Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/ Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco (2nd edition, 2022)/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 2022-09-30T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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General information[edit]
This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results. See the midpoint report if you want to review the midpoint results.
- Name of Organization: Wikimedia MA User Group
- Title of Proposal: Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco (2nd edition, 2022)
- Amount awarded: 35614 USD, 323386 MAD
- Amount spent: 323386 MAD
Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]
1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
- The implementation of the second edition of Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco started even before receiving the grant. In fact, the user group members held several preparatory meetings to plan for a good execution (timeline, tasks, roles and responsibilities, learnings from the 2020 pilot edition). This also included meetings with the Reading Network association, our partners and fiscal sponsors for the project.
The first activity we started was scheduling a preliminary online communication session with teachers to explain the project's goals, clarify the processes, and answer eventual questions. Following that, we launched the first survey to collect the information that would help us later to adapt and localize the program according to the Moroccan context. This data was very useful in initiating the registration process, where we received several applications that exceeded our expectations (over 760). We used social media platforms and even wrote a press release sent to the national media to explain the program. The next step was to send a second and more detailed survey that allowed us to choose the 200 most motivated teachers who would take the program. In our assessment, we considered factors including gender, geographical distribution, age, level, and school type (private or public), when selecting teachers. Once participants were known, the next step was to launch the online training sessions as scheduled while supporting and following up with the teachers to overcome challenges and ensure good working conditions. In the end, we conducted an in-person 3-day workshop for the top 20 teachers and intensive training for 20 other newcomers. This gave exceptional results in terms of motivation and commitment from the teachers, as well as creative and high-quality lesson plans we look forward to seeing implemented in the classrooms next year.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
- Different strategies and approaches were used during the implementation of the "Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom" project in Morocco to ensure a good advancement.
Some of the strategies that we used and felt were effective are: The first strategy was to have a well-thought preparation even before starting. We began with the user group forming the project's core team from the most skilled, experienced, and active members with clearly determined roles and responsibilities and creating an excel spreadsheet containing a list of tasks assigned to each team member, including volunteers. This made the execution of tasks a lot easier. Another effective strategy we used, which we felt was pretty useful in reaching teachers and spreading the word about the program in Morocco, was the use of various platforms and communication channels. We wrote to the national press in 3 different languages. We used our different social media channels and even paid for targeted ads. These advertising methods and efforts were very practical in reaching teachers from various backgrounds. A third strategy that we were very happy with and that achieved results was the organization of in-person events at the end of the training, Namely the workshop and the boot camp. The workshop event helped us to keep teachers motivated and focused throughout the online training since they were looking forward to being chosen to participate in person, while the boot camp allowed us not only to train new teachers and achieve the 40% goal of graduates but also to secure a second partnership with the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education in El Hajeb (who were present on site) and, most importantly, to advertise the project, and keep the door open for more possibilities to establish additional collaborations in the future.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
- The current edition of the RWC program in Morocco had several new approaches, some of what we consider changes from the past from our perspective are:
First, regarding the management aspect. As you all know, the user group built this current edition based on the earlier pilot implemented in Morocco in 2020. During that pilot phase, the WMF education team managed the project, and they took charge of many of the project tasks, while the Moroccan team's role was to facilitate and conduct the training sessions. For this edition, the team formed by the user group, including volunteers, managed the entire project independently from the education team at the WMF (including a grant) and successfully performed all the tasks. Second, in terms of participation and graduate rate, the newer edition's participation scope was more significant than the pilot project (200 registered teachers Vs 100 earlier). The program edition has also known a wider diversity of participation, especially from remote areas. Moreover, the number of graduated teachers has increased more than in the pilot project (80 graduated Vs 28 earlier). Third, in terms of content expansion and improvement, we created and built a new module from scratch, which helped teachers understand the many ways they can contribute to Wikipedia and become editors themselves. Finally, regarding the implementation method, we followed a different approach to implement the program than the first edition (AKA.the pilot project). In fact, we conducted the program through a blended approach (in-person and virtual modality). Hence, in addition to the online training, we organized two in-person events: the workshop and boot camps.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
- Our work has been presented in the EWOC and EduWiki meetings. We have worked together with the User Group of Bolivia to prepare the boot camp in Morocco and supported certified trainers (online) in Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria for the implementation of the project in their countries. We are also planning to present our work and achievements during Wiki Arabia, WikiConvention francophone, and WikiIndaba, all happening during October/November 2022.
We are also planning to share a series of articles (to be started by end of september 2022) on the Diff blog about the project in collaboration with the WMF Education team.
5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| 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 | |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Not applicable to your fund |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Strongly agree |
7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
- Thanks to the partnerships we built with the Reading Network Association in Morocco and the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education in El Hajeb, in addition to the various advertising methods we used to promote the program, we could attract new Wikipedia editors from underrepresented groups willing to write about their local culture.
In particular, our partners have strong networks in remote areas, as well as in regions that are not traditionally known to have several wikimedians, or from where content is still missing to a big extent.
Part 2: Your main learning[edit]
8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
- - How can teachers change their perception about Wikipedia?
By the end of the program, we observed that most teachers' attitudes had become more positive towards Wikipedia. This happened because they spent time reflecting about the information we presented to them. In particular, they understood that behind Wikipedia is a huge movement with many stakeholders, providing reliable content with solid sources.
- Best strategies to retain teachers in the Wikimedia community?
We used many retention strategies: 1- We encouraged all interested teachers to join our user group 2- We started special editing programs for them (online calls/edit-a-thons)
- Best metrics to be used in education projects?
Lesson plans, managing lessons, setting up classroom activities that include a variety of interaction patterns
- Best techniques used by teachers to encourage students to participate and contribute to Wikimedia projects?
Setting up lesson plans and activities that include Wikipedia, establishing school clubs about Wikipedia, and organizing editing workshops.
- Did the program answer the expectations of the teachers?
Yes, 80% of participants confirmed that. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BmJfFUrGtl9FIIZDze9gVpNgfQ1oR063/view?usp=sharing
- How many of them are willing to use Wikipedia in the class?
According to our survey, 35 % of the teachers are willing to use Wikipedia. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15MGCl8NNA6MusNpohGR6QOUS11IDzW6A/view?usp=sharing
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
- Yes, a couple of unexpected things happened during the implementation of our activities. First, when the second online training session of module one was about to start, our primary certified trainer called the team and said that he had an accident while driving to a friend's house, where he was supposed to have a better Internet connection. Luckily, the session was successfully conducted by the principal trainer's backup, who were available at that time.
The second unexpected thing that happened and is worth mentioning was the unuse of the allocated budget for teachers who we presumed don't have internet access or have poor internet coverage. None of the teachers reached us regarding this issue, which pretty much surprised us since many Moroccan regions still face internet difficulties, and many Moroccan families still don't have access to the internet. Another unexpected thing we encountered while implementing our activities was securing a second partnership with the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education in El Hajeb. We were thrilled and surprised, especially since this step will take our project to a new level and put the project on the right path.
10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
- Through this year, we have learned a lot and gained valuable experiences while working on this project. This helped us to identify what to continue doing and what not. For instance, we have noticed that in-person training is more effective than online training since it allows teachers to interact with each other and with the trainer in a physical setting. Also, face-to-face interactions are essential for greater clarity and understanding than online training. This is why we would like to start having more in-person training next year.
Another thing we also realized while implementing this program and conducting its activities was how teamwork was vital in achieving goals and success. Therefore, we could not have succeeded without the user group members' teamwork, expertise, and talents.
So for the upcoming years, we will keep promoting and improving the atmosphere that encourages friendship, loyalty, and trust among the user group members to work in harmony, cooperate and be supportive of one another. The final thing we learned was how important partnerships were in facilitating and making things easier. So next year, we will invest more effort and time in creating and securing better and more relevant partnerships for our projects.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
- Covid-19 has impacted life around Morocco and globally. It has also demonstrated the vital role of digital technologies, especially in the education sector. Since media literacy is no longer separable from teaching, introducing the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program as professional training in Morocco was exciting and new to the Moroccan educational reality.
The biggest challenge we faced while working on this program was teachers' misconceptions about Wikipedia, as Wikipedia has a lousy reputation in Morocco. Teachers changed their assumptions and beliefs about Wikipedia as the training progressed. By the program's end, Teachers realized the merits of Wikipedia as a source of information, and many of the themes express their willingness to integrate it into their lessons.
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Part 3: Metrics[edit]
13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 650 | N/A | To increase the number of followers on our social media pages and share the results of our activities with the community, We used paid ads to reach teachers from different regions of morocco and encourage them to participate and join the program. Another strategy we used to maintain and raise the number of followers was to keep posting continuous updates about the training. |
| 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 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | Teachers who will continue as active editors after one month of the end of the program | 5 | 12 | We created an entirely new module about editing Wikipedia and other ways of contributing to different Wikimedia projects, which ended with an assignment on contributing to Wikipedia content by creating an article or improving an existing one, and we counted twelve good contributions. | Keeping teachers engaged even after completing the RWC training is one of the most challenging things. Motivating teachers to voluntarily contribute to Wikimedia projects, mainly Wikipedia, requires constant support and patience. To tackle this issue even partially, we did the following:
Kindly find more details related to this survey on the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CfPKTGREDO0-9JfV7Ah4_jxXTWTmQHmN/view?usp=sharing |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | People who will continue being active in Wikimedia movement after | 1 | 2 | The user group has recruited two new members to join the core team of the RWC project. These tows were Mounir Neddi and Abdelilah Jalal, who recently joined the user group and proved their competencies. Mounir joined as a staff, while Ableillah joined as a trainee and a volunteer. Mounir and Ableillah were glad to be part of the team and said they would continue volunteering to work on topics related to the Wikimedia movement.
During the program implementation, we also met some other impressive members that we will potentially collaborate with in the near future, namely, Loubna ait Oumaste and Hayate Ahlamin. They both participated in the current edition, and both successfully graduated from the program. |
To recruit these new volunteers, the user group considered many factors, such as competencies, motivation, wellness and their contributions. The intention of our user group was to engage new group members to participate in some tasks, so they could learn and gain experiences, especially from members who had already participated in implementing and organizing several activities, projects and events.
Our partner, the Reading Network Association in Morocco, helped us a lot in meeting these new volunteers. |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | Reading network in Morocco is considered as a strategic partner, given its very extended network, as well as the number of members within it, who are interested in free knowledge, who can become a strong ally for us, as well as an important source of volunteers and editors in the future. | 1 | 2 | In the beginning, We launched the project in collaboration with the Association "Reading Network in Morocco." Halfway through the project, we secured a second partnership with the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education in El Hajeb, a governmental institution affiliated with Morocco's national education and vocational training ministry. | We've prepared a project definition folder, which we've presented at the Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of National Education in El Hajeb. The Provincial Directorate board was convinced and decided to proceed with the project and the partnership.
Our strategic partner, the Reading Network in Morocco, had an essential role in this partnership. |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | Surveys from participating teachers. We intend to have 3 surveys, one at the beginning (to know the expectations), one in the middle (to see how it goes), and one at the end (to see what worked well and what could be improved) | N/A | 4 | To implement this training program, we conducted a series of surveys, namely, two surveys during the registration period of the online training, one evaluation survey to assess the online training experience's effectiveness and two additional surveys for the onsite activities(registration+evaluation). | For online training and onsite activities, we used google forms as our primary tool for online surveys during registration. As for the evaluation stage, we used different methods to collect data. In addition to online surveys(google forms), we conducted in-person interviews, especially by the end of the onsite activities, namely the workshop and the boot camp.
Overall, the results collected from different evaluation methods indicated that the training effectively increased teachers' awareness of using Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool. Also, the data collected showed that most teachers were delighted with the training content and were happy to participate in the program. |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | We are planning to work on gender, geographic and socioeconomic diversity within the teachers of Morocco, by targeting female teachers, as well as teachers living in different regions of the country, including the rural ones with low digital literacy and difficult access to the Internet.
Target: 40% of female teachers participating 10% of teachers based in rural areas Teachers from at least 6 regions of morocco (among the total of 12 regions) |
1 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | Number of new followers of Wikimedia Morocco on social media. In addition to the new people, the group will use paid advertisements, and try to touch as many people as possible. | 500 | 1 | We considered many elements while selecting the participants for the online training and the boot camp, such as teachers who responded to the two surveys, gender of participants, geographical distribution, age, level, and school type (private or public). We also considered the same elements
Kindly find more additional statistics on participating teachers in the online training: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fLXZgKIg4CZceOzS4U6nOZwp7Wunk-RK?usp=sharing While in the following link, the statistics related to participating teachers in the boot camp(one of the onsite activities): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AjTHH59RmChnD-IzFRvnjPF532GLFpOZ?usp=sharing |
To select the most motivated teachers, we used the following method. First, we sent two surveys. The first was a simple one with basic questions, and the second was a more detailed survey. When selecting teachers, we considered many factors, including teachers who responded to the two surveys, gender, geographical distribution, age, level, and school type (private or public). |
| Number of activities developed | Zoom sessions
In person Event One-on-one calls with teachers requesting them Target: 20 online sessions on Zoom (1 session of 2 hours per week for 5 months). 1 in-person event 10 One-on-one calls/meetups |
1 | 1 | Result: 6 zoom sessions and 2 in-person events
During this training program, we conducted six sessions on Zoom and Livestream them on Facebook. Each session is 90 minutes long. During the training, we offered the necessary support to the teachers who needed it by phone, Whatsapp, Facebook, Zoom or Google Meet. At the end of the program, we conducted an in-person 3-day workshop for the top 20 teachers and intensive training for 20 other newcomers. |
We created the session's agenda, sent it to the participants, and started the training program.
We used Zoom meanly for the training sessions and Livestream the sessions on the Facebook group created for the program. To track the teachers' progress, we've created an excel spreadsheet in which each team member was responsible for supporting 50 participants and guiding them throughout the program. The spreadsheet can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DGGBifpH_orqjObCgMmtGyTBNeB5W5FtnjmC53LZR3I/edit?usp=sharing |
| Number of volunteer hours | Number of volunteer hours from the organizers, mostly the project advisors, but also editors who will help in sessions. | 100 | 500 | One of the most critical factors in the RWC project's success, without a doubt, is combining the work of staff and volunteers. We could not have succeeded without all the expertise and talents of the core team of project members.
To help with the implementation of the program , volunteers completed more than 500 volunteer hours. |
To keep good progress on the project, we created an excel spreadsheet containing a list of tasks assigned to each member of the core team of the project, including volunteers. Each task is assigned a deadline and a note that describes its importance and priority. This work method helped us track tasks in the long run and, more importantly, kept everyone focused on completing the project |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | Teachers who will participate to the program | 100 | 200 | During the registration phase of the program, we received 764 applications from teachers who showed interest in attending the program. From those applications, we selected 200 participants while respecting the diversity metric. | We used various platforms and communication channels to reach teachers all over Morocco. We wrote to the national press. We used our different social media channels and even paid for targeted ads. These advertising methods and efforts were efficient in reaching teachers from various backgrounds.
To select the 200 teachers who would take the program, we considered factors including gender, geographical distribution, age, level, and school type (private or public). |
| Number of editors | People who will be writing in Wikipedia either during or after the program | 40 | 45 | We created the fourth module(slides and activities) about editing Wikipedia and the different ways a person can contribute to Wikimedia projects. Many teachers made their user accounts during activities, registered a username on Wikipedia, and started to edit Wikipedia. | A fourth module has been created from scratch to motivate teachers to keep editing Wikipedia and keep engaged even after the RWC training ends.
After the training ended, we sent a survey to the teachers to evaluate the program and the training experience. Eighty-one percent of the participants expressed their desire to continue being active editors. Please check the following link for more information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CfPKTGREDO0-9JfV7Ah4_jxXTWTmQHmN/view?usp=sharing |
| Number of organizers | People involved in the organization and implementation of the program and its different activities | 8 | 9 | The project core team is composed of four staff and five volunteers. | The user group created strong team within the user group members with several sets of skills and expertise to ensure a successful implementation of the second edition of
Reading Wikipedia in the classroom in Morocco. The team includes nine people, four contractors, and 5 were volunteer advisors. Two members have previous solid experience in organizing a similar program (in collaboration with the WMF education team), while others have insights in project management, general organization, communication, Wikimedia movement, and Wikipedia editing knowledge, as well as finance and partnerships. |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | New Wikipedia articles that will be generated as a consequence of this program | 40 | 57 | ||
| Checking the usernames of the participants on the specific Wikipedia project. | |||||
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 158 | ||
| Since we didn't plan for this metric, we didn't follow any specific methodology | |||||
| 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 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
- No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
- N/A
16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships[edit]
17. Organizational Capacity
| A. Financial capacity and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| D. Partnership building | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| E. Strategic planning | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| J. Governance | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| M. On-wiki technical skills | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N. Accessing and using data | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | |
| N/A | |
| N/A |
17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Formal training provided by the Wikimedia Foundation, Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured), Using capacity building/training resources onlinee from sources OUTSIDE the Wikimedia Movement
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Barriers to access training because of language, Lack of knowledge of available capacity building opportunities
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
- N/A
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
| A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) | Agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | Neither agree nor disagree |
19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Staff hired through the fund, Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Lack of institutional support from the Wikimedia Foundation, Local policies or other legal factors, Lack of staff to conduct outreach to new strategic partners
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
- In this specific program, we believe that we had successful partnerships, both existing and new. In terms of existing partnerships (with the Reading Network in Morocco - RNM), we learned how we can share experiences and establish a win-win relationship by identifying the strengths of every part (our strengths are our knowledge of Wikimedia, while our partner is a well-established association with a wide network and experience in event management). By adapting this strategy, not only we could build a sustainable and good relationship with the RNM, but we have also managed to have new partnerships with their help.In particular, we are now having contacts with official regional education directorates, which is excellent especially for next year’s programs.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration[edit]
21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
- The essence of our user group is about advocating Wikimedia and free knowledge in Morocco. In that regard, we do feel a strong sense of belonging to the movement and its core values, that we try to represent to the best possible extent. For us in Wikimedia Morocco user group, being part of Wikimedia means leading by example, by promoting the culture of sharing with each other, both internally between our members and partners, and externally with all those coming in contact with us. We think that information is a human right, and that it should be free and available for all, in all languages, and through all contexts. We are truly delighted to know that there are different other communities and affiliates that share these values with us, and from where we can learn and discuss. Organizing such programs is a great experience for us to practice and learn, but also to mentor, as we are all part of the same “free knowledge” boat.
22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
- Increased significantly
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
- During the implementation of this project, not only we gained valuable experience managing staff, projects, and funds better and understanding the true meaning of community unity and working together, but also we understood that we were part of something greater. Working on this project has given us the opportunity to give something back, share our skills, learn new skills, share our knowledge, and, most importantly, gain new experiences. None of this couldn't happen without a healthy, welcoming atmosphere for all the ones involved in the project where there was trust, cooperation, safety, equity, and where the voices were heard.
Overall this program significantly increased our feelings of belonging and connection to the movement for everybody, including newcomers.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
- Increased significantly
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
- The overall experience was extremely positive and beneficial for the user group as its members who were involved directly in implementing the project have strengthened and gained more experience in managing staff, funding, how to conduct online and offline activities, and what the best activities to implement, based on the context and interest.
The User Group's investment in this project was worth the time and effort since it helped its members not only enhance a different set of skills but, most importantly, helped to grow a sense of personal investment among its members in Wikimedia and, in general, in the free knowledge movement. And now, with the help of this project, the Wikimedia Morocco User Group has better insights on sustaining its activities, growing, and diversifying them.
26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.
- No, we are motivated just to work with Wikimedia at the current stage.
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration[edit]
We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
- Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
- We do this occasionally (less than once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
- In addition to sharing updates about the program on various social media platforms, we met with community members from Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. Those members were certified trainers who successfully graduated from the ToT program and were looking to implement the "RWC" program in their countries. The meeting was an opportunity to share our expertise and exchange ideas and insights regarding the RWC project.
We also shared our experiences concerning the RWC project on multiple occasions, such as in a ToT training session and an EduWiki MENA meeting attended by participants from different Arabic countries. Furthermore, two team members submitted presentations about the RWC training for the upcoming conferences, WikiArabia and Wiki Convention francophone, and both submissions were accepted.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]
30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
- 323386
31. Local currency type
- MAD
32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
- N/A
34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
- 17,957.07 MAD
We have asked for 323,386 MAD in our initial grant, but we have received 340,420.5 MAD due to higher conversion rate of USD. Our initial plan was to spend the forecasted amount which we did.
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
- B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future grant request with PO approval
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
- We have an ongoing grant application, the remaining amount can fund the activities planned in that grant.
35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.
36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
- Yes
37. 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
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
- No