Wiki4Inclusion Campaign in Tanzania
About
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Wiki4Inclusion Campaign in Tanzania is the project that aims at bridging the gap of including people with disability in a digital space and increasing Swahili language contents to Wikimedia projects relating to people with hearing impairment and sign language interpreters.
History
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Wiki4Inclusion Campaign in Tanzania is a replication campaign from the main Wiki4Inclusion project founded in Ghana by Stella Sessy Agbley and Ing. Joy Agyepong aiming at enhancing the accessibility and inclusivity of knowledge and information, particularly for individuals with disabilities including those with hearing impairment.
The motivation of launching this project in Tanzania came after Alex Method (user: Rwebogora), the Project Lead, Country Coordinator and Trainer having attended their session at Wiki Indaba 2023 in Agadir, Morocco and hearing their story on how they started and their progress on engaging people with disability on a digital space. He discovered the gap that was on Swahili contents in Wiki projects including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata and led a movement on to bridging it.
Objectives
[edit]- Recruiting new editors who are hearing impaired and training them on how to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
- Training interpreters and Association staffs on how to contribute to Wikimedia projects.
- Building a team of experienced Wikimedians who will guide newbies during and after the edit a thons
- Adding images, videos and signs items to Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
Activities
[edit]- Organizing trainings and edit-a-thons both online and in-person
- Making media contents for Wikimedia Commons relating to hearing impairment including videos and images
Milestone and coverage
[edit]Dar es salaam
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For the first time, the project was launched in Tanzania on 20 July 2024 on its first in-person event that was conducted at dLab Tanzania - CoICT, Kijitonyama Dar es salaam Tanzania. We were able to bring together hearing impaired people from Deaf associations and those who are not from associations including university students and sign language interpreters. Also, we did another extended edit-a-thon on 31 August 2024 at the same area and online meet ups to train and provide guidance to participants throughout the project phase (1) which started from 16 July - 16 September 2024.
Arusha
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After introducing the project to people of Arusha through Wiki Student Summit 2024 which happened on 16 - 18 July whereby Alex Method, the Project Lead, Coordinator and Trainer was invited to share Wiki Indaba 2023 learnings, Wiki4Inclusion Campaign in Tanzania conducted a training to one of the special secondary school in Arusha known as Patandi Maalum Secondary School based in Duluti, Tengeru - Meru district. Through collaboration with Wikimedians in Arusha we were able to conduct three (3) on different days leading to establishment of a Wiki4Inclusion club at the school with the first intake of 20 participants.
This initiave was also supported by the ministry of education in Arusha region, hence the office was represented by an education officer for special education (secondary schools, Meru district) on our training launch (day.1).
Phase 2 Project Activities
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The Wiki4Inclusion Campaign in Tanzania project launched its phase 2 program on 24 April - 27 June 2025 by conducting some activities in Dar es salaam. We were able to conduct two (2) trainings and edit-a-thons at the Open University of Tanzania whereby we trained hearing impaired people and sign language interpreters from Deaf people associations, university students and those who are not from organizatons. Also, on 25 July 2025 we provided training on Wikidata to Patandi Maalum Secondary School students.