hope to learn what to do next by the end of this plan activities
During the Implementation of our project, the learning questions helped guide both our activities and our reflections.
First, regarding whether long-term planned activities can address the identified problems, we learned that sustained and well-structured interventions are significantly more effective than one-off activities. Continuous engagement allowed participants to gradually build skills, trust, and ownership of the project outcomes. This confirmed that long-term planning is essential for addressing systemic challenges and achieving meaningful impact.
Second, in assessing whether longer participant engagement would accelerate involvement, we observed increased commitment and active participation over time. As participants became more familiar with the project goals and saw tangible benefits, their motivation and contributions grew. This demonstrated that extended engagement strengthens accountability, collaboration, and learning outcomes.
Finally, by reflecting on what to do next at the end of the activities, we learned the importance of using monitoring data and participant feedback to inform next steps. This learning helped us identify areas for improvement, opportunities for scale-up, and potential partnerships.
We plan to use these insights to design more sustainable projects in the future, prioritize long-term engagement strategies, and ensure that learning and adaptation remain central to our project planning and decision-making.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
In the course of the project, we experienced some delays due to unforeseen technical difficulties with our bus during the photo walk, which kept us stranded for about four hours before reaching our intended destination.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
Our plan to share the Expanding the Visibilty of Minority Languages Across the 19 State of Northern Nigeria project learnings and results is built around openness, accessibility, and collaboration. First, we intend to prepare a detailed project report and publish it on Wikimedia platforms such as Diff ensuring that the documentation is available for community members globally. This report will highlight our methodologies, challenges, achievements, and recommendations for future replication. Secondly, we will organize local and online sharing sessions with Wikimedia communities in Nigeria and beyond. These sessions will provide a space to exchange ideas, answer questions, and inspire others who may want to implement similar initiatives in their own regions. In addition, we plan to publish blog posts and short summaries on Diff and other Wikimedia affiliated communication channels. These will allow us to reach a wider audience, including those who may not have participated directly but are interested in cultural and linguistic preservation. Partnerships also play a key role in our sharing strategy. By engaging institutions such as NINLAN and CRNLTF, we aim to create joint publications, academic presentations, and possibly conference contributions that highlight the importance of Wikimedia in language documentation. If already partially done, we have started by sharing highlights of our photo walk, training sessions, and community engagements through social media and within our local user groups. This has already sparked discussions and encouraged new contributors to join. In the future, we will continue to use these multiple platforms Meta-Wiki, online meetups, blogs, academic forums, and social media to ensure that the outcomes of this project are widely shared, easily accessible, and useful for other Wikimedia and cultural heritage communities.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 160 | 160 | Wikimedia Dashboard tools and its very to use and satisfactory |
| Number of editors | 80 | 80 | Wikimedia Dashboard tools and its very to use and satisfactory
Mission Accomplished |
| Number of organizers | 8 | 8 | Wikimedia Dashboard tools and its very to use and satisfactory
All the Organizers were resourceful and impactful |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 350 | 18000 | 14900 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 400 | 450 | 500 |
| Wikidata | |||
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mentorship | Train our mentors who will continue guiding editors for the project sustainability. | 5 | 5 | Wikimedia Dashboard tools and its very to use and satisfactory |
| Follow-up Discussion with some fellow professionals body | Follow-up discussions with key personalities /subgroups/networks to evaluate the long-term impact of the training and development a promising project for all. | 3 | 3 | Wikimedia Dashboard tools and its very to use and satisfactory |
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
6961367
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
4751.3
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Provide the link to the financial report https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tyqmSHdjF2MnyGiY9lR-EDQ2GAIMpW5c03R2cv30R1k/edit?gid=928458698#gid=928458698
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)
I will like to recommend a more strengthen more collaboration between Wikimedia communities and academic or cultural institutions. This not only adds credibility to the content produced but also bridges the gap between scholarly research and open knowledge platforms, and also sustainability should be central to all project designs to establish clear follow-up mechanisms, such as creating peer-support groups, developing multilingual editing guides, and securing institutional buy-in, will help ensure that the progress made does not end with the project timeline.