GLAM/Newsletter/April 2016/Contents/Africa report

This Month in GLAM – Volume VI, Issue IV, April 2016

Africa report

Wiki Loves Women in Africa

Launch of Wiki Loves Women

The Wiki Loves Women Project was officially started in January 2016 and is getting up to speed.

Gender inequality is rife across Africa. The Wiki Loves Women project focuses on bridging two significant gaps on Wikimedia projects – women and Africa – both in terms of content about these subjects and in terms of participation by people from these groups.

In January, the project was launched on the 15th, with a writing contest. A minimum of 15 teams were challenged to write one article each to result in at least 15 articles that highlight notable African women. By the end of the (very successful) contest, 15 English teams (27 participants), 18 French teams (24 participants) and 1 Armenian team (4 participants – this was not planned, but super!) produced 71 new biographical articles in English, 122 new biographical articles in French and 41 new articles in Armenian. The writing contest was followed by a Call for Participation, to decide in which countries the WLW project would run.

In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, the project works in four countries, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana, to encourage the contribution of existing information from Civil Society Organisations and Gender-equality groups to Wikipedia. The donated content will specifically focus on women’s contributions to the political, economic, scientific, cultural and heritage landscape, as well as the current socio-political status of women, in each country. In addition, the project will encourage the activation and support of new and existing editors (both female and gender-sensitised male Wikipedians) in the focus countries.

Some wikimedians involved in the project include

Florence Devouard
Isla Haddow-Flood
Geugeor, from Cameroun
Dominique Eliane Yao and Papischou, from Wikimedia UserGroup Ivory Coast
Rberchie, from Wikimedia UserGroup Ghana
Olaniyan Olushola, from Wikimedia UserGroup Nigeria

And many others volunteers (check out the project pages)

The project is also supported by Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia France and Sydney Poore, in particular to support and mentor the new Wikimedians in Residence.

Next step is a whole team meeting in South Africa mid May...

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