Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/University Students Wikimedians 2022/2023

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statusCompleted
University Students Wikimedians 2022/2023
start date2022-07-022022-07-01T00:00:00Z
end date2023-07-012023-06-30T00:00:00Z
budget (local currency)69539147 TZS
amount requested (USD)122069.07 USD
amount recommended (USD)30000
grant typeIndividual
funding regionSSA
decision fiscal year2021-22
funding program roundRound 2
applicant and people related to proposalMagotech codtz
Midpoint Learning Report 
Final Learning Report

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Applicant details[edit]

Wikimedia username(s):

Magotech

codtz

Organization:

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Applied previously and did receive a grant

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

No

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information[edit]

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Tanzania

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Regional

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

Country: Tanzania.

We will be covering three regions in Tanzania which are (I) Morogoro Region (ii) Dodoma Region (iii) Iringa Region

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

Facebook:universitystudentswikimedians

Instagram:universitystudentswikimedians Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/University_Students_Wikimedians

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal[edit]

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

The main objective is to increase the number and diversity of contributors on the Wikimedia projects which in turn will lead to increased content, images, and videos in English and Swahili languages. This will be achieved through collaboration and creating awareness among College and University Students also involving teachers and lectures. Currently, we have been able to reach, conduct, and create awareness to 11 Colleges and Universities as listed below: Jordan University College Mzumbe University Social Education Center St. Joseph College Kihonda St. John’s University of Tanzania (Dodoma) University of Iringa Ruaha Catholic University Sokoine University of Agriculture Alfagems Secondary School Mipango Training Institute University of Dodoma

Furthermore, through our last six programs which were more focused on the Swahili Wikipedia: as of 15 March 2022, a total of 1,042 new articles have been created through our programs with over 1,081 articles edits, and hope to do more in the future. We have been able to collaborate with the existing Wikimedia communities in Tanzania (Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania and Wikimedians of Arusha User Group) in running all of our programs and we have had our volunteers joining programs being run by these other communities. We hope to collaborate more in the future and establish new connections with others communities in and out of Tanzania.

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

With an average of 63,272 new admitted students into higher learning institutions in Tanzania each year according to the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), it came into our concern that many of these students and even the graduates have no idea about the Wikimedia Movement. Referring to our last six programs conducted in three regions (Morogoro, Dodoma, and Iringa regions) we have been able to take note that many of the students and graduates wish to join the Wikimedia Movements and are really interested in learning more about the Wikimedia projects so as they can be able to participate fully but lack the knowledge on how they can achieve this. We currently hold a database of 250 Students Volunteers of which 180 participants are currently volunteering in the projects and the remaining are ready to join us and we hope that they will join. Due to the budget limit, we were unable to host a big number of participants though we have been doing our best to make sure that we create awareness as many students as possible.

However, the belief by the Teachers and lectures that Wikipedia can not be used as a reliable for trustful information and data is another concern. We are trying to eliminate the belief that Wikipedia was made for just some people and it can not be trusted by deploying clubs in different institutions by involving both the students and teachers/lecturers. We have been able to reach and provide training to 15 Lectures and 10 teachers from different educational institutions and out of the 25 we have been able to change the perspective of 23 of them and now they are among the contributors and volunteers in the Wikimedia projects mostly being the Wikipedia and we have noticed the acceptance of Wikipedia as a source of reference in their teachings. We hope to reach more in the future through this project. Having students join the Wikimedia Movement will be a great opportunity for the successful implementation of the Foundations vision because we do believe students have a great contribution to the online materials due to their online materials used during and after their studies. We project that they will have a great impact on the movement.

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

1: Establishing Wikimedia clubs in different higher learning institutions and deploying experienced editors to these clubs so as to mentor them throughout the process of learning. To date, we have a total of 10 University Students Wikimedians (USW) clubs that are volunteering on the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects mostly the Wikipedia as listed below: USW Jordan University College (USW JUCo) USW Mzumbe University USW Social Education Center (USW SEC) USW St. Joseph College USW CIVE UDOM USW Social UDOM USW Humanities UDOM USW Mipango USW University of Iringa (USW UoI) USW Ruaha Catholic University (USW RUCU) Moreover, we are currently mentoring 3 communities so as to make sure that they have enough and complete knowledge on the Wikimedia Movement before we recognize them as clubs. We project on having an increase of 15 new clubs in the coming one-year time. By having more University Students Wikimedians Clubs we will be able to reach more volunteers easily and expand our community which will result to increases volunteers in the Wikimedia’s Movement leading to more contributions to the Wikimedia’s projects.

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

1: Organizing Meet-up online Having online discussions will help us to provide support easily and be able to discuss different matters related to the project easily and timely with all the participants from the three regions at the same time.

2: Workshops This will include sharpening our skills and capacity building.

3: Edit-A-Thons

Includes events with big impacts on a single day or in a limited time

4: Train-the-Trainer Includes training which will be provided to the organizers and facilitators.

5: Photowalks Includes visiting places for the purpose of documenting in the WikiCommons.

6: Contest Includes competitions and challenges between the communities.

7: Wiki Loves campaign Participation in the Wiki Loves campaigns.

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?      

Yes, for 3 years

5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?

As per our last approximately one year of conducting events we have noticed the rise of notability of the Wikimedia Movements among the students in different institutions. We project that in the year two and year three the demand for knowledge of the Wikimedia Movement will rise and we will be forced not only to remain in the three regions but to add one or two regions in the future which will lead to increased awareness and increased contributions in the Wikimedia movement.

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p9Q0J0A9lyemhX3GXM3cLZc5Fg-sM-lJO38LnroXOvE/edit?usp=sharing

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

Magoiga M. Mtatiro (username: magotech): Program co-ordinator (Salaried)
Naemi Ng’anunga(HappyDeLuckiest): Assistant program co-ordinator (Salaried)
Sylivester Johnbosco (username: codtz): Accountant (Salaried)
Awadh Mpogole (username: Awadhi Awampo): Communication Officer (Salaried)
Maria Alpha: Logistics officer ()
clubs coordinators (5 positions): Open positions
Ebenezer Mlay (Username: CaliBen) – Project advisor and facilitator
Otto Nyongole (Username:Olimasy) - Project advisor and facilitator
Ingo Kipala (Username:Kipala) – Project advisor
Riccardo Riccioni (Username:Riccardo Riccioni) – Project advisor

8. 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.

Content Gender gap, Age (regency) , Sexual Orientation, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)

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

We will be tackling University students whereby we will be interacting with different kinds of students both female and male. We foresee having topics covering females as an addition to promote them on the Wikimedia projects so that they can be part of the Movement

9. 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, Advocacy, Diversity

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Age

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

1: Establishing Wikimedia clubs in different higher learning institutions and deploying experienced editors to these clubs so as to mentor them throughout the process of learning. To date, we have a total of 10 UniStu Love Wiki (USLW) clubs that are volunteering on the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects mostly the Wikipedia as listed below: USLW Jordan University College (USLW JUCo) USLW Mzumbe University USLW Social Education Center (USLW SEC) USLW St. Joseph College USLW CIVE UDOM USLW Social UDOM USLW Humanities UDOM USLW Mipango USLW University of Iringa (USLW UoI) USLW Ruaha Catholic University (USLW RUCU)

Moreover, we are currently mentoring 3 communities so as to make sure that they have enough and complete knowledge on the Wikimedia Movement before we recognize them as clubs. We project on having an increase of 15 new clubs in the coming one-year time. By having more UniStu Love Wiki Clubs we will be able to reach more volunteers easily and expand our community which will result to increases volunteers in the Wikimedia’s Movement.

2: Organizing competitions which will involve the competition between clubs so as bring more motivation to the participants. Being that all these participants are volunteers, we came up with a plan of motivating them by organizing competitions Intra and inter clubs so as to motivate them by providing them with recognition prizes like Certificates, Wikimedia badges, T-Shirts, and many others. This will help us keep members active throughout the project. This will also help on increasing the contributions to the Wikimedia projects in a short period of time.

3: Holding inter-meetups with other existing Wikimedia Communities such as Wikimedia Tanzania and Wikimedia Arusha in Tanzania and out of Tanzania whenever possible for the purpose of capacity building among the community members. As it is known, in Tanzania we have seen many communities are much focused on the Wikipedia, WikiCommons projects, we currently lack well-experienced volunteers who understand more about other projects for example Wiki data. We envision on making collaborating with other experienced volunteers in the Wikimedia projects so as to provide training to our members on other projects.

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

We will be having a committee that will be responsible for handling all the unfriendly acts (Online and physical) which will include administrators from the Swahili Wiki projects. However, we hope to establish policies and guidelines (based on the UCOC) that will enhance a positive, safe, and healthy environment for all the existing and new coming members.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

Yes

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.

So far, we have been able to work with Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania, Wikimedians of Arusha User Group, and Jenga Wikipedia ya Kiswahili communities from Tanzania. We have posted on the community's meta page where everyone will be able to view the proposal and endorse it if needed.

14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

No

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

N/A

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?

By providing time to time support to the established clubs in different institutions and visiting them and doing capacity building among them.

16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

1: Unacceptability

This is something that we have come across during our past events. Due to the unawareness of many towards the Wikimedia's movement, not everyone will accept our movement easily and this might take time to make the understand well on the movement. We plan on having special sessions for these kinds of personals so as to make them aware of the Wikimedia movement.

2: Harassment (can be physical or Online) It is well known that will might encounter unfriendly space during our events, a response committee will be set up to handle these situations and after actions have been taken we will notify the WMF of the incident immediately

3: Covid-19 contamination Due to the current situation, we understand the presence of the pandemic. We hope to have medical personnel in our team who will be responsible for handling all medical emergencies and will be working with health workers when needed

4: Unpredictable Weather If it happens we face unfriendly weather before or during an event then we will postpone the event for another friendly time

5: Conflict of interest We understand that sometimes we might experience this though the team has committed themselves to the project. In case of occurrence of this, we will report immediately to the WMF and seek advice from our regional manager.

17. 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, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Improve User Experience

18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.  

No

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

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

- How can teachers change their perception of Wikipedia? What are the strongest arguments that help in that?

  • What are the best strategies to retain teachers in the Wikimedia community?
  • What are the best techniques used by teachers to encourage students to participate and contribute to Wikimedia projects?
  • Did the program answer the expectations of the teachers?
  • How many of them are willing to use Wikipedia in their classroom?
  • Manage and strengthen existing partnerships and establish new ones
  • What activities are students are more interested in so as to make them more active in contributing to the Wikimedia movement?

20. 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 space provided.

Main Metrics Description Target
Joined Teachers We will focus on seeing how many teachers were ready to join the Wikimedia Movement after training has been provided. 30
Retained teachers How many teachers will be retained and what strategy worked best 30
Wikipedia usage in class room How many teachers are willing to use Wikipedia in the classroom? 25
Partnerships How many new partnerships will we be able to make? 10
N/A N/A N/A

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.

Additional Metrics Description Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A 550
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A 20
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A 10
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A 500
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A 350
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A 100000
Number of activities developed N/A 81
Number of volunteer hours N/A 2000

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants Includes all people attending the events even if they do not decide becoming contributors or editors. 800
Number of editors This includes all members who will be ready to join Wikimedia's movement and become editors 600
Number of organizers This includes the COT, Volunteers (club leaders), and facilitators 20
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikipedia Includes English Wikipedia and Swahili Wikipedia 2500
Wikimedia Commons N/A 350
Wikiquote N/A 1500
Wikidata N/A 500
Incubator N/A 300

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

N/A

22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

Outreach dashboard
Survey forms
Hashtag tool

Financial Proposal[edit]

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

69539147 TZS

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

122069.07 USD

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

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_D95fBdRICB3C3HYFC2Ql9t5bOzJJNtOnAueri0d_QI/edit?usp=sharing

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

The proposed budget is proposed based on the meetings that we had with suppliers who were willing to provide discounts on supplies once the project is granted successfully. If not granted the pricing for supplies will not be the same as indicated on this budget.

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s):

Final Message[edit]

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes


Feedback[edit]