Learn about Election Volunteers – DaSupremo

With the upcoming Board of Trustees Election 2022, Movement Strategy and Governance Team’s facilitators talked to several Election Volunteers from different communities to hear about their experiences and motivation to join the Election Volunteer program.

This blog is a result of collaborative writing between the MSG facilitators and EV program volunteers.

Please tell us about yourself.

I am Faisal Ali from Accra, Ghana. I am User:DaSupremo on the Wikimedia Movement. I created my Wikipedia account in 2014 when I was a student of Kwadaso College of Agriculture. I began an active volunteer in 2014. Currently, I supply optical frames to eye hospitals and clinics. I contribute to English Wikipedia and also translate articles to Hausa during my leisure time. I am a member of Open Foundation West Africa, Wikimedia Ghana User Group, Global Open Initiative Foundation and the Hausa Wikimedians User Group to mention a few.

I also edit on Wikidata and also on Wikicommons. I also do translations on Meta from English to Hausa and also share the information to the Hausa community.

What motivated you to join the EV program? 

I first joined the Election Volunteers program in 2021 when I saw a message on the Wikimedia General chat page on Telegram. The message was from Mahuton concerning translating of statements made by candidates of MCDC to other languages. I applied to translate from English to Hausa. Even though only statements were needed to be translated, I translated all information on the page. I translated information of 72 candidates. I was motivated to join so that I can help project the Hausa language on the web so that others who can read the language get to know what is happening in the Wikimedia Movement. In so doing, promote the aim of the movement to make knowledge easy and accessible to all.

What are some challenges and successes that you would like to share?

As a volunteer of the program, I have translated and shared monthly tasks to the Hausa Community on our WhatsApp page. Challenges I am facing now is the breakdown of my PC which has limited my contributions even though I use my phone to edit now. Another challenge is the high cost of data for internet connectivity. I also try to learn and collaborate with other volunteers.

Looking ahead: What are your expectations for the upcoming 2022 BoT Elections? What would you like to do, and how would you like to be involved?

My expectations for the 2022 BoT Elections should be diversified to include candidates from all parts of the world. Experienced members who know much about the Movement should also be involved. As a volunteer, I would like to share information to members closer to me so that they also take part in the voting process. I would also like to translate to Hausa.