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Grants:Project/Ammarpad & DonCamillo/Outreach in Northern Nigeria/Final

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Report under review
This Project Grant report has been submitted by the grantee, and is currently being reviewed by WMF staff. If you would like to add comments, responses, or questions about this grant report, you can create a discussion page at this redlink.



Welcome to this project's final report! This report shares the outcomes, impact and learnings from the grantee's project.

Part 1: The Project

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Summary

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In a few short sentences, give the main highlights of what happened with your project. Please include a few key outcomes or learnings from your project in bullet points, for readers who may not make it all the way through your report.

This project was initiated with the aim of increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects in Hausa in Northern Nigeria. From June 2018 to April 2019, we worked on various activities both online and on the ground in achieving so.

  • We organized two main workshops in Kano and Katsina states and leveraged social media to promote the projects.
  • This led to significant increase in number of active users, pageviews, article creations and overall activity on Hausa Wikipedia
  • Also led to pulling of new editors; more than 80 accounts were registered in both workshops.
  • Resulted in establishing user group; Wikimedia Community User Group Northern Nigeria with wider scope to promote all Wikimedia projects in the region.
  • Initiated talks with Bayero University, Kano and Umaru Musa Yar'adua University in Katsina to introduce Wikipedia Education program, train students and explore prospect of initiating fan clubs.
  • Collaborated with Center of Information Technology and Development Kano and Lumilab Katsina (formerly Soho Foundation) to organize the workshops and both are committed to supporting future projects.

Project Goals

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Please copy and paste the project goals from your proposal page. Under each goal, write at least three sentences about how you met that goal over the course of the project. Alternatively, if your goals changed, you may describe the change, list your new goals and explain how you met them, instead.

Short-term goals

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Daily average pageview from 2016 to first quarter 2019
  1. Increase the number of articles on Hausa Wikipedia.
    • When we started this project officially in June 2018, Hausa Wikipedia has less than 2000 articles. Precisely it had 1856 articles on July 1, 2018. We have changed that. By the end date of the project May 30, 2019 we have 3,474 articles; a 46% increase.

      However, unfortunately the articles creation was not evenly split. Meaning that significant proportion of the creation was done by some core dedicated users. New users find it quite difficult to manipulate wikitext code and write extended content.

  2. Improve extant ones.
    • Not much is achieved here due to what is said in the preceding section. We were not able to take up any detailed work on improving the current substandard articles due to time constraint at both workshops and seeming difficulty by majority of the participants in grasping the wikitext convention to manipulate text and citation templates.
  3. ...and raise awareness about it (Wikipedia) in Northern Nigeria.
    • Surely, a lot of people in Northern Nigeria are now aware about Hausa Wikipedia and a lot of people heard of it for the first time during the workshops.
  4. Recruit new editors from Kano and Kaduna/Katsina, the states with largest population of Hausa people and numerous academic institutions.
    • Over 80 accounts were created at both workshops and we still communicate with majority of them through the contacts shared and social media group created.

Long-term goals

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Introducing Wikipedia...
  1. Encourage Hausa speakers to edit Wikimedia projects
    • As said in the Project proposal this is a long-term goal and we are just starting and working towards the goal. During both workshops we made sure to lay solid foundation for achieving this. Wikimedia Community User Group Northern Nigeria is one of the strategies for that; and it was proposed as result of consultation with various people in Kaduna, Kano and Katsina States. The group will ensure our sustainability, gives us access to more resources and reduce dependency on individual.

      It will also gives us organizational face to collaborate with other mission-aligned organizations for our activities.

  2. Increase awareness around Wikimedia projects in Northern Nigeria
    • This overlaps with with the preceding goal. As people are encouraged to edit and be involved with Wikimedia projects they'll naturally become more aware of it; and the more people are aware of it, the more chances for more people to know about it due to people's daily personal and social media interactions.
  3. Explore partnerships with academic institutions of Northern Nigeria to support edit-a-thons/training of staff and students on editing Wikimedia projects in Hausa.
    • Talks initiated and both institutions are now aware of Wikimedia and Wikipedia. All the workshops have a number of students and staff participants who are willing to take the campaign further to their campuses, but they are too new to Wikipedia themselves. We are planning to draft working plan about how to achieve this in the long run under the name of our usergroup.

Project Impact

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Important: The Wikimedia Foundation is no longer collecting Global Metrics for Project Grants. We are currently updating our pages to remove legacy references, but please ignore any that you encounter until we finish.

Targets

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  1. In the first column of the table below, please copy and paste the measures you selected to help you evaluate your project's success (see the Project Impact section of your proposal). Please use one row for each measure. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please include the number.
  2. In the second column, describe your project's actual results. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please report numerically in this column. Otherwise, write a brief sentence summarizing your output or outcome for this measure.
  3. In the third column, you have the option to provide further explanation as needed. You may also add additional explanation below this table.
Planned measure of success
(include numeric target, if applicable)
Actual result Explanation
Creation of 20 to 40 Wikimedia user accounts. More than 40 accounts were created in each workshop.
  • 42 new accounts were created during the Kano workshop.
  • Around 40 accounts also were created during the second workshop in Katsina. This however includes those who created accounts during the preliminary workshop in September 2018.
Attendance of 30 to 40 people in each workshop More than 50 people attended each workshop.
Over a period of three months, generate 500 to 1 000 edits Achieved
  • In June 2018 when this project was approved, Hausa Wikipedia contained 37,000+ revisions. At the end of the project in April 2019 it contains 49,000+ edits. This was, however, over the period of 10 Months but it gives average of more than 1000 edits per each month during the period.
Six months after the end of the second workshop, have at least 10% of workshop attendants still involved in the project on a monthly basis Data not yet available.
  • [This will be due for report by end of September 2019]
Data regarding edits, new articles and pageviews on Hausa Wikipedia. Data collated on Hausa Wikipedia: w:ha:Wikipedia:Ƙididdiga
  • The page w:ha:Wikipedia:Ƙididdiga contains data collated showing the difference in the total number of articles on 1 and 15 of each month starting from Jul 1, 2018.
  • Then the "Number of visitors" section shows quarterly daily average pageview. This data stretches back to the third quarter of 2015 up to the project end date; the first quarter of 2019. It was collected using the Siteview Analysis tool
  • Previously very few articles on Hausa Wikipedia were linked to Wikidata thus further obscuring it as many existing articles couldn't be shown on language sidebar to potential Hausa readers reading articles on, for instance, English Wikipedia. We worked to link as many articles as possible and by the end date of the project 56% articles are now linked to Wikidata this is over 40% increase from late 2018 when the linked articles were less than 30%. The data was collected using Wikidata Percent Usage Dashboard.
By end of 2019, have the Hausa Wikipedia among the top 200 Wikipedia projects in terms of number of articles. Data not yet available.
  • [This will be due for report by end of December 2019]
Engage in a long-term partnership with at least one institution in Katsina and one in Kano. It could be Wikimedia clubs in the universities, training of teachers who are supposed to teach Hausa in secondary schools. Partially achieved
  • We had meet three times with various staff of Bayero University, Kano and Two times with Umaru Musa Yar'adu'a University in Katsina. There's support and desire to collaborate from both institutions. The recent university staff strike and lack of organizational structure from our side however hampered those discussions. So we plan to revisit the issue and draft working plan under the aegis of our usergroup when it's approved.


Story

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Looking back over your whole project, what did you achieve? Tell us the story of your achievements, your results, your outcomes. Focus on inspiring moments, tough challenges, interesting antecdotes or anything that highlights the outcomes of your project. Imagine that you are sharing with a friend about the achievements that matter most to you in your project.

  • This should not be a list of what you did. You will be asked to provide that later in the Methods and Activities section.
  • Consider your original goals as you write your project's story, but don't let them limit you. Your project may have important outcomes you weren't expecting. Please focus on the impact that you believe matters most.

Survey(s)

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Awareness of Wikipedia editing among people who registered to attend the workshops is very low.

If you used surveys to evaluate the success of your project, please provide a link(s) in this section, then briefly summarize your survey results in your own words. Include three interesting outputs or outcomes that the survey revealed.

  • A significant number of people still do not know they can edit Wikipedia in the Northern Nigeria. Out of total 314 people who indicated interest to attend either workshops in Kano and Katsina, 214 (or 68%) say they have never edited Wikipedia. Only 74 people (or 24%) say they did, and further verbal interaction shows most were long time ago and such a very few edits. 26 people, (10 in Katsina, 16 in Kano) preferred not answer the optional question.

Other

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Is there another way you would prefer to communicate the actual results of your project, as you understand them? You can do that here!

Methods and activities

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Katsina workshop (April 2019)

Please provide a list of the main methods and activities through which you completed your project.

  • In-person meetings with Bayero University Kano staff in November and December 2018
  • Meetings with staff of Umaru Musa Yar'adua University, Katsina
  • Meetings with officials of Center of Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in Kano.
  • Engagement with Soho Foundation, Katsina (renamed to Lumilab during the course of this project)
  • Organized preliminary workshop in Katsina in September 2018
  • Organized workshop in Kano in December 2018
  • Organized workshop in Katsina in April 2019
  • News media interviews
  • Social media engagements

Project resources

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Kano Workshop, December 2018
Leaflet conveying info about Wikimedia projects distributed in each workshop

Please provide links to all public, online documents and other artifacts that you created during the course of this project. Even if you have linked to them elsewhere in this report, this section serves as a centralized archive for everything you created during your project. Examples include: meeting notes, participant lists, photos or graphics uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, template messages sent to participants, wiki pages, social media (Facebook groups, Twitter accounts), datasets, surveys, questionnaires, code repositories... If possible, include a brief summary with each link.

Translation

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Translated and printed flyer for fundamental pillars of Wikipedia

Learning

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The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you took enough risks in your project to have learned something really interesting! Think about what recommendations you have for others who may follow in your footsteps, and use the below sections to describe what worked and what didn’t.

What worked well

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What did you try that was successful and you'd recommend others do? To help spread successful strategies so that they can be of use to others in the movement, rather than writing lots of text here, we'd like you to share your finding in the form of a link to a learning pattern.

What didn’t work

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What did you try that you learned didn't work? What would you think about doing differently in the future? Please list these as short bullet points.

  • Internet connectivity issue. We experienced problem with connectivity at both workshops, it was disappointing, more so in an event where it's quite necessary for almost everything; presentations, video call and the like. We have improved a little bit after learning from the first workshop, but still run into different problem. We will endeavor to remedy this in future events by ensuring we did not rely on single network and make sure things are working correctly days before the event.
  • Partnership deals need organizational structure for effective implementation. Government institutions and non-governmental organizations who are willing to collaborate only want to do so with a named organization for formality reasons. As we don't have a recognized usergroup during those meetings, those organization thought I am a Wikimedia agent/employee and the like and they're partnering with Wikimedia Foundation. So it becomes hard to explain whom I am actually representing (and for them to grasp so) if I am not employee. However, this problem will be remedied when our usergroup application is approved which will allow us to have structure, able to be represented by an individual and enjoy other benefits for non-profit organizations of Nigeria.
  • Lack of enough computer devices. There's visible lack of enough computer devices in both workshops. Despite the encouragements in registration forms and flyers for people to come with computer/tablet devices that was not so and this hinders ability to test thing live. The mobile web a times looks quite different from the web and so needs different approach in teaching solely on it. We will review our approach in next project and make sure to tailor it towards what's readily available.
  • It's hard to regulate the number of people. In both events people overwhelmed our resources despite upping the number to 40-50 against the initial 30-40 range in the project proposal. Even though we need more people, when we organize event we can only be able to cater for a limited number of people since resources are not unlimited. It's a kind of dilemma, we need more people. During Kano workshop registration, the form has to be quickly closed when it surpassed 200 people barely two days after opening. Eventually we have to preselect some people to avoid overcrowding, since the venue has a fixed number of seats, our items are fixed in number and likewise the provision for buffet. Even then actually some people were not able to be fed and some didn't get the leaflets, name tags and the like; it was disappointing. We were able to contain this issue in Katsina with some success. Nonetheless, the number was beyond 50, thus repeat of Kano issue in addition to around 10 chairs which had to be rented from external rental providers.

Other recommendations

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If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please list them here.

Next steps and opportunities

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Are there opportunities for future growth of this project, or new areas you have uncovered in the course of this grant that could be fruitful for more exploration (either by yourself, or others)? What ideas or suggestions do you have for future projects based on the work you’ve completed? Please list these as short bullet points.

  • Need for repeat events to consolidate what we achieved so far. Small but recurring events are likely to be more impactful and give room for people to understand the editing environment better.
  • Contest-based events would also help to bring more people to Hausa Wikipedia. People need incentive to work especially when something is new
  • Need to explore the opportunity to drive people to Wikimedia Commons through photo contests and photowalks. I did understand that a lot of people are quite interested in media project like Commons which does not entail extended writing. Writing is a skill and some people don't feel comfortable to write, but can upload images with ease.

Part 2: The Grant

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Finances

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Actual spending

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Please copy and paste the completed table from your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed the actual expenditures compared with what was originally planned. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided to explain them.

Expense Approved amount Actual funds spent Difference
1. Workshops in Kano; room, internet access and feeding. $1000 USD 997 USD $3 USD
2. Outreach in Kano $250 USD $250 USD $0 USD
3. Workshops in Katsina; room, internet access and feeding. $1000 USD $1045.73 USD - $45.73 USD
4. Outreach in Kaduna/Katsina $250 USD $224. 78 USD $25.22 USD
5. Translation of help & support materials $400 USD $400 USD $0 USD
6. Travels for one user based in Katsina/Zaria; transportation, accommodation and feeding $600 USD $697.32 USD - $97.32 USD
7. Travel for one user from Wikimedia User Group Nigeria to the first Workshop $535.94 USD $477.1 USD $ 58.84 USD
8. Travel for one user from Wikimedia User Group Nigeria to the second Workshop $549.01 USD $550.3 USD - $ 1.29 USD
9. Printing and contingency $415.05 USD $359.44 USD $55.56 USD
Total $5000 USD $ 5000 USD $0 USD


Remaining funds

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Do you have any unspent funds from the grant?

Please answer yes or no. If yes, list the amount you did not use and explain why.

  • No.

If you have unspent funds, they must be returned to WMF. Please see the instructions for returning unspent funds and indicate here if this is still in progress, or if this is already completed:

Documentation

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Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grantsadmin(_AT_)wikimedia.org, according to the guidelines here?

Please answer yes or no. If no, include an explanation.

  • Yes

Confirmation of project status

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Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

Please answer yes or no.

  • Yes

Is your project completed?

Please answer yes or no.

  • Yes.

Grantee reflection

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We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on what this project has meant to you, or how the experience of being a grantee has gone overall. Is there something that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed, or that you’ll do differently going forward as a result of the Project Grant experience? Please share it here!

  • Well, it was great working on this project, but it's a times quite stressing, especially when things did not work the way one expects. However I am impressed by a lot of messages/phone calls I got from various people thanking me for bringing this project in the North, Wikimedia is quite something new to a lot of people.

    The project also gave me the opportunity to meet some few people who were editors for a long time, long time before I came (one as per back as 2008) but they just quietly edit and never knew someone near them also edit.

    I thank the Project grants people for the all their support and DonCamillo for the original idea and support throughout. Asaf Bartov's advice has been very useful and Olaniyan Olushola helped in both events. A lot of people worked behind the scenes to help in organizing both workshops, such as Aliyu Dahiru Aliyu, UMKutawa, Wizkid49 and many others. I am indebted to them.