Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/2025 Activating Wikimedia Zambia Community

Proposal Feedback for Submitted GSF Application

Dear Wikimedia Community User Group Zambia,

Thank you for submitting your application. The regional funding committee and regional program officers and expert staff reviewed your application and have the following questions and feedback for your response;

• We find the proposed work to be ambitious and keen to know what is the current size of the volunteer base that's ready and able to do all the planned work?
• How equipped are you for the partnerships indicated in the proposal - especially seeing that you are building a core group of well skilled volunteers
• Please share with us links to past dashboards where we can learn more about the outcomes of your activities.
• Who is in the core team ?
  • We find the proposed 5 roles to be ambitious and many for this work and at this stage of the affiliate’s development.
  • We believe that you need to nurture are well skilled volunteer community to support in some of the indicated roles.
• Who is conducting the trainings?
• What specific Wikipedias are you contributing to ? Please indicate the same on the metrics section.
• Podcast and radio show – given our experience in building and leading communities - this is not the best way of bringing in new members to the community . Radio shows can be useful to begin though need to be aligned with where you will find your target audience.
• With that please share more on your outreach strategy and how that links or informs the choice for radio or podcast which we don’t recommend at this time.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you on the comments shared and if you would like to meet with the regional funding committee, please inform the program officer.

On behalf of the regional funding committee and staff Reda benkhadra (talk) 18:23, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Reda benkhadra first of all thank you for taking the time to review our GSF proposal.

We find the proposed work to be ambitious and keen to know what is the current size of the volunteer base that's ready and able to do all the planned work?

We have a dedicated team of 20 volunteers, out of a total of 50 members in our user group, both online and offline. Among these volunteers, the majority are computer and internet literate, which will make it easier to spread our message and grow our community. As part of our strategy, we plan to engage with various student union leaders to expand our reach and increase involvement.

How equipped are you for the partnerships indicated in the proposal - especially seeing that you are building a core group of well skilled volunteers

The current size of our volunteer base consists of 20 dedicated volunteers, who are ready and able to support the planned work. These volunteers, along with the broader user group of 50 members (both online and offline), bring a mix of skills and commitment to the project. The majority of our volunteers are computer and internet literate, which will help us effectively execute our plans. Additionally, we are actively working to engage more student union leaders and expand our volunteer network to ensure we have the capacity to meet the project's ambitious goals.

Please share with us links to past dashboards where we can learn more about the outcomes of your activities.

1. 2023-2024 Wikimedia Zambia edit Record
2. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/University_of_Zambia/Lusaka_Art_And_Feminism_2020
3. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Online/Wikipedia_Editing_Competition
4. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_Community_Zambia/Wiki_Loves_Folklore_2024_Zambia_(February_1_to_31_March_,_2024)
5. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Zambia/Wiki_Loves_Earth_Zambia_2024

Who is in the core team ?

• Isaac Kanguya, Project lead coordinator User:Icem4k
• James Miti, Project assistant and Operations Manager User:Jae zambia
• Edward Phiri, Communication officer User:Edward phiri jnr
• Imanga Kayama, Partnership and digital marketing User:Imangaa
• Grace Nalungwe, Lead Community Project Organizer User:ChaloNiZambia
• Team Kiwix, Fiscal Sponsor
• Dumisani Ndubane, Advisory

Who is conducting the trainings?

Isaac Kanguya will be the main trainer as he brings over a decade of experience in the Wikimedia movement, with a strong background across Wikimedia projects and their sister initiatives. We’re also collaborating closely with Wikimedia Botswana, with Candy joining us to lead some of the training sessions, and we will receive additional support from Wikimedia South Africa who we have already engaged.

What specific Wikipedias are you contributing to ? Please indicate the same on the metrics section.

We’re focusing our efforts on building three new language Wikipedias in Luvale, Tonga, and Bemba to expand access to knowledge in these underrepresented languages. In addition, we’ll contribute actively to existing Wikipedias, including Chi-Chewa and Chitumbuka, as well as Simple English Wikipedia and English Wikipedia. These contributions aim to enhance content diversity and make knowledge more accessible to speakers of these languages.

Podcast and radio show – given our experience in building and leading communities - this is not the best way of bringing in new members to the community . Radio shows can be useful to begin though need to be aligned with where you will find your target audience.

As Wikimedia Community User Group Zambia, our primary target is the young people of Zambia, who are highly engaged on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. Our goal is to reach them where they’re already spending their time, making Wikipedia relevant and inspiring them to join our movement. While radio shows offer a good starting point, particularly for general outreach, we recognize their strengths in timing and reach—especially since nearly 85% of people tune in during engaging morning shows or in the evening when they’re commuting or finishing school. By combining digital engagement on social media with strategic radio slots, we know we can catch one or two people.

With that please share more on your outreach strategy and how that links or informs the choice for radio or podcast which we don’t recommend at this time.

Our outreach strategy is all about connecting with young Zambians where they already hang out online. We’re diving into platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube because we believe these spaces are perfect for sparking interest in Wikimedia’s mission. By creating short, fun vlogcasts (podcasts) and engaging videos, we want to make Wikipedia feel relevant and exciting. Our goal is to inspire young people to get involved and contribute. While we appreciate the wide reach of radio and podcasts, our main focus is on digital platforms that really resonate with the youth. We know they love interactive content, and that’s where we want to put our energy. That said, we’re not completely turning our backs on radio! We see it as a valuable tool, especially during peak listening times in the mornings and evenings. It can help us reach those who might not be as active online and introduce them to our initiatives. In short, we’re all about meeting young people where they are primarily in the digital world while using radio as a supportive touchpoint to broaden our outreach.

Submitted for review. Isaac Kanguya✌ (talk) 01:25, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

General Support Fund Approved at Local Currency Equivalent of 20,000 USD

Dear Wikimedia Community User Group Zambia,

The MEA Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed, discussed and deliberated upon your application and made the decision to fund you at the local currency equivalent of 20,000 USD for the grant period of 1st January 2025 - 31st December 2025.

Here are a few points to note on the decision:

• Given the stage of development your community is at, we are not funding the podcast and instead recommend that the effort and resources go towards organising and implementing workshops and training. We believe that there are other ways of creating awareness in your community and projects especially noting that your audience is university students. A clear outreach engagement plan is recommended to support in accessing and recruiting the participants you need and can include leveraging social media for that.
• We also do not see the need for all the paid roles indicated at this point in time. There is an opportunity to involve emerging volunteer organizers in the organization and implementation of the projects and taking a stipend approach in supporting needs related to costs like internet, and transportation. You can learn more about this stipend approach from communities like Igbo Wikimedians UG and Uganda Wikimedians UG as well, especially when they were both in the community-building phase.
• It is important that the volunteer nature of the movement is embedded in your approaches to building a community and we know that accompanying these contributions with supporting costs is important.
• We see an opportunity for you to focus on the 3 campaigns and accompany those with workshops to equip the members with the appropriate skills for contributing to the projects. We also see a need for you to grow your trainers based to avoid reliance on one person for all the training - this needs to be prioritized.
• In thinking of how the allocation of the funded amount can be done, we propose the resources being allocated to the coordination costs, internet support, campaigns, workshops with fan clubs and a fiscal sponsorship fee with Kiwix.
• We look forward to seeing how this first general support fund supports your goals for embarking on long-term community building efforts and impact.  

Once again, Congratulations! We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on a new year of project implementation.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff, FElgueretly-WMF (talk) 09:50, 14 December 2024 (UTC)