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Women for Sustainability Africa participated in this year’s WikiForHumanRights campaign, collaborating with the University of Ghana’s Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies. The goal was to address the lack of information about climate change topics related to Ghana and Africa on the web through Wikipedia and its sister projects. One of the reasons we found this collaboration intriguing was because the students at the department are passionate about climate change and are already taking various courses on the topic. As young people are ardent about this area, we found the need to build their capacity on new ways they can address climate change and that was through Wikipedia; empowering them to contribute to knowledge for a sustainable Future.
We also collaborated with Climate and Development Knowledge Network CDKN Ghana, who led a session and supported us with a wealth of resources from the CDKN Knowledge repository on Ghana Regional Climate Change risk inventory to use in our Wikipedia documentation efforts.
We also collaborated with experienced Wikimedia groups in Ghana thus the Tamale and Wale Wale Wiki Hub who coordinated the campaign activities in the northern part of Ghana as well as an experienced Wikimedia Photographer – Francis Quasie whose key role had to do with curating photography and videography related content to Wikimedia Commons.
How it started
We connected with Dr. Agyeman Boafo, a lecturer at the University of Ghana’s C3SS Department, during the Plant and Green Entrepreneur Exhibition fair at the center. During our discussion, the topic of Wikipedia came up as he had seen us showcase a wikimedia event on our social media handles. We then scheduled a partnership meeting to discuss further and explore potential collaborations between Women for Sustainability Africa and the department. Among all the topics discussed, Wikipedia stood out as an area Dr. Boafo was particularly enthused about. As a department, their interest areas was how they can address climate change topics on wikimedia with their students. We identified the WikiForHumanRights campaign as an ideal initiative to join, especially since this year’s theme, #KnowledgeForSustainableFuture, aligns perfectly with our collective goals.
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First Info session
In preparation for the WikiForHumanRights campaign, we hosted our first information session for students at the department. Nearly 40 attendees, including post-graduate students and lecturers, participated in this interactive and engaging session, with many asking questions. During the session, over 30 students successfully created their Wikipedia accounts. To facilitate further engagement and preparation for the upcoming two-day workshop, we also enrolled students in the department’s dedicated Wikipedia WhatsApp group.
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Workshop Launch
As we launched the two-day workshop, we created an event registration page with resources to support students. The workshop was open to students from the department as well as Geography students taking climate change courses at the department. A total of 157 people registered for the workshop indicating the high interest of participation in the campaign. Of these, 80% stated that they had never contributed to a Wikimedia project, and about 90% mentioned that they did not belong to any Wikimedia affiliate. Regarding gender, 44% identified as women and 49% as men. Most participants (66.2%) were under 25 years old, while 24.2% were between 25 and 44 years old. In terms of profession, 63.7% identified as students, 6.4% as educators, and 7% as researchers. Prior to the workshop, participants were enrolled on the Wikipedia WhatsApp group for further engagement and support.
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Day 1
The first day of the workshop was attended by 50 participants,including a few external guests and lecturers. The session introduced students to the fundamentals of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. They practiced basic editing, starting with their user accounts. Five experienced Wikipedians led and supported the session, contributing to various sections. The session was highly interactive, with participants asking numerous questions and actively contributing to the discussions.
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Day 2
On day two, the workshop focused on advanced editing techniques. Dr. Prince Ansah from CDKN joined as a resource person, engaging students in insightful exercises and emphasizing the role of Wikipedia in bridging the knowledge gap between expert research and public information. The CDKN repository was shared with students, allowing them to identify and document climate change incidents in Ghana that were missing on Wikipedia. Additionally, we were honored to have the founder of Global Climate Change Resolution present on heat waves, highlighting incidents we could document.
- Participants then engaged in a three-hour edit-a-thon, working collaboratively in groups based on various thematic areas:
- Climate Change and Health
- Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
- Water and Sanitation
- Heatwaves
- Regional Impact of Climate Change
Participants were asked to choose one or two articles to work on and to identify the knowledge gaps in the articles they selected. Many of the articles were missing significant information, which the students were eager to update. Participants felt fulfilled as they were able to make substantial improvements to existing Wikipedia articles. Most of the articles they contributed to already existed.
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Who are we?
Women for sustainability Africa is a non-profit organization dedicated towards women empowerment and environmental sustainability. We achieve this through capacity building and advocacy. Over the past years we have trained 1000+ women and girls though our digital skills and advocacy programs. We have organized several wikimedia activities around women/gender and sustianbility this includes; Wikiforhumanrights campaign, Arts+Feminism, Wiki Women in Red, Mentor, Wikipedia Train the Trainers projects Follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok. Youtube. This initiative was birth by CoachAni a wikipedia passionate about women empowerment and sustainability.
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Our esteemed team and trainers and partners played a crucial role in the success of the event:
- Anita Ofori: The main coordinator and lead for the campaign, whose leadership and organizational skills were instrumental in facilitating partnerships, coordinating the entire event and coordinating training.
- Dr. Yaw Agyeman– Lead partnership
- Ruby D-Brown: Led the session on the introduction to Wikipedia, providing participants with a solid foundation and also facilitating the edit-a-thon session.
- Jwale: Guided participants through the practical aspects of editing Wikipedia, ensuring they gained hands-on experience.
- Queen Murjanatu: Introduced participants to Wikimedia Commons, helping them understand the importance and process of uploading images.
- Phimilon: Provided unwavering support to participants throughout the training sessions.
- Kojo Owusu 2020: Supported in coordinating logistics and communication for the event as well as supported participants throughout the training.
- Prince Ansah– From CDKN Ghana
- Nii Djan– Global Climate Change Resolution
- Barrister– Student Cordinator
- Naana Afia– Student Cordinator
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We are incredibly proud of the enthusiasm and commitment shown by all participants and trainers. Stay tuned for part 2 of this article!In part two of this article, we will highlight the outcome and impact of the campaign.
#wikiforhumanrights #Knowledgeforasustainablefuture
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