Behind the screen in LATAM is part of a wider series celebrating tireless Wikimedians who make free knowledge possible. It brings âto the screenâ stories from LATAM so that we can know, honor, and learn from the people that work for a free ecosystem. The series aims to forward the Wikimedia Foundationâs Annual Plan for 2022-23 and the movementâs strategic goal of Knowledge Equity. The annual plan talks about Advancing Knowledge Equity through a Stronger Regional Focus and this series celebrates regional impact in particular.
While thereâs no shortage of amazing narratives to share from the region, the one track we want to highlight in LATAM is the work of the Education programs and how it connects to our other Gender-focused projects. A majority of communities in LATAM work to identify topics for Impact to engage newcomers to Wikimedia projects, and this in turn becomes the main reason that brings in contributors to the Wikimedia ecosystem in all of its projects.
In this video we’ll see the stories of three powerful Latin American women, coming from Mexico, Argentina, and Peru; their individual contributions make our movement more meaningful and impactful in the region.
“There’s capacity building [and] leadership building on Wikimedians [who]take part in our programs, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in particular, because we’re escalating it to be a trainer’s training. Through this program we don’t take the syllabus to the teachers [but] instead, we work alongside leaders, Wikimedian leaders in education. [Weâre] working together with a group of leaders.â
Melissa Guadalupe Huertas- Senior Program Officer, Community Programs, WMF
âWhen we edit Wikipedia we’re taking knowledge beyond the classroom, we get feedback from fellow editors; we areâin a wayâfreeing up knowledge for people, weâre helping it reach more people so that they can use it. This is something that I carry with me ever since and that’s how I started editing Wikipediaâ.
Noted by Marifer Veloz, a participant in Wiki-CientĂficas Mexicanas and a volunteer at Wikimedia MĂ©xico
âI’m particularly interested in recording Gender Equality events in my own city, and creating an image bank that shows the true diversity and full breadth of [the] expressions of this struggle, a faithful record. We want to show how we live through our marches, our memorials, our walk-outs, how this happens here. And even if similar struggles exist around the world, and there’s common elements to us all, every place has its own history, ways, traditions, colors, movements, sounds… all of these single out the local strugglesâ
Paula Kindsvater a volunteer at Wikimedia Argentina
Hearing directly from these powerful voices gives real and relevant insight that can help bring a spotlight to the work that continues to impact lives in Latam – watch the full video below!
Translations Available in Spanish
Can you help us translate this article?
In order for this article to reach as many people as possible we would like your help. Can you translate this article to get the message out?
Start translation