Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves Afrodemics 2025 (ID: 23061927)

Endorsement from Vanderwaalforces (talk)

This project, Wiki Loves Afrodemics, is very important for the African communities generally because our academics are not sufficiently represented on Wikimedia Projects, especially on Wikipedia. The main goal of this project, to cover African academics to a large extent, stems from the issues we have figured out regarding the representation of our academics. How are we going to achieve this? Intensive training sessions would be held (in-person and offline) and participants would equip themselves with everything they need to know before venturing into creating and improving articles, especially on English Wikipedia. This is important because, while we want to cover a very large extent of our academics, we also want quality articles that are carefully written and improvements that are worth it. This initiative is vital for addressing the underrepresentation of African academics on Wikimedia projects, filling a significant knowledge gap and promoting inclusivity. The strategies of community engagement, and targeted content creation are well-developed and will yield impactful results, especially with outreach to underrepresented groups like female academics as mentioned in the original proposal. The proposal also builds on past "wiki loves" initiatives, focusing on research and innovation by bringing attention to systemic bias in the academic sphere. It aligns with Wikimedia's Movement Strategy, particularly around knowledge equity and closing content gaps, and demonstrates coherence between its objectives, strategies, budget, and metrics, ensuring tangible outcomes for Wikimedia projects and the wider community. --Vanderwaalforces (talk) 09:15, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

Endorsement from Idoghor Melody (talk)

I am really happy to support this project because this project is doing something important, making sure African academics are well represented on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia platforms. I saw what the first edition achieved, and it was impressive. Not just in the number of articles created and improved, but also in how it kept people involved even after the project ended. This second edition is building on that success, with training for both new and experienced editors, and a clear focus on improving article quality, not just quantity. I like that it’s not just about editing for a few weeks and moving on. It’s about growing a strong community of editors who care about telling African stories right. That’s why I believe in this project and fully support it.

--Idoghor Melody (talk) 09:56, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Endorsement from Ojewuyib (talk) 10:26, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

I am delighted to be part of this project for the second time. The project aims to close the knowledge gaps in Africa by not only improving African scientists and academics articles but also creating articles for long forgotten academics. The first edition of the project succeeded in building a community of editors who have keen interest in improving these categories across Wikimedia foundation projects. The intensive online and offline trainings would help to fine-tune the skills of the existing editors and build the skills of the new editors. Another interesting thing is the office hours for the participants where challenges faced in the process of the campaign would be discussed and probable solution would be provided. Ojewuyib (talk) 10:26, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

Endorsement from FuzzyMagma (talk) 09:20, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

We did this event in 2023, and it was great fun. We had over 100 participants and a couple of f2f and virtual events. Volunteers translated literally thousands of articles and created hundreds more in different languages. It was very sad that we did not get the chance to do the event in 2024, as we aimed to make it a recurring event, but we hope to fix that this year. We have discussed multiple events, some we included in the proposal and some we are working on behind the scenes. Since the last event, we have had many editors who joined the Wikipedia community and have not stopped editing since the event; thus, I do not think this event is just useful to enrich Wikipeida about African scientists but it is essential to breed a new crop of editors with a focus on Africa beyond the streotypicall, e.g., crises in Africa. FuzzyMagma (talk) 09:20, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Funded

Hello Ibjaja055, thank you for submitting this Rapid Fund request. We have reviewed your grant request and have decided to fund it in the amount of 4, 059,846 NGN ( 2533.27 USD). Please note that project start and end dates have been adjusted and included in Cycle 5 of the Rapid Fund.

We sincerely appreciate your contribution to the Wikimedia movement and wish you the best with your project! You will receive an approval email with the next steps required.

On behalf of the Sub-Saharan Africa regional review team. WBuloso-WMF (talk) 13:12, 25 June 2025 (UTC)