Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wiki Herbal Medicine Project

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statusDraft
Wiki Herbal Medicine Project
start date2023-06-01
end date2023-10-31
budget (local currency) 
amount requested (USD)0 USD
grant typeGroup of individuals not registered with an organization
funding regionunknown region
decision fiscal year2023-24
funding program roundundefined round
applicant and people related to proposalOludegun and

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Applicant details[edit]

Wikimedia username(s):

Oludegun and

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?

Nigeria

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:

Local

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

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

1. https://www.openglamafrica.org/
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_GLAM_Africa/Projects

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?

Overall vision We aim to preserve and revive endangered African heritage, knowledge, art, and culture from extinction by making such content available for the next generation and released under open licenses.

2 This proposal will contribute to the vision mentioned above by making medicinal knowledge and information available in indigenous languages and producing them under open licenses to benefit indigenous people who need access to such content in their local languages.

3. The project will focus on two important parameters to achieve its objective;

A. Language as an intangible heritage: According to UNESCO, 40% of the global population needs access to education in the Language they understand (1). Also, According to Unesco convention Article (2)2, Language is an intangible heritage that needs safeguarding. It also describes languages as oral traditions and expressions, including Language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage as one of the domains in which the intangible cultural heritage is manifested (2). Language determines the ethnic identity of the carriers of culture. It is an important factor in national development and the carrier of the intangible heritage of each nation because it reflects ethnocultural, psychological, and mythological ideas and experiences. As a result of imperialism and colonization of African states, most of the colonized nations are known for using foreign languages as official languages and so useful for research, commerce and business, meetings, teaching and learning, contracts, etc. In contrast, the local languages are used primarily for communications at home and among friends. Hence, foreign or official languages commonly serve as a medium for preserving knowledge and vital information among the colonized nations. Nigeria was a British colony, and English was its official Language. Most of the research works, knowledge, and works produced by professionals in the country are available in English. Hence, much of its medical knowledge is available in the Language that most of its populace might understand, and there is a high demand to make this information available in local languages.

B. Endangered Medical knowledge. It represents the body of information about diseases, mechanisms and pathogenesis, therapies and interactions, and interpretation of lab tests, which is broadly applicable to decisions about multiple patients and public health policies, in contrast to patient-specific data.

Nigeria is a developing nation, and statistical (3) reported that 12.9 percent of the global population in extreme poverty was found in Nigeria as of 2022. As a consequence of the mentioned statistics, 80% ( 160 million of the population) of the Nigerian population patronize herbal practitioners as alternative means for their health management. Unfortunately, vital knowledge and information about this field of expertise are unavailable in local languages where people can access them. Ref: (1) https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000243713 (2) https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000135870 (3)https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287827/number-of-people-living-in-extreme-poverty-in-nigeria-by-gender/

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

What change are you trying to bring about, and why is this important? (required question, help)

The Change we are trying to bring about in this project;

We intend to make Medical knowledge available in indigenous languages to promote the inclusion of the body of knowledge among the people excluded from this spectrum.


Why is the project important?

    Nigeria comprises 36 states plus a Federal Capital Territory located in the western part of the continent. It is Africa's largest country in terms of population, with over 200 million people. There are over 500+ languages representing 25% of the entire languages on the continent. English is the official language, and Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa are the most popular indigenous languages.  

Nigeria is a developing nation, and statistical (1) reported that 12.9 percent of the global population in extreme poverty was found in Nigeria as of 2022. As a consequence of the mentioned statistics, 80% (160 million of the population) of the Nigerian population patronize herbal practitioners as an alternative means for their health management(2) Unfortunately, vital knowledge and information about this field of expertise are unavailable in local languages where people can access them. So, this project is important in many ways. It helps to identify popular medical knowledge among the population not available in local content and make them public. The project will promote knowledge inclusion by ensuring local people who hitherto cant access medical knowledge in their language can now do so. De-anglicization of medical knowledge- According to the National Library of Medicine, Absolute numbers for 2007: among 5204 journals in Medline, 4609 (88.6%) were in English, 98 (1.9%) in German, and 81 (1.6%) in French(3). As a result of this scenario, We intend to make more medical content available in local languages. The project will promote the usefulness of local languages in preserving vital information and knowledge for the next generation by making the identified medical knowledge available in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Gungbe, Funfide, etc It will promote collaborative work among the Wikimedia community and medical professionals in Nigeria. The project will tend to recruit medical professionals volunteers as Wikimedia editors into the Wikimedia community in Nigeria. Ref (1)https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287827/number-of-people-living-in-extreme-poverty-in-nigeria-by-gender/ (2)https://punchng.com/80-nigerians-patronise-herbal-medicine-practitioners/ (3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › articles › PMC2696676

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

We plan to deploy four main approaches;

1. Translation of Medical knowledge in English to local languages
2. Document the medical knowledge;

a. Production of medical knowledge bibliography of medical herbs to demonstrate its knowledge gap. b. Producing audiovisual materials to demonstrate oral knowledge documentation of medical benefits of identified herbs.

3. Training staff members of our potential partners on how to contribute to Wikipedia and its sister projects.

4 Archiving of digitized material produced by the project on a platform compatible with open licenses. 5 Edit-a-thon; we will use the contents produced by the project to improve Wikipedia and its sister projects


Why do you think they will work;

1. This one of its kind work under an open license centers around documenting the benefits of medicinal herbs in the Wikimedia movement.
2. Since English is referred to as a Medicinal language(1), over 160 million Nigerians who cannot access vital information and knowledge in English can now do so in their mother language.
3. It is easier to understand and follow verbal messages spoken than written, so the project intends to deploy the use of audiovisual content to explain the medical benefit of herbs.
4. The project will serve as one of the few projects that helps to recruit medical volunteers for the Wikimedia movement.
5.

Ref (1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696676/

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

We plan to deploy the following activities as part of the approaches and strategies;

1. Content Translation of medical knowledge; our team will work with Wiki Project Med Foundation to produce medical content that will translate from English to local languages by partnering with language-focused Wikimedia affiliates and proofread by language experts/institutions.
2. Using published works, the project will build a bibliography of medicinal herbs in partnership with authorized medical practitioners in the identified local languages.
3. The project will work with medical professionals to produce audiovisual content to tell the story of the medical benefits of herbal medicine in local languages.
4. The audiovisual content will be archived on an openly licensed supportive platform like Wikimedia commons, Internet Archives, US library of congress, etc
5. We will organize a series of edit-a-thon to use the videos on relevant Wikipedia pages to improve the user reading experience and support information provided on wiki pages.
6. Awareness; We will donate audiovisual materials to mission-aligned organizations to support education and research works, e.g., Universities, embassies, etc.
7. Staff training of institutional partners to support recruiting medical professionals for the Wikimedia movement.

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

No

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?

N/A

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

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


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, Language, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial

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.

The project tends to bridge the content gap around medical knowledge using language diversity in Nigeria. We will partner with The Wiki Project Med to translate its published medical works into local languages. We will also produce audiovisual materials that we can use to improve the quality of Wikipedia and its sister project. These tasks will be carried out as follows:

1. We plan to partner with at least three local Wikimedia affiliates' languages in Nigeria - Yoruba, Dungbe, Hausa, and Igbo.

2 Organise a series of translate-a-thon to translate Medical content to the local languages in partnership with experienced Wikimedians and proofread the published content by language experts and professionals to enhance the quality of work.

4. The team plans to list over 50 medicinal herbs and their benefits in local languages by referencing authorized sources and medical experts.
5. The team will produce audiovisual content to improve Wikipedia articles' quality in the focused areas.

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, Culture, heritage or GLAM , 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.

Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language

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

The Wiki Herbal Medicine plans to partner with Medical experts (individuals and organizations) within the space of herbal medicine. Our approaches for engaging participants include but are not limited to the followings;

1. Organise a series of translate-a-thons in indigenous languages like Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Tyap, etc.
2. The project will recruit medical experts with knowledge of the local languages to review the translated content for quality assurance.
3. The project will produce audiovisual content in the local language through medical experts to explain the medicinal benefits of herbal medicine.
4. Recruitment of medical expert volunteers into the community through training and mentoring programs using Wikipedia and its sister project.
5. The project will work with medical and language experts and reliable sources to build a bibliography of medicinal herbs' benefits to humankind.

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?

The team knows the Universal Code of Conduct and the Friendly Space Policy. We will ensure that our partners and Wikimedia affiliates working on this project see the importance of UCOC and the consequences of bad behaviors within the community. Some highlights will include the behavior expected from every community member.

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.

Wiki Herbal Medicine project intends to work with Wikimedia affiliates whose work focuses on Language and medicinal contents.

1. We have gotten the consent of the Wiki Project Med Foundation to use their published works for our translate-a-thons. Our team emailed the team and explained our planned activities with the Foundation, and they agreed to work with us.
2. We have contacted Language based Wikimedia affiliates in Nigeria, like Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Tyap, etc., to work with experienced community members. They have shown interest in working with us on the project.

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

Yes

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.

We have identified the following partners for the project.

1. Yoruba World Center: The center focuses on the documentation and preservation of Yoruba heritage, e.g., arts, language, clothes, etc

The center will partner with us to provide linguists who will help proofread published work by Wikimedians to enhance the quality of work and avoid misrepresenting terms.

2. Department of Herbs at the University of Ibadan; The department will provide information on herbal medicinal content for the bibliography.
3. Teddy Bioscience Laboratory, Akure- Assist in identifying plants and their phytochemicals.

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


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.

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.


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.  

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

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


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
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
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 N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A

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 N/A N/A
Number of editors N/A N/A
Number of organizers N/A N/A
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
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N/A N/A N/A

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?


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.

 

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

0 USD

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

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

N/A

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.

No


Feedback[edit]