Education/Newsletter/December 2015/Wikipedia Education Program participants commemorated the creation/discovery of the Armenian alphabet in Beirut
Snippet: On Friday October the 23rd, Yeghishe Manoukian College, the high school section, commemorated the feast of the Holy Translators the creation/discovery of the Armenian alphabet, organized by the school’s WikiClub.
In 2014, Wikimedia Armenia started the "Western Armenian program" in order to introduce Western Armenian as a language on Wikipedia. The objective of the collaboration is to establish and develop an online community, in order to improve the quality and accessibility of a Western Armenian Wikipedia.
Part of the project was to organize a summer camp that would offer an open space for high school students to write articles and increase the presence of Western Armenian on Wikipedia. After the WikiCamp (see Lebanon Camp video), a number of wiki communities were formed in different Armenian schools of Lebanon including Yeghishe Manoukian College.
On Friday October the 23rd, Yeghishe Manoukian College, the high school section, commemorated the feast of the Holy Translators the creation/discovery of the Armenian alphabet, organized by the school’s WikiClub.
The opening speech was presented by Shahen Araboghlian, a previous WikiCamp participant, wiki editor, who emphasized on the importance of having the discovery of our alphabet, our dearest translators throughout history and their outstanding roles in our language. At the end of his speech, he noted how the Armenian wiki movement, the editing in our native language and the typing in Armenian is helping the language develop in our minds, adding a pinch of information, article by article, for the better of our future. “Our contributions in Wikipedia plays a huge role in the alphabet’s protectionist policies, saving it from language extinction endangerment.”
A small video clip was projected by the Club’s own Aram Trtrian, in which also club members Narod Najarian and Vana Hajimanoukian directed Armenian alphabet discovery questions to random students on regular school days indirectly teaching the audience of it furthermore.
The event was wrapped up by school principle Zohrab Ghazarian, who saw the Armenian school as the defending wall of the language, without which the language would crumble. He duly noted the atmosphere at an Armenian high school gives the student the chance to discover the language, culture, history and other national traits from a nearer and a broader perspective. He also reminded everyone how the WikiClub plays an important role in the development of language digitization.
Read more about the Wikipedia Education Program in Armenia here.