Wikimedia Community User Group Kenya/Art & Feminism 2025

Introduction

The Art & Feminism 2025 campaign themed “What does the future of Gender Inclusivity in art look like in the age of AI?” is a transformative project that seeks to not only reimagine but actively build a more inclusive and equitable internet for every woman in Kenya, regardless of her location. In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), we are compelled to ask: "What does the future of gender inclusivity in art look like?" Our campaign seeks to answer this by bridging existing gender content gaps on Wikipedia and its sister projects, empowering women and gender-diverse editors, fostering crucial local partnerships, and championing media and information literacy. Through this project, we will onboard, train and empower new editors, generate substantial new content, and improve existing articles, while collaborating with key institutions and media partners to create awareness. Ultimately, we strive to enhance critical digital skills among young women and students, combating misinformation and gender bias to ensure a truly representative and accessible online space for all.

Event Dates:

Workshop:18th September 2025 at Pwani University, Kilifi
Edit-a-thon and Translation-a-thon: 18th September to 12th October 2025 online

Here is the Event Registration link

Campaign Objectives & Expected Outcomes

Close Gender Content Gaps on Wikipedia and Sister Projects: Increase the quantity and quality of articles about notable Kenyan women, artists, feminists, and cultural figures. Add content in underrepresented local languages, such as Kiswahili and any Coastal indigenous languages, to promote linguistic inclusion.
Empower Women and Gender-Diverse Editors: Train and support at least 20 new youth and women and gender-diverse editors through workshops and edit-a-thons in the coastal region. Create at least 20 new articles about youth, women, artists and cultural related content on Wikipedia, 60 Wiki quotes,50 Commons uploads and 150 Wiki data items. Improve at least 50 existing articles on women, culture etc on Wikipedia
Foster Local Partnerships: Collaborate with at least 5 institutions (universities, museums, CBOs, and any feminist organizations) to amplify visibility and engagement. Mobilize media partnerships to raise awareness about the campaign’s impact and increase visibility.
Promote Media and Information Literacy and advocacy: Enhance critical digital skills among young women and students by integrating Wikimedia editing with media literacy training. Combat misinformation and gender bias in online knowledge spaces.

Campaign Activities

Capacity building/ training on Wikipedia, Wiki commons, Wikidata and Wikiquote.
Edit-a-thon-Link to Dashboard.
Translation-thon to Swahili (include a list of articles).
Media engagements with local/grassroot stations to amplify Wiki projects, tourism & culture.
Meet & forge collaborations with Pwani University English, Language & Literature Department.
Meet & forge collaborations with Social Sciences Department & Library at Technical University of Mombasa.
Meet & forge collaborations with CSOs i.e Desire Youth Initiative (DYI) https://www.desireyouth.org/ and Change Makers Hub & Tech Center.

Campaign Metrics targeted

Wikimedia Project	Number of new content	Number of content to be edited or improved	Number of articles to be Translated
Wikipedia	20	50	20
Wikimedia Commons	50	N/A	N/A
Wikidata	150	200	N/A
Wikiquote	60	120	50

Media Kit

2025 Campaign Hashtags: #ArtandFeminismKe #GenderInclusivityandAI

Media Coverage

1) NTV News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlPV7_peNec

2) People Daily

3) Media For Nature

4) Workshop Launch Video

Campaign Report

Project Report: Art+Feminism 2025 Workshop in Kenya - Pwani University

Theme:  “What does the future of Gender Inclusivity in art look like in the age of AI.?

Achievements

1.The A+F campaign 2025 workshop in Kenya: On 18th September, we officially launched the A+F campaign 2025 in Kenya at Pwani University themed “What does the future of Gender Inclusivity in art look like in the age of AI.?” We trained 23 new editors who were drawn from the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), Pwani University, Civil Society Organizations and local journalists. We enhanced their skills on:

✅Understanding Wikipedia Content Policies i.e Neutrality, Notability and Verification, Using the Translation Tool, and Wikimedia Commons Basics Training.

2. Onboarded New Members: During the workshop, we also successfully onboarded 14 new members who were supported to open their Wikipedia accounts (Swahili Wiki Accounts) so that they can contribute in shrinking the information gaps on Wikipedia.

4. Community Capacity Building Sessions: We organised virtual training sessions for both the veteran community members and newbies that took place for two weeks (twice per week) covering the following topics: Basic wikipedia editing, using the translation tool, training on Wikiquotes, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata.

5. Edit-a-thons: A week after the official launch of the campaign, and two weeks after the virtual training, we opened up the edit-a-thons which are still ongoing until 18th October 2025. So far the progress is great and we have managed to achieve good milestones as indicated below and on the campaign dashboard.

6. Media Engagements: We had five successful media engagements with local/grassroot stations to amplify the campaign and our overall Wiki projects, culture and gender issues. The stories were featured on the following media:

1 Newspaper: People Daily
1 Radio Station: Sauti ya Pwani
2 TV stories: NTV News and TV 47

1 podcast: Media For Nature

7. Forge Collaborations & Establish Potential Partnerships: We forged collaborations with Pwani University English, Language & Literature Department-the process of creating Pwani University Wiki Club is ongoing. We also established good relationships and potential partnerships with the Social Sciences Department & Library at Technical University of Mombasa, Technical University of Mombasa, Civil society organizations (CSOs) i.e Desire Youth Initiative (DYI) https://www.desireyouth.org/ and Change Makers Hub & Tech Center.

8. Localizing Content: One of the key goals of our engagements in Pwani University in Kilifi County has been to grow Swahili language on Wikipedia. Over the years, we have managed to achieve this through Translation-thons- translating Kenyan content on Wikipedia from English to Swahili. This year, we have managed to work on a list of articles as indicated below

SN	Title	Editor	Characters added
1.	Marianne Mwaniki	June4070	7110
2.	Grace Kiptui	January4207	2811
3.	Mirella Ricciardi	Otubula	9854
4.	Vihiga Queens FC	MARkarani	2707
5.	Makena Onjerika	MARkarani	2504
6.	Chuo Kikuu Cha Pwani	Lebu Ayiga	7789
7.	Josephine Gitome	Otubula	17355
8	Margaret Ogola	Nicolewanjiku53	3425
9.	Susan Wakarura Kihika	Abel Josiah	12515
10.	Migorogoro ya ukabila nchini Kenya	Lebu Ayiga	8095
11.	Charlot Magayi	Otubula	4990
12.	Ruth Oniang’o	Otubula	8683
13.	Philomena Mbete Mwilu	Abel Josiah	16019
14.	Ukahaba nchini Kenya	Lebu Ayiga	13753
15.	Idza Luhumyo	Otubula	9634
16.	Muthoni wa Gicheru	Otubula	4983
17.	Ruhila Adatia-Sood	Ua la waridi	2804
18.	Mauaji ya Mpeketoni	Ua la waridi	7143
19.	Shule ya upili ya wasichana ya Alliance	Lebu Anyiga	9042
20.	Ogutu Okudo	Otubula	10286
21.	Mapigano ya Wilaya ya Tana River	Lebu Ayiga	15749
22.	Wanajeshi wa uingereza na madai ya unyanyasaji wa Kingono chini Kenya	Lebu Ayiga	13407
23.	Uweza Foundation	Otubula	9410
24.	Mauaji ya sheila Lumumba	Faith Butaki	1941

Top Contributors

Username	No. of created articles	Total Revisions	Total Characters
Otubula	8	235	81473
Lebu Ayiga	6	200	130463
MARkaran	2	20	15401
Abel Josiah	2	17	32593
Ua la waridi	2	4	10154

Campaign Coordinators

Lead Organizer: Michael Maua

Co-Lead: Terry Boke

Supporting Team

Winnie Kabintie-Facilitator

Carol Mwaura-Facilitator

Sean Obell-Facilitator

Anitah Pezz-Social Media Outreach

What Worked Well

✅Early planning, team work and great coordination went a long way in making the campaign activities run seamlessly.

✅We leveraged on existing good relationships with Pwani University and other stakeholders-this gave us a smooth process in the planning and execution of the campaign, ensuring inclusivity of persons Living with Disability (PWD), women and youth.

Challenges

✅The budget was lean and because of this we had to squeeze the training to one day, which was quite hard for us to achieve our targeted campaign objectives. This also influenced the kind of accommodation that was booked for the facilitators.

Recommendations

✅More collaboration with the local and mainstream media so that they can highlight gender issues in the coastal region.

✅ Broaden our outreach to cover other areas of the coastal region including Kwale, Mombasa, Malindi, Diani and the rest of the counties and sub counties.

✅Have a good allocation for accommodation for the facilitators to ensure that they do not strain and that they are comfortable with the spaces they get accommodation during the user group activities.

✅To dispel gender stereotypes, we must actively involve and engage more men in gender conversations.

✅The need to continue using art as a tool to advocate for the change we want to see in our communities.

Campaign Metrics

Wikimedia Project	Number of New contents	Number of content edited or improved	Number of articles Translated	Total Number of Media Engagements
Wikipedia	24	81	24	5 1 Newspaper: People Daily 1 podcast: Media For Nature 1 Radio- Sauti ya Pwani 2 TV stories i.e NTV News & TV 47
Wikimedia Commons	53
Wikidata	29	53
Wikiquotes	42	70