Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki for Soil Conservation and Environmental Management Campaign in Imo State (ID: 21953260)

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Applicant Details[edit]

Please provide your main Wikimedia Username.

User: Iwuala Lucy

Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.

User: Iwuala Lucy and User: Ugwulebo

Organization

N/A

Are you a member of any Wikimedia affiliate or group, including informal groups like Wiki Fan Clubs, emerging language communities, not recognized Wikimedia groups etc.? Please list them all.

Yes, I am the co-founder of the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan. Aside from being a member of the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan, I am also a member of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group, Wikimedia Nigeria Community; Wikimedia Hub Owerri; Nigerians Commons Photographers User Group, Wiki Mentor Africa as well as the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub.

Grant Proposal[edit]

M. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.

Wiki for Soil Conservation and Environmental Management Campaign in Imo State

Q. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries? (optional)

Local

Q2. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

R. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has.

1. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important.

Imo state is one of the states in South East Nigeria that is faced with the challenge of combating soil erosion and gully erosion menace. The degree and severity of occurrence, the types/forms and factors of erosion are varied under different geologic, climatic and soil conditions in different part of the country and the consequences are usually several and frequently hazardous. Agricultural productivity and sustainability, land conservation and management of food security and sustenance have been greatly affected by the menace posed by soil erosion. The presence of massive and expanding gully erosion sites across the state poses not just a threat to infrastructure but also a threat to live hood of the people. This issue has led to loss of lives of members of the community, loss of farm lands and also environment threat to the ecosystem in the community.

In a bid to tackle this issue, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the World Bank formed the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) in 2010 with Imo state included as one of the states for this project. (World Bank lauds Nigeria’s erosion, watershed management project - Vanguard News (vanguardngr.com). However, reports and research like Okorafor et. al, (2017), reveals that this problem still remains and has led to loss of lives and properties in Imo State.(The rage of erosion in Imo The Nation Newspaper (thenationonlineng.net)

This project therefore aims to create awareness of erosion issues in Imo State, improve soil conversation and environmental management in Imo state by training selected undergraduate students on issues relating to Soil Conservation, Ecosystem literacy, Causes and Impacts of Soil Erosion and Environmental Management in a view to designing providing a sustainable control measure against erosion. Also this project is meant to help fill the Wikipedia and Wiki Commons content gap around soil erosion, soil conservation and environmental issues in Nigeria.

2. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

In order to improve the environment in Imo State, we will be training some selected undergraduate students on soil conservation and environmental management matters and creating awareness and sensitization campaigns to improve their knowledge about the issue and also to ensure safety of lives and properties. The project will on the long run help to improve their knowledge of soil erosion issues in the state and also help to ensure proper documentation of soil conservation issue which will lead to the introduction of activities that will help to curb the menace of erosion that is ravaging the state.

As part of plans to improve local content and create awareness about gully erosion issues on Wikipedia and Wiki Commons, our photography team will visit gully erosion sites in Imo state. Images gotten from these sites will be used to create and improve articles about the subject matter during the edit-a-thon. Some of these locations in Imo State that are facing soil conservation and environmental management issues includes;

1. Njaba river catchment

2. Umuoka Ubiri-Elem Gully Orsu LGA

3. Umuomi Uzoagba Gully Ikeduru

4. Ogberuru-Acharaba Gully

5. Umueze Obazu-mbieri gully

6. Urualla

7. Ibeafor

8. Eziala

9. Obizilyiuzo

10. Ihioma 11. Umueshi

Also the project is proposed to help train selected undergraduate students from two higher institutions in Imo State (Federal college of Land Resources and Technology and Federal Polytechnic Nekede). A total of 35 undergraduate students in each of the two institutions will be trained on the subject matter and in turn they will help to create awareness, educate and also document soil conservation and environmental management issues in the state.

Also, we will be organizing Wikipedia training and edit-a-thon in each of the two institutions so that the seventy trained undergraduates can help close the content gap on soil conversation, soil erosion and environmental management with a focus on local content.

3. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

We will be organizing the following activities:

1. Awareness and sensitization campaigns about soil conservation and environmental management issues. We will also carry out an awareness campaign on Wikipedia project editing and Wiki Commons among undergraduates in the two selected higher institutions in the State.

2. We will organize two in-person events per institution followed by virtual sessions on Zoom. These events will consist of Wikipedia and Wiki Commons Training; Edit-a-thon; soil conservation and environmental management education.

3. We will create an outreach dashboard to monitor participants and a separate WhatsApp group where participants will be mentored after the events. This is to ensure close contact and tutoring on the subject matter and other Wikimedia sister projects.

4. We will connect interested participants at the end of this training to the Igbo Wikimedia group and other language related Wikimedia groups in the state where they can improve their skills on Wikimedia projects and also help to promote pages on soil conservation and environmental management.

4. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign or event? If so, please select the relevant campaign below. If so, please select all the relevant campaigns from the list below. If "other", please state which.

Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, WikiGap, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos

5. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

Yes.

User: Iwuala Lucy - I am the co-founder of the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan. Aside from being a member of the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan, I am also a member of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group, Wikimedia Nigeria Community; Wikimedia Hub Owerri; Nigerians Commons Photographers User Group, Wiki Mentor Africa as well as the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub.

User: Ugwulebo - is the co-founder of the Port Harcourt Wikimedia Hub. He is an experienced Wikimedian who has organized several Wikimedia projects in Nigeria. He will facilitate this project. He has also been involved in other climate related projects in Nigeria and beyond.

6. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Geography, Other global topics for impact (topics considered to be of global importance), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial

6.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

The project will provide opportunities for participants to improve soil conservation and environmental management contents to Wikipedia and Wiki commons and also create awareness about erosion issues in the state.

7. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education, Human Rights, Public Policy

8. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities?

Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language, Socioeconomic status

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?

The target participants are undergraduate students at Federal College of Land Resources and Technology and Federal Polytechnic Nekede both in, Imo State. At Least 35 participants will be trained from each school. A good number of the participants will be newbies and this will provide a means to recruit new wikimedians for the Wikimedia Nigeria Community and the Igbo Wikimedia User group in Nigeria. Also, participants will be added to a Whatsapp group where on-boarding information will be shared. The participants will be mentored on Whatsapp and in Zoom meetings in addition to the in-person training and edit-a-thon. After the events, interested participants will be added to Igbo Wikimedia User group in Nigeria and other language related groups to ensure continuous participation in Wikimedia related events.

10. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants?

We will adopt the Wikimedia Foundation Friendly Space and Civility Policies in all our meetings and ensure everyone is welcome and allowed to contribute to the good of the Movement.

11. Please tell us about how you have let your Wikimedia communities know about the planned activities and this proposal. Use this space to describe the processes you carried out to make the community more involved in planning this proposal. Please link the on-wiki community discussion(s) around the proposals.

I have announced this project in the discussion page of the Nigerian Wikimedia User Group (Talk:Wikimedia User Group Nigeria - Meta) as well as in the discussion page of the Igbo Wikimedia User group (Talk:Igbo Wikimedians User Group - Meta )

12. Are you aware of other Rapid Fund proposals in your local group, community, or region that are being submitted and that align with your proposed project?

No

If yes:

12.1 Did you explore the possibility of doing a joint proposal with other leaders in your group?

N/A

12.2 How will this joint proposal allow you to have better results?

N/A

13. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedia partners to implement this proposal? Required.

Yes

13.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

We will be working with a lecturer from the Department of Survey and Geoinformatics, Federal Polytechnic Nekede who is experienced in soil control, erosion management and environmental sustainability. Creating awareness on soil erosion and environmental issue is one of the key goals of the department and being involved in the project will help to create more awareness of the issue as well as proffer solutions for the already existing menace. Partnering with the department will also ensure that the participants are exposed to the causes of erosion, how to fix the issue and also activities that needs to be done to curb the menace in the state already. This partnership will also help to improve local content on the issue by sharing experiences carried out by the department from the field about the subject matter.

14. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of THREE options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

15. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

We hope to learn about soil conservation issues, erosion issues and environmental management problems in Imo state. Through this project, we hope to learn about the desire of students to appreciate contributing to Wikipedia and its sister projects. Also through this project, we hope to learn about the readiness of students to tackle these soil conversation issues, erosion issues and the measures that can be placed to tackle this issue that is ravaging the localities in Imo State.

16. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following spaces provided.

Main Open Metrics Data
Main Open Metrics	Description	Target
Number of event	We will have a total number of four in-person events (2 events from two institutions) followed by virtual events. The events will include at least a Wikipedia and Wiki Commons Training and Edit-a-thon in each of the two institutions.	4
Participating institutions	The number of institutions for the event	2
Number of participants for the evaluation survey	Atleast 70% of the participants will be expected to participate in the evaluation survey that will form part of the learnings from this project	50
Number of newly recruited Wikimedians	This project will provide a perfect avenue to recruit new Wikimedia Editors for the Nigeria Wikimedia Usergroup and the Igbo Wikimedia Usergroup and other Nigerian languages related Usergroup.	60
N/A	N/A	N/A

17. Core quantitative metrics.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	The total participants we expect to have for these events is 70; at least 35 per institution.	70
Number of editors	The total number of editors is expected to be at least 72 comprising of 70 participants and two organizers	72
Number of organizers	The total number of organizers.	2

Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
Wikipedia	Participants will be trained on how to contribute to Wikipedia. The total articles include those created and improved during the project	100
Wikimedia Commons	Photos of the gully erosion sites and photos from the training will also be uploaded to Commons.	70
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

17.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

18. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support.

I will use the Outreach Dashboard to track and assign articles to the participants. It will also be used to measure some project metrics such as number of participants, number of articles created/improved, number of references added to articles amongst others.

Financial Proposal[edit]

19. & 19.1 What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.

1945040 NGN

19.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

4606 USD

20. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TKl16xtBkxCFauGkev_mNTQ6JJpIisdMiDdyfIHRLyI/edit#gid=323100440

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).

Endorse