Grants:Project/Rapid/Ebenezer Mlay/Wikimedia Awareness Workshops and Editathons

statusfunded

Rapid Grants

Ebenezer_Mlay/Wikimedia Awareness Workshops and Editathons

A proposal to seek for support in a series of Wikimedia Awareness Workshops and Edithathons in Arusha, Tanzania.

targetWikipedia Kiswahili

start dateNovember 16

end dateDecember 21

budget (local currency)1,800,000

budget (USD)780.738

grant typeIndividual

grantee• Ebenezer Mlay

contact(s)• ebenmlay.tzgmail.com

friendly space expectations

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Review your report

Please see the sample Editathon/Training application before drafting your application.

Project Goal

Choose one or more of the following goals. You can add or delete goals as needed.

1. Recruit new editors
2. Increase skills for existing editors

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

I am doing a series of editathons in Arusha, Tanzania. These editathons are meant to improve the skills of volunteers who recently joined the Wikimedia Movement in one of the Workshop I conducted together with other three experienced editors. The editathons will lead to more experienced volunteers who will help in training the new volunteers.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

My community will know about the events through the WhatsApp group for the Wikimedia Volunteers in Arusha that was formed right after the first Workshop. Also the community will know about the event through different awareness sessions in Obuntu Hub Arusha in which lots of youth are involved.

The WhatsApp Group link is: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LUNsBlasvmGBe1inP7p7yA 3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

There are four experienced Wikimedia Editors including myself that are ready to lead the event. These editors supported the last Wikimedia Workshop in Arusha in which it was a success.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

Not all the volunteers have the equipment needed to participate and contribute and therefore I am planning to get a venue where there are enough computers that these participants will use them. Also not all the volunteers have the skills to contribute high quality content but through trainings these volunteers will be able to grasp the skills.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

The contacts of all the participants in the project will be taken. Through having their contacts it would be easy to have them all in one WhatsApp group in which they will be motivated to edit more and check on the articles that have been edited by others so as they could improve them or learn from them.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

The project is of great importance as the new volunteers recruited during the last Workshop conducted on 5th October were motivated and had the energy to participate more in contributing to the Wikimedia projects. For them to become good contributors that single workshop is not worthy it as they would probably forget some of the things that they learned that day and also there is a lot to learn that was not covered in that single day.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

1. Number of events: 3
2. Number of participants: 20
3. Number of new editors: 20
4. Number of of articles created or improved: 30
5. Number of repeat participants (for projects that include a series of events): 20

I will know if the project is successful after the series of three events. The number of targeted participants per each event is 20. In each event, if the number of the targeted participants has reached that would mean success. In Tanzania, the habit of volunteering is not common to many and therefore I believe that some of the volunteers will come on one event and they wont attend on the other one. To replace the number of these types of volunteers in each event we will invite new volunteers who will meet with the other volunteers who have attended the other events, these volunteers will be helping out the new volunteers with the skills on how to contribute and all this would mean success in a way that there would be new volunteers and repeat participants who would help one another. In each event, we expect each volunteer to contribute to at least a single article, therefore by the end of the project we expect at maximum 30 articles created and improved.

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

I am organizing the project together with other three experienced editors from the Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania. These editors will support all the activities that are going to be conducted in the events. We will receive support from the School of St Jude for the venue to conduct the series of events.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

Tea - 150,000 x 3 events = 450,000 Tanzanian Shillings

 Food - 450,000 x 3 events = 1,350,000 Tanzanian Shillings
 Total - 1,800,000 Tanzanian Shillings

Endorsements

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