Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiForHumanRights on LGBT in Ghana and Benin (ID: 22895716)/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 succesful though with some challenges.
We were able to have seperate trainings in Cotonou and Accra which prooved succesful and exposed the partipants to the contributing to LGBTQ+ topics and how to go around it per keeping safe.
The one in Cotonou was hosted in collaboration with Benin Synergie for 2days, this training welcomed over 20 participants who were introduced to the basics of Wikipedia editing, notability, and article creation on LGBT+ topics relevant to Benin.
The next one was hosted in Accra, Ghana for a day. The session engaged about 15 participants, focusing on both beginner and intermediate Wikipedia skills, with guided edit-a-thons on Ghanaian LGBT activists, organizations, and culture.
They were serval edits on the french and english Wiki The project strengthened partnerships with grassroots LGBT organizations, ensuring trust and safe spaces for participants.
We also created a WhatsApp follow-up community to offer post-training mentorship and continued support.
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
The dashboard can be found here: (https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Hirondelle_Club_Benin/WikiForHumanRights_on_LGBT_at_Benin) and (https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Rightify_Ghana/WikiForHumanRights_on_LGBT_at_Ghana)
Some photos from the event; cant share all per privacy. Will update the link with photos as soon as i get permission: (https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOSnxx_olYw6sSlR70AoEM2_5rua3PgNiC-xznnpdyVN9Zxy01xHDMy1r_2LVpluw?key=NktyQUF0UHlodjdkMndCZ0ZLcWxnbTRiZmJjV0d3) (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:WikiForHumanRights_in_Ghana_and_Benin_2025)
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
Presentation slides that was used during the training (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1g3KcjpAygIm23RMwMoFM0PaFmDAzI-9F/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102342149188913408245&rtpof=true&sd=true)
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 | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | 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: How to better support LGBT countries across West Africa and the LGBT visibility gap across West African countries coupled with the impact of successive collaboration
Understood better how to support visibility gaps across west Africa and now i know the barriers and how better to mitigate them
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)
Yes, several unexpected yet insightful experiences emerged during the implementation.
Positive Surprises:
Emerging Community ambassadors: During both sessions, the partipants expressed willingless to champion this and be a good ambassador of the project.
Challenges and Lessons Learned:
Language Barrier in Benin: While many participants in Benin were fluent in French, most of the materials and facilitation resources were in English which caused some delays in comprehension. And also reduced the number of interested participants.
Internet and Power Instability: In Benin, intermittent power outages and unstable internet access affected the real-time editing experience.
Date challenge: We tried to re-scheldule the training at Ghana several tines due to the unavailability of the partner and had to go ahead using alternative routes.
Key Takeaways:
The need for localized training materials and facilitaors in French when working across multilingual regions.
Flexibility and cultural sensitivity are essential for successful implementation, especially in queer advocacy spaces where safety, trust, and inclusion are non-negotiable.
Deepen collaboration with local affilates aswell
Overall, these surprises helped us grow as organizers and strengthened our commitment to fostering queer related contributions in Africa.
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)
We plan to share the learnings through:
- Meta-Wiki Documentation that detailed project report reflecting metrics, reflections, participant testimonials, and article lists. This page will serve as a resource for others planning similar cross-border or queer-focused Wikipedia outreach in West Africa.
- Blog Post for Diff: We are working on a submission for the Wikimedia Diff blog to highlight our approach, unexpected learnings, and the importance of localized partnerships.
Through our social media @w4hrnigeria
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 | 80 | 61 | |
| Number of editors | 60 | 42 | |
| Number of organizers | 13 | 14 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 500 | 12 | 600 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 200 | 45 | 31 |
| Wikidata | 400 | 74 | 600 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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)
7594485
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
4510.14
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/1drhPURZdRJZOtIcNmBsbhbSvBWOCsdVOxEcTAmO4MJo/edit?usp=sharing
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)
One major reflection from this project is the critical importance of Wiki LGBT+ outreach acroos Africa and the power of building communities committed to this. The success of this initiative reaffirms that Wikipedia can be a powerful tool for visibility, documentation, and empowerment in communities that are often silenced or misrepresented.
We want to use the opportunity to say thank you to the Wikimedia Foundation for the support and also recommend that future Wikimedia-funded projects in sensitive contexts should be encouraged which include allocating more resources for Wiki LGBT+ community buiding, encourage regional collaboration which include seeking safe partnerships and lastly help develop a “Queer Wiki Toolkit” with templates, notability guides, and culturally sensitive best practices for editing LGBT-related content, especially in African contexts.
Review notes
[edit]Review notes from Program Officer:
N/A
Applicant's response to the review feedback.
N/A