Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Ijue Zanzibar 2025 (ID: 23475132)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Angrybird20
- Organization
Wikimedia Zanzibar User group
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
I'm a board member or president of a Wikimedia Affiliate or mission-allied organization., I'm a group leader of an informal Wikimedia group.
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
I have been one of the volunteer roles in Tanzanian University Students Wikimedians community from 2023 - 2025 I am working to develop and engage with the Wikimedia Zanzibar User Group in Zanzibar after seeing the gap available where there is not a user group in the island
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Ijue Zanzibar 2025
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-09-01 - 2026-01-16
- 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)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
This proposal seeks to close the significant knowledge gap surrounding Zanzibar’s culture and lifestyle on Wikimedia projects. While Zanzibar is well known internationally, much of the available content across Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, and Wikimedia Commons is either limited, outdated, or framed primarily through a tourism lens. As a result, local voices, traditional knowledge, and everyday life in Zanzibar remain largely invisible on free knowledge platforms.
The wider change we aim to bring is a more inclusive and representative body of knowledge about Zanzibar created by the people of Zanzibar and made freely accessible to the world. When local communities can document their own culture and history, it leads to more accurate, respectful, and relevant representation. This, in turn, empowers the community, enhances cultural pride, and contributes to equitable access to knowledge globally.
Main challenges we are addressing include: 1. Content imbalance and underrepresentation of Zanzibar’s cultural identity and heritage across Wikimedia platforms. 2. Limited local capacity in Wikimedia editing and contribution skills, which hinders sustainable participation. 3. Lack of locally sourced visual content, particularly freely licensed media that authentically represents the archipelago's people, customs, and geography.
Our key approaches to bring about this change are: 1. Building local capacity for knowledge contribution Strategy: Empower community members with skills in Wikipedia editing, media documentation, and cultural content creation. Why this approach: Research and previous initiatives in Tanzania and other parts of Africa have shown that equipping local people with editing skills leads to more sustainable and authentic content contributions. Activities: Host training workshops, mentorship programs, and edit-a-thons focused on Zanzibar-specific topics.
2. Community-centered documentation of Zanzibar’s culture and daily life Strategy: Engage local volunteers in capturing and uploading high-quality, freely licensed images and audio-visual material to Wikimedia Commons. Why this approach: Local contributors are best positioned to document their own environment and culture respectfully and accurately. Activities: Conduct field visits, community interviews, and photo walks to gather content that aligns with identified gaps.
3. Strategic collaboration with cultural stakeholders Strategy: Partner with local institutions, universities, historians, and heritage organizations to ensure accuracy and community buy-in. Why this approach: Collaborating with trusted cultural actors provides access to verified information, increases impact, and strengthens long-term sustainability. Activities: Establish formal partnerships and co-host documentation or outreach events.
By combining capacity building, community-led content creation, and institutional collaboration, this project offers a holistic and sustainable approach to diversifying and enriching Wikimedia projects with authentic knowledge about Zanzibar. The positive impact will extend beyond the Wikimedia ecosystem helping schools, researchers, travelers, and the public engage with a more complete and nuanced understanding of Zanzibar.
- 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 project will begin in early September 2025 with internal planning and coordination, followed by community outreach sessions at universities and local centers in both Unguja and Pemba to introduce the initiative and recruit participants.
From late September through October, we will hold the first capacity-building workshop to train volunteers on editing Wikipedia, contributing to Wikivoyage, and uploading to Wikimedia Commons. This will be followed by the first photo documentation expedition across Unguja, and then an edit-a-thon where participants will use the collected content to create or improve articles.
In November, we will repeat this process with a second round of training, another field documentation trip this time in Pemba and a second edit-a-thon focused on integrating visual content into Wikimedia projects.
December will feature a stakeholder roundtable, bringing together cultural institutions and partners to discuss collaboration and sustainability. A third and final training workshop will reinforce skills among new and returning contributors, and a final edit-a-thon at the end of December will serve as a major push to finalize content contributions.
Finally, in January 2026, we will carry out monitoring and evaluation, collect participant feedback, and prepare our final grant report for submission 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.
1. Yakobo Wambura (Username: Angrybird20)
- Project lead
- Volunteer role
2. Emmanuel Akyoo (Username: Bs-Afrique)
- Communications Officer
- Volunteer role
3. Zulufa abdulaziz (username: naitham2000)
- Partnership and community relations
- Volunteer role
4. Magoiga Mtatiro (Username: Magotech)
- Mentor and Advisor
- Volunteer
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
Our target participants are youths, educators, librarians, and local content creators from both Unguja and Pemba in Zanzibar, with the goal of engaging individuals who are passionate about culture, storytelling, and open knowledge.
Prior to the activities, we will conduct targeted outreach through social media, university networks, and local institutions to raise awareness and encourage participation.
During the activities, we will ensure sessions are interactive, inclusive, and hands-on, with peer mentoring and practical exercises to build skills and confidence. After the activities, we will maintain engagement through dedicated online groups (WhatsApp/Telegram), follow-up tasks, and recognition efforts such as certificates and personalized impact summaries.
This approach is designed to build a committed, capable, and locally rooted Wikimedia community that continues contributing beyond the project period.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
Yes
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OcyyCkjlPWD37tIkDDjGK6ErwCN4UyIs/view?usp=sharing
- 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.
During the 2024 Wiki Student Summit held in Arusha, we held a focused discussion with management members of Open Space Tanzania, particularly through the Tanzanian University Students Wikimedians initiative. The conversation centered around the need to address the knowledge gap related to Zanzibar’s culture and lifestyle across Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, and Wikimedia Commons. Community members expressed strong interest in seeing more authentic and locally-sourced content from Zanzibar represented online.
Following the summit, we engaged in a series of planning sessions where we explored the scope of the proposed project, assessed potential partnerships, and began laying the groundwork for implementation. As part of our preparations, we initiated the process of acquiring the necessary permits to carry out outreach and documentation activities across multiple institutions and community locations permits that are essential for lawful and smooth execution of the project.
While most of the discussion has been offline and community-based, we are in the process of documenting these conversations on Meta-Wiki and will share the link once published to ensure transparency and invite broader input.
- 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)
Geography
- 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)
Geographic
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
Through this project, we aim not only to enrich Wikimedia content about Zanzibar but also to generate meaningful learning that can inform future community initiatives. The following are the main things we hope to learn, expressed as learning questions:
1. How effective are community-led content creation activities in bridging regional content gaps on Wikimedia projects? We hope to understand whether grassroots-driven documentation and storytelling can significantly improve the quantity and quality of Zanzibar-related content on Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, and Wikimedia Commons.
2. What motivates new contributors in Zanzibar to continue editing after initial training and events? This will help us learn which types of support, recognition, or follow-up activities are most effective in sustaining volunteer engagement beyond the project timeline.
3. What types of cultural content are most challenging or sensitive to document, and how can we address this respectfully? Through this question, we want to identify cultural, ethical, or logistical barriers that may arise during documentation and explore community-informed solutions.
4. How can partnerships with local institutions improve the credibility, accuracy, and sustainability of Wikimedia contributions? We are particularly interested in how collaborations with cultural institutions, universities, and community leaders influence the quality of content and long-term project impact.
5. What impact does this kind of local content representation have on community pride and awareness of open knowledge? By capturing participant feedback and community responses, we aim to assess how this project affects local perception of Wikimedia and contributes to knowledge equity.
The insights gathered will guide our future programming and may serve as a reference for other Wikimedia communities working to represent under documented cultures and regions.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 100 | |
| Number of editors | 80 | |
| Number of organizers | 5 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 600 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 500 |
| Wikidata | 1000 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | 2500 |
| 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)
To effectively track and evaluate the progress and impact of this project, we plan to use the following tools:
1. Program & Events Dashboard: To monitor participant activity, number of edits, articles created or improved, and overall contribution metrics across Wikipedia and Wikivoyage during training sessions and edit-a-thons.
2. Hashtag Tool – To track edits made using a unique project hashtag, helping us visualize engagement and content growth related to Zanzibar culture and lifestyle.
3. Wikimedia Commons Category Tracking – We will create and monitor a dedicated category for media files uploaded during the project to measure the quantity and diversity of visual contributions.
4. Pre- and Post-Event Surveys – To gather participant feedback, assess learning outcomes, and understand motivations or challenges before and after each activity.
5. Community Feedback Sessions (offline & online) – We will host small reflection circles and online follow-up sessions to collect qualitative insights, especially on the relevance, sensitivity, and impact of content created.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qtFnkiSNSg6-MJOIuv5dlLrc8Mj-gtbmzkmepXMzseM/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)
13776144.7 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.
4982.33 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).