Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves Folklore 2026 in Ghana (ID: 23653694)/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)
Implemented Activities and Results Achieved Despite receiving a reduced amount from what was originally requested, we successfully implemented the core activities of the project and achieved meaningful results across all planned areas. The following strategies helped us in achieving the results.
1. Workshops and Editathons:
We organized three training sessions in total: one online training and two in-person workshops and editathons. Together, these sessions reached between 20 and 40 participants, including both new and returning Wikimedia contributors. The online session helped us reach participants who could not attend in person, while the in-person workshops allowed for hands-on editing practice on Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. Participants were trained on how to upload media files correctly to Wikimedia Commons and how to create and enrich Wikidata items for the places visited and the media files captured in order to improved the visibility and reusability of the uploaded content across Wikimedia projects.
What worked well with this approach: Combining online and in-person formats increased reach. Practical editing sessions during the workshops were more effective than lecture-style teaching. Showing participants, especially the newbies, how their contributions appear live on Wikimedia motivated greater engagement.
Key lesson learned: We learned that it is better to always prepare sample files and editing exercises in advance. First-time contributors need step-by-step guidance, especially on licensing and structured data.
2. Photowalk and Documentation
We organized one photowalk covering parts of the North-East and Northern regions of Ghana. The originally planned coverage of the main towns in the North-East was affected by a chieftaincy conflict that arose during the project period, which required us to adjust our routes for the safety of volunteers and community members. Despite this challenge, we successfully documented a rich variety of folklore activities, including:
- Funeral performances and ceremonies
- Traditional weaving and craft work
- Food preparation processes
- Market day activities
- Traditional attire of chiefs and commoners
- Different types of traditional dances
- Daily life activities such as fetching and carrying water from dams and wells
- Processes involved in the coronation of chiefs
Over 600 images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as a result of the photowalk and a total of over 2,400 images uploaded across the country. Some of these files represent cultural documentation that was previously absent or underrepresented on the platform, particularly for communities in northern Ghana.
What worked well with this approach: Prior community engagement helped us gain trust and access. Working with local contacts helped navigate the security situation and redirect to safer locations without losing much ground.
Key lesson we learned: Always have flexible backup locations when working in areas with potential social or political tensions. Community liaison is essential before and during the photowalk.
3. ISA Tagging Campaign (https://isa.toolforge.org/campaigns/458)
Following the photowalk and uploads, we used the ISA tool to run a tagging campaign on the captured images. This was to help add structured, descriptive metadata to the files, making them more discoverable and useful for editors, researchers, and the public. However, the participants concentrated much on the uploads to Wkimedia Commons more than adding the depictions and descriptions on the ISA tool. We plan on having follow-up trainings and engagement on the use of the tool other tools for specific campaigns.
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: The walks will focus on capturing photos, audios and videos of different cultural groups from the northern part of Ghana, especially the North-East and the Savannah regions respevtively where Wikimedia activities are less covered. Their food, music/dance, games, work and festivals. When there is improvement in the coverage of these ares and there are contributions by volunteers from these areas. How many folkcultural activies from the Savannah and North-East regions are covered on the Wikimeda Commons platform? How many of them are being used on Wikipedia and other open source platforms to increase their visibilities? How many volunteers from these areas showed interset in learning and contributing to Wikimedia projects?
Our original learning questions were centred on three key areas: the extent of folklore cultural coverage from the North-East and Savannah regions (the northern regions) on Wikimedia Commons, the usage of those files on Wikipedia and other open platforms, and the level of volunteer interest from those communities. Implementing the project gave us a good understanding about each of these.
1. How many folk cultural activities from the Northern regions are now covered on Wikimedia Commons?
Before this project, coverage of folk cultural activities from the North-East and Savannah regions of Ghana on Wikimedia Commons was extremely sparse. Through our photowalk and documentation efforts, we were able to contribute content covering between 5 and 10 distinct cultural subjects and categories, including funeral ceremonies, traditional dances, weaving and craft work, food preparation, market activities, chiefly attire and coronation processes, and daily life activities. Over 2,400 images were uploaded, representing a significant improvement in the representation of these communities on the platform.
What we learned: The gap in coverage was even wider than we had anticipated. Many of these cultural practices had little to no visual documentation on any open platform, not just Wikimedia. This confirmed the urgency and relevance of this kind of work for communities in northern Ghana.
2. How many of these files are being used on Wikipedia and other open platforms?
We have not yet been able to fully confirm the usage of our uploaded files across Wikipedia and other platforms, as this requires systematic checking using tools such as the Global Usage feature on Wikimedia Commons and the Massviews tool. This is something we are actively following up on. Our planned follow-up training on the structured tagging through the ISA campaign will improve the discoverability of the files, which we expect will lead to greater reuse over time. The few participants who are actively contributing through the tool are already improving the discoverability of the files.
What we learned: Uploading files is only one part of the work. Ensuring files are well-categorised, described, and tagged is equally important for driving reuse. In future projects, we will dedicate more time to post-upload metadata improvement and will monitor file usage more systematically from the start.
3. How many volunteers from the North-East and Savannah regions showed interest in contributing to Wikimedia projects?
Between 5 and 10 new volunteers from these regions showed genuine interest in continuing to contribute to Wikimedia projects after the workshops and photowalk. While this number is modest, it is meaningful given that these are communities where Wikimedia activities were previously almost non-existent. Each of these volunteers represents a potential long-term contributor and community champion. Now, there’s a Wikipedia Incubator for the Mampruli, the main spoken language in the North-East Region (https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/maw) and also for the Gonja, the main language in the Savannah region (https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/gjn/Main_Page). However, these incubators are not yet very active due to the few volunteers and inadequate editing skills by the volunteers.
What we learned: Recruiting and retaining volunteers from remote or underserved communities takes more than a single workshop or event. Trust-building, language accessibility, and ongoing mentorship are critical factors. We also learned that in-person engagement was more effective at sparking interest than the online training session alone.
Based on what we have learned, we plan to:
- Continue and expand photowalks in the North-East and Savannah regions, now with better route planning that accounts for potential community tensions and seasonal factors.
- Prioritise post-upload work, including structured tagging, Wikidata item creation, and monitoring of file usage on Wikipedia and other platforms.
- Develop a follow-up mentorship plan for the new volunteers recruited, to support their growth into consistent contributors.
- Advocate for more Wikimedia projects targeting the North-East and Savannah regions specifically, using the evidence gathered in this project to demonstrate the scale of the documentation and language preservation gap.
- Build partnerships with local cultural institutions, chiefs' palaces, and community groups to facilitate smoother access and richer documentation in future editions.
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)
Unexpected and Surprising Experiences During Implementation
1. Significant Budget Reduction (Negative) Receiving significantly less funding than requested forced us to scale back activities, limiting the photowalk to just one outing instead of multiple. We learned to design more flexible, modular project plans in future proposals so that budget reductions do not compromise core deliverables, and to communicate scope changes early to volunteers.
2. Chieftaincy Conflict Forcing Complete Location Changes (Negative) A chieftaincy conflict that erupted in our planned towns in the North-East region made it unsafe to proceed as planned, forcing us to completely change our locations at short notice. We learned that working in communities with complex social dynamics requires contingency location planning from the start, with local contacts who can provide real-time updates on community situations.
3. Richer Media Variety Than Anticipated (Positive) Beyond photos, we were able to capture audio and video content as well, thanks to the openness and hospitality of the communities we visited. This taught us that these communities are genuinely eager to have their cultures preserved. In future projects, we will plan intentionally for multimedia capture by training volunteers in audio and video documentation from the outset.
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 have not yet formally shared our results but have a clear plan to do so through the following channels:
1. Diff Blog: We will publish a post on the Wikimedia Diff blog documenting the project outcomes, key learnings, and highlights, making it a practical reference for other communities working on underrepresented languages and cultures.
2. Social Media: We will share project highlights, selected images, and key statistics on social media and relevant Wikimedia community groups to reach both existing and potential new contributors in Ghana and across Africa.
3. Wikimedia Community Events: We will present our learnings at Wikimedia community meetings in Ghana and Africa to connect with peers and encourage replication in other indigenous language communities.
4. Direct Outreach: We will reach out to digital language activists, cultural organisations, and indigenous language communities across Ghana and Africa to share our methodology and inspire similar documentation projects.
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 | 40 | 40 | |
| Number of editors | 40 | 22 | |
| Number of organizers | 4 | 4 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |||
| Wikimedia Commons | 600 | 2845 | 100 |
| Wikidata | 400 | 20 | 212 |
| 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)
16000
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
1446.17
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/1P552Es-B1n3cP7WLyEtnDRedpDNPD-jA3Mimzoh1NQk/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)