WikiCred/2022 CFP/The Body Atlas project
- Note: This application was originally submitted via WikiCred.org's webform due to a technical issue with the application portal; this page was generated on behalf of the applicant by a member of the WikiCred team.
| The Body Atlas project | |
|---|---|
| A WikiCred 2022 Grant Proposal | |
| Project Type | Research + Output |
| Author | (User:Sophiasgaler) |
| Contact | sophiasmithgaler@gmail.com |
| Requested amount | $10,000 |
| Award amount | Unknown |
- What is your idea?
The Body Atlas project – improving information across sexual and reproductive health across the internet.
- Why is it important?
Information about sexual and reproductive healthcare worldwide is scant – and Wikipedia is no exception. In researching new countries that you may wish to study, work or live in – or simply in an attempt to compare one’s own country with another – it is extremely difficult finding reliable, accessible information about sexual and reproductive healthcare. This is an issue Jay Weeldreyer found, who I interviewed earlier this year in my role as a reporter. This summer, he was a US tourist who booked a holiday for him and his partner to celebrate their pregnancy on a ‘babymoon’ to Malta. In his own words: “I saw Malta was part of the EU, I saw it had high ratings of its healthcare system. I would never conceive a miscarriage being seen or treated as an abortion.” They went on to experience severe trauma as his partner Andrea Prudente was denied the healthcare she needed after the pregnancy was declared no longer viable, but because she still had a fetal heartbeat she could not end the pregnancy due to Malta’s strict abortion ban. Nowhere in the US travel advisory material Weeldreyer accessed did it say they may encounter issues in Malta as a pregnant couple if they were to experience difficulties. I went on to do further reporting in this area, approaching international governments and asking them why they don’t include guidance around sexual and reproductive health in foreign countries for their citizens to read about before travelling. Most told me such information was up to the individual to research themselves. The US government told me their guidance is not meant to be “comprehensive”, and so their dedicated page for women travellers for example covers assault, female genital cutting and forced marriage abroad, but nothing on reproductive care. The English language page on ‘Abortion in Malta’ on Wikipedia does not mention Weeldreyer and Prudente’s recent, high profile story; nor does it mention Malta’s pledge to slightly liberalise its abortion law, nor the fact that Prudente is currently suing the country for breaching her human rights. The page itself is not available in the Maltese language, either. In conclusion, Wikipedia is likely an underused, undersupported arena on the internet that could be equipping people around the world with the information resource that their own governments or local healthcare systems are often denying them. Sexual and reproductive healthcare overwhelmingly affects women and people with uteruses around the world; we know that Wikipedia has a gender bias with 90% of contributors being male, and a paucity of information on things like contraception, menstrual care and abortion is likely partially down to this fact. An English language bias is then secondly leading to this information, where available, often only existing in a minority of languages. Information is not fairly distributed geographically; there is a ‘birth control in the US’ page only available in English and Hebrew (not even Spanish!) and then only ‘in Africa”, “in France” and “in Japan” exist as other pages; the same goes for pages for “Contraception in…” My idea proposes instigating research and organising edit-a-thons to a) bulk out English language pages around sexual and reproductive health worldwide and b) make sure these resources are translated, and that non-English-language media reports and research may also be used as sources.
- Link(s) to your resume or anything else (CV, GitHub, etc.) that may be relevant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiasmithgaler/
- Is your project already in progress?
Yes; I have already begun the research on an individual level, as my reporting at VICE World News as well as research for my book on sex education Losing It have already provided me with a lot of information. I have begun interviewing educators and healthcare workers in under-reported-on countries to begin to build out information resources to improve the quality of Wikipedia pages. I have also established interest from a London university in translating resources/who already translate content in this area, who I would seek to involve.
- How is this project relevant to credibility and Wikipedia?
In better providing information around an area that often predominantly or disproportionately affects women’s health and lives, this project will seek to improve the gender bias that exists on the platform. One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is ‘SDG Target 3.7: By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information & education, & the integration of reproductive health into national strategies.’ This work can help achieve that aim. Wikipedia is also actively seeking to improve credibility in languages other than English; I aim to create resources in the other languages I speak to invite international contributors (Spanish, Italian, Arabic) and collaborate with fellow content creators, journalists and linguists to make this a real ‘news-you-can-use’, accessible project. Lastly, I hope that running edit-a-thons in London will help introduce a new generation, particularly a young generation of journalists with editorial training, to see the value and need to help populate digital wonders of the world like Wikipedia.
- What is the ultimate impact of this project?
Plainly - to improve the lives of everyone who needs to access contraception, menstrual care and abortion, whether it is where they’re from or where they’ve moved to. We all deserve full and equitable access to our sexual and reproductive health rights.
- Can your project scale?
Certainly; there pretty much needs to be pages on contraception, abortion and sexual/reproductive attitudes surrounding things like menstruation for every country around the world. Each of these pages need to be available in all of the UN languages, as well as the languages used by residents and immigrants, as a basic requirement.
- Why are you the people to do it?
I am an award-winning journalist, journalism innovator and author on sexual and reproductive rights from the United Kingdom; I am also a linguist who has firsthand felt some of the problems to trying to access contraceptive care abroad and struggling to access the vocabulary, knowledge base or information to find it. I am part of the RNW Hub network of digital-first sex educators as well as a TikTok content creator with half a million followers across social media. I am a big believer in using digital tools to make the world around us a more equitable place, and this year want to be ambitious with my work, stretching beyond social media platforms and working towards collaborative, longer-form projects where my journalism skillset can meet other people’s translation and tech skillsets. I am a long-time attendee of Hacks/Hackers events in London and would also like to involve other attendees to be part of this special online community.
- What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
Not only would this project lead to more multilingual contributors on Wikipedia; my online following is predominantly female and I believe the subject matter will lead to a high number of women wanting to get involved with improving citations, sourcing and information on Wikipedia. A minority of biographies on Wikipedia are about women, and this project could also be used to better cite and document the work of women pioneering and working in sexual and reproductive health research.
- What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
One of the challenges is the sheer amount of information gathering from different countries, some of which have not been reported on much by news media. This will involve a) scouring through academic literature as well as b) some journalism! I will be assembling a group of advisors to assist me, using my contacts within the RNW Media hub as well as elsewhere. Another challenge will be finding translators. That is why a funding budget will help me in not only helping to organise edit-a-thons and translate-a-thons but also to find translators willing to submit and proofread entries.
- How will you spend your funds?
$1960 - honorariums for an advisory committee of 5 advisors to support with identifying additional pages in sexual and reproductive health as well as areas where current pages may be improved $250 - remote Wikipedia editing training for those in the advisory committee who also wish to contribute to editing $2000 - editorial lead’s salary to conduct a landscape review & conduct weeks of research to begin building the articles for each country $1790 - hiring of spaces in London to conduct a series of hybrid edit-a-thons and translate-a-thons $3000 - native speakers to submit and review translations of pages $1000 - end of project report for the Wikimedia community to build on and contribute to future projects
- How long will your project take?
8-12 months. The hope is in the project’s first year to get at least the top 100 most visited countries in the world built up with thorough pages as well as numerous translations for these pages.
- Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
I have not worked on projects for previous Wikimedia grants, but I do have experience working on grant projects with VICE World News. Recently VICE won a grant from the Omidyar foundation, for which I was commissioned to write about women in crypto. I was able to deliver ahead of my deadline and get quotes from prominent voices in the space. I have also previously managed a £10,000 budget for the BBC World Service, which I used to budget for my own travel as well as commission freelancers.