Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Feminism and Folklore 2026 in Tanzania (ID: 23759805)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Anuary Rajabu
- 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)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
N/A
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Feminism and Folklore 2026 in Tanzania
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-04-05 - 2026-06-20
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Tanzania
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Feminism and Folklore
- 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)
Tanzania has a rich and diverse cultural landscape expressed through folklore, including traditional music and dance, festivals, cuisine, attire, and spiritual practices. These forms of knowledge—recognized by UNESCO as part of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), which communities transmit across generations to reinforce identity and cultural continuity—play a vital role in social life and cultural diversity. However, their representation on Wikipedia remains uneven, fragmented, and often incomplete. Many folklore-related topics are either missing, underdeveloped, or lack local context, limiting public access to reliable and culturally grounded information.
At the same time, women’s and queer people’s contributions within these folklore traditions are particularly underrepresented. Women play central roles as storytellers, performers, artists, ritual leaders, and custodians of oral history, yet their work is frequently treated as secondary in documented narratives. This dual gap—both in the coverage of Tanzanian folklore and in the visibility of women and queer people within it—reinforces structural biases in how knowledge from the Global South is recorded and shared online.
Through Feminism and Folklore 2026, we seek to establish a lasting change in the representation of local knowledge about women, culture, and traditions on Wikipedia. The change we seek is twofold: first, to significantly expand and improve documentation of Tanzanian folklore in its many forms; and second, to ensure that the roles of women and queer people within these traditions are clearly documented, well-contextualized, and recognized as central to cultural knowledge.
To achieve this, we aim to support local community editors in documenting and improving locally grounded content in both English and Swahili, thereby strengthening the quality and inclusiveness of folklore-related content across Wikimedia projects.
- 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.
The campaign activities will begin with outreach and recruitment to engage local volunteers, with a special focus on women and first-time editors. This will be followed by a series of capacity-building workshops to strengthen participants’ Wikipedia editing skills, introduce Wikimedia projects to new contributors, and highlight the specific goals and local relevance of the Feminism and Folklore 2026 campaign in Tanzania. We will then organise edit-a-thons and a local writing contest focused on creating and improving articles about Tanzanian folklore and women’s contributions. Finally, a post-activity survey will be conducted to collect participants’ feedback and assess learning outcomes.
Throughout the implementation of the activities, we will collaborate with local organisations and NGOs working in the areas of culture, heritage preservation, women’s rights and community development, such as Akili Platform Tanzania (APT). These partners will support community outreach and participant mobilisation, help identify locally grounded sources and cultural practitioners, and contribute to strengthening the relevance and sustainability of the project at the community level.
- 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.
Anuary Rajabu (User: Anuary Rajabu) – Project Lead. He is an experienced Wikimedian, admin and event organiser who has successfully led several Wikimedia activities, including Wiki4HumanRights, WikiVibrance, Art+Feminism and other community engagement activities within the Wikimedians of Tabora community. He is also a certified organiser through the Wikimedia Organizer Lab program.
Alex Method (User: Rwebogora) – Trainer and Facilitator. He is an experienced Wikimedian with a strong background in editing, training, organising, facilitation, mentoring and photography. He will support participant training, jurying and event facilitation.
Hussein Mohammed (User: Hussein m mmbaga) – Trainer and Facilitator. He is an experienced Wikimedian and Wikipedia administrator. He will support training activities and in-person event facilitation.
Diana Dickson (User: Diana Dickson) – Communications and Partnerships Diana is a women’s rights activist and an experienced Wikimedian who has been involved in the movement for the past four years. She will lead communications and outreach activities, support partnerships with local organisations, and assist with participant recruitment, particularly among women and community groups.
- 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)
Participation is open to everyone who is interested in promoting local traditions and culture, advancing gender equality and increasing women’s representation in Wikimedia projects, including members of the Wikimedians of Tabora community and other Wikimedians from existing Wikimedia communities in Tanzania who are committed to bridging the gender gap and preserving local culture online.
To raise awareness about the campaign, social media will be used, and existing Wikimedia communities and groups will be informed in order to leverage their networks, ideas and resources. After the activities, a post-event survey will be conducted to collect participants’ feedback, and further engagement opportunities will be offered to the new volunteers who are interested in continued involvement.
- 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.
The project was discussed with community members through a conversation in our WhatsApp group, where participants were encouraged to ask questions, contribute ideas and suggest ways to strengthen the project’s effectiveness and sustainability. We also posted a notice on the Wikimedians of Tabora discussion page and the Swahili Wikipedia Village Pump to invite comments and suggestions and to involve the wider community in planning the application.
- 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)
Digital Access
- 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
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
We aim to evaluate how feminist-oriented mentoring impacts the quality and longevity of Wikipedia articles, and explore how documenting folklore in Swahili increases local visibility. Furthermore, we seek to learn how local partnerships, such as our collaboration with Akili Platform Tanzania, contribute to the sustainability of gender-related content and the long-term retention of new contributors.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 35 | |
| Number of editors | 30 | |
| Number of organizers | 4 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 50 |
| Wikimedia Commons | |
| Wikidata | 100 |
| 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)
Event Registration tool and Program & Event Dashboard
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
Kindly find the budget here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1drgm1rDdZsq3AD6pvEQVfNzTTvIHcMcsjzQ7rkroNMs/edit?usp=sharing
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
10000000 TZS
- 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.
4004.67 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and 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).