Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/SheSaid Campaign 2025 in Rwanda (ID: 23328074)/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 project was implemented through a series of structured training, outreach, and content-creation activities aimed at increasing women’s participation and representation on Wikimedia platforms, particularly Wikiquote.
Implemented Activities
1 Training/Presentation Session (Early October): An introductory training session was conducted to orient participants—especially new women editors and women with disabilities—on Wikimedia platforms, Wikiquote editing guidelines, sourcing, and content standards.
Community Outreach: Outreach campaigns were carried out through WikiClubs, social media, and local networks to mobilize women participants and raise awareness about women’s representation in digital knowledge spaces.
2 Edit-a-thons: Two in-person edit-a-thons were organized, bringing together participants to collaboratively create and improve Wikiquote entries about notable women. These sessions also served as practical training for beginners.
Training and Follow-up for Newbies: Dedicated mentoring and follow-up sessions were held to support new editors in continuing their contributions after the edit-a-thons. Progress tracking and feedback helped improve content quality and retention.
Women Engagement: A dialogue session with student documenting women’s voices and stories, strengthening collaboration between media and Wikimedia contributors.
Editing and Creating New Wikiquote Content: Participants worked independently and in groups to add quotes and upload corresponding images, improving representation of African women.
Meta Check-ins with Editors and Jury Team: Regular coordination meetings with organizers, editors, and jury members were conducted to review contributions, ensure quality standards, and monitor participation.
Closing Ceremony: The project concluded with a recognition event celebrating contributors, announcing the best female contributor award, and reinforcing continued engagement in Wikimedia activities.
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
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_Rwanda/Shesaid_2025_in_Rwanda?enroll=
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
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SheSaid_in_Rwanda_2025
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: Through this project, I aim to learn how to effectively engage and empower women—particularly young women and women with disabilities—to contribute to Wikimedia projects. I want to understand what motivates them to participate, what challenges they face, and how we can best support them in becoming active editors and content creators.
The main things I would like to learn from this initiative include:
1. **Effective Methods**: What strategies are most successful in attracting and retaining women editors in Rwanda, especially those who are new to the Wikimedia movement?
2. **Impact of Activities**: How does participation in WikiClubs and edit-a-thon events influence the confidence, skills, and long-term engagement of women editors?
3. **Challenges Faced**: What specific challenges do women, particularly those with disabilities, encounter when editing on Wikimedia platforms, and how can we address these issues to create a more inclusive environment?
4. **Community Collaboration**: How can collaboration with local WikiClubs enhance community participation and ensure the sustainability of gender-focused initiatives?
The data collected through participation records, feedback surveys, and follow-up engagement will help answer these questions. This learning will be valuable not only for improving future activities but also for informing broader efforts to make Wikimedia spaces more inclusive and representative.
All things considered, the study proved that community-based cooperation, mentorship, hands-on training, and inclusive outreach are essential for enabling women to contribute to open knowledge. Future Wikimedia initiatives in Rwanda will be shaped by these lessons, emphasizing long-term editor retention and leadership development, as well as greater involvement of young women and women with disabilities.
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)
All things considered, the research demonstrated that collaborations with academic institutions, inclusive outreach, and hands-on training under mentorship are essential to enabling women to contribute to open knowledge. Future Wikimedia projects in Rwanda will be guided by these lessons, emphasizing leadership development and sustained participation while fostering greater involvement from students, young women, and women with disabilities.
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)
The learnings and outcomes of the project are being disseminated extensively and sustainably through the integration of Wikimedia community platforms, educational institutions, partner networks, and peer mentorship. This method guarantees that other community members in Rwanda and elsewhere can duplicate and expand effective tactics, such inclusive outreach, edit-a-thons, and institutional partnerships.
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 | 50 | 30 | In order to properly train students, enlisting institutional partners took more resources than expected. Since many participants were unfamiliar with Wikimedia platforms and needed basic training before they could contribute on their own, a considerable amount of time was also devoted to helping novices.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the project was successful in strengthening relationships with institutions and developing new editors' initial capacity. Important insights about the amount of time and resources required to train novices and maintain participation were learned from the experience. We intend to set aside a more reasonable budget and schedule for novice training and institutional engagement in subsequent projects. We are certain that we will meet the anticipated participation and content goals with these changes. |
| Number of editors | 40 | 30 | |
| Number of organizers | 5 | 4 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |||
| Wikimedia Commons | 350 | 55 | 0 |
| Wikidata | |||
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | 700 | 64 | 223 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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)
3625432
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
2500
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
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 would like to sincerely thank the Wikimedia Foundation Grants Administrator for their invaluable support and trust throughout our project.
The project was very exciting in the field; however, it did not fully meet expectations due to several challenges. With a limited budget, we had to prioritize training new participants who required more time to learn editing skills. We also reduced the number of participants from 50 to 30, which created a significant gap and affected both the overall results and the number of quotes that were expected to be added.
I sincerely acknowledge these gaps and take full responsibility. I am committed to improving future planning, aligning activities with realistic targets, and managing budget adjustments more effectively so that project goals are achieved even under constraints.
Thank you for your continued support. These were the key challenges I faced during the project implementation.