Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wikipedia Training in Cyprus (ID: 22896026)/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 Western Armenian Wikimedia project in Cyprus was implemented between February 21–28, 2025, and was aimed at strengthening the presence of Western Armenian on Wikipedia through a week-long series of trainings and collaborative editing sessions. The initiative was led by Azniv from the Wikimedians of Western Armenian Language User Group, with strategic planning and support from Shahen, and in partnership with the Wikimedia Community User Group Cyprus.
Implemented Activities:
- Launch Event (Feb 21): The project officially launched in Nicosia with a presentation introducing Western Armenian Wikipedia, its goals, and its role in preserving the Armenian diaspora’s linguistic heritage.
- Wikipedia Editing Trainings: Over the course of one week, Azniv facilitated hands-on sessions focused on Wikipedia editing, formatting articles in Western Armenian, using reliable sources, and understanding Wikimedia’s notability and content guidelines.
- Community Engagement: The learners included students, teachers, and members of the local Armenian community.
- Content Creation: Participants contributed new and improved Western Armenian content to Wikipedia, with guidance on collaborative editing and fact-checking.
- Follow-up and Feedback: At the end of the program, participants shared feedback on their experience, and plans were discussed to continue online mentorship and future in-person events.
Results Achieved:
- Participants gained foundational Wikipedia editing skills and contributed several new or expanded articles in Western Armenian.
- Strengthened ties between Armenian communities in Cyprus and the Western Armenian Wikipedia community.
- Identified potential future contributors and educators who expressed interest in continuing involvement with Wikimedia projects.
- Increased visibility of Western Armenian Wikipedia within diaspora circles in Cyprus.
Effective Approaches:
- Local Partnerships: Collaborating with the Armenian cultural center in Cyprus proved essential. Their support in mobilizing participants, offering space, and promoting the sessions was a major success factor.
- Culturally Grounded Training: Framing the sessions around the value of Western Armenian as a cultural and linguistic heritage made the trainings more engaging and meaningful to participants.
- Hands-on Learning: Rather than only theoretical instruction, we prioritized interactive learning—participants actively edited Wikipedia and received real-time feedback.
Key Lessons Learned:
- Do:
- Invest time in building local relationships before the event. - Use culturally relevant content to demonstrate the value of contributing. - Be flexible and adapt to the learners’ pace and language skills.
- Don’t:
- Assume familiarity with Wikimedia platforms, start with the basics. - Overload sessions with technical jargon; keep it clear and practical. - Underestimate the importance of follow-up.
This initiative showed how much can be achieved when digital literacy meets community engagement, especially in the service of preserving endangered or underrepresented languages.
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
Meta-Wiki project page pending.
CEE Newsletter blog post: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CEE/Newsletter/April_2025
Posts by partner orgs: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EbLPusRpA/
Post by the local community page: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19EfCnDafN/
Radio show guest: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ASfNMPMse/
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 | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Neither agree nor disagree |
| 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: Learning Questions
1. Engagement and Retention:
- What strategies are most effective in attracting and retaining new Western Armenian-speaking editors?
2. Skill Development:
- How well do daily training sessions improve participants' editing skills and confidence in contributing to Wikimedia projects?
3. Community Building:
- How successful are we in fostering a sustainable community of active Wikimedia contributors in Cyprus?
4. Cultural Impact:
- How do participants’ contributions enhance the digital presence of the Western Armenian language and culture?
These insights will guide future projects and improve strategies for engaging diaspora communities.
In our initial application, we identified four core learning questions focused on engagement, skill development, community building, and cultural impact. Implementing the project in Cyprus allowed us to begin answering these questions and gather valuable insights for future initiatives.
Engagement and Retention: We learned that local partnerships—especially with trusted institutions like the Armenian school—are key to attracting new participants. Framing the training within the context of cultural preservation and giving participants a sense of purpose increased initial engagement. However, we also learned that retention requires more than a one-time event. While many participants expressed enthusiasm, long-term involvement will depend on offering follow-up opportunities and ongoing mentorship. For future projects, we plan to introduce a structured post-training engagement model that includes online check-ins, editing tasks, and access to a peer support group.
Skill Development: The daily hands-on training approach proved highly effective in building participants’ confidence and practical skills. By editing live articles together, troubleshooting in real-time, and celebrating small wins, we noticed a steady improvement in their abilities throughout the week. Participants who were initially hesitant became more independent by the end of the training. This affirmed the value of immersive, task-based learning, which we will continue to use. In the future, we may supplement it with short online video tutorials or printed handouts to reinforce learning.
Community Building: While we successfully introduced Wikimedia projects to a new group of potential contributors, we learned that forming a truly active and sustainable community takes more than one week. Trust-building, continued communication, and shared goals will be essential. The seeds have been planted, and we intend to water them through follow-up virtual sessions, collaborative article campaigns, and by identifying one or two local champions who can take on a leadership role in Cyprus. A key takeaway is to plan for community-building as an ongoing process rather than a one-time outcome.
Cultural Impact: Participants clearly saw the importance of their work in enhancing the digital footprint of Western Armenian. Many chose to write about topics that reflect their heritage, community, and identity—indicating a strong personal connection to the cultural aspect of the project. This reinforced our belief that cultural relevance is not just a motivator but a powerful tool for engagement. In future projects, we’ll continue to invite participants to choose culturally significant topics and may even provide pre-curated topic lists to inspire them.
Overall, these learnings will inform our approach to future diaspora-focused Wikimedia projects. We will continue to prioritize partnerships, culturally grounded content, and skill-based training, while improving our methods for sustained engagement and community growth. What we’ll adapt is our timeline and expectations—we now see the importance of multi-phase projects with both in-person and online components to maintain long-term impact.
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)
One of the most pleasant surprises during the implementation was the high level of enthusiasm from participants—especially students—many of whom were more engaged than we had anticipated. From the very first session, they showed genuine curiosity about Wikipedia and a strong sense of pride in contributing to Western Armenian content. This created a vibrant and collaborative learning atmosphere, which was a breath of fresh air.
We realized that when participants understand the cultural significance of their contributions, their motivation naturally increases. This reaffirmed the importance of connecting Wikimedia work with personal and community identity. In future projects, we’ll continue to emphasize this link from the outset, as it clearly fosters deeper engagement.
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 our project learnings and results with the broader Wikimedia community through multiple channels. First, we prepared a blog post on the CEE Newsletter summarizing the initiative, key takeaways, and participant impact. We will also share a shorter version on social media and in relevant WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook groups to reach diaspora-focused and language preservation communities.
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 | 15 | 30 | |
| Number of editors | 15 | 25 | |
| Number of organizers | 3 | 3 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 15 | 15 | |
| Wikimedia Commons | 5 | 0 | |
| Wikidata | |||
| 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)
1136375
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
2907
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)
Accomodation, per diems, and souvenirs/tokens came up to be a bit more expensive than expected, but we spent much less on flights, catering, and our planned misc expenses than expected.
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
Yes
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
$93 USD
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
A. Propose to use the underspent funds within this Fund period with PO approval
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We plan to use the funds to continue and pay for our Mailchimp account to continue sending weekly newsletters to our continously-growing community.
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)
Review notes
[edit]Review notes from Program Officer:
N/A
Applicant's response to the review feedback.
N/A