WikiForHumanRights 2024 in Cameroon: Contributing to science with five wikimedian projects, a success!

Knowledge for a sustainable future is the main conductor of the WikiForHumanRights 2024 campaign. In Cameroon, we have based our approach on pollution and biodiversity. In the following lines we share with you the enlightening points of this edition.

Collaborate: joining of forces for a better functioning of activities

The objective been important (sensitize, train and contribute on at least five wikimedian projects). One of the strategies was to collaborate with entities permitting the good advancement of the campaign. One of them is WAFTAI. This has as merit to have directed for the first time in Cameroon an edition of Wiki For Human Rights; it was as such the preceding edition organsitor. Its experience permitted us to work efficiently. WAFTAI accompaign during the whole development of the project. It also ensured communication activities, in addition to that, it ensured a significant feminine participation by involving its members from two cities Dschang and Maroua. Through it, we had the participation of AJEDD and CEPDEL; organizations based on environmental questions. They brought experts who intervened during the beginning conference. Some members of these associations joined us in the campaign as editors. Contacting the specialists of environmental questions permitted us to have what we call “les meneurs”. Also the feminine presence, mission of WAFTAI, is an answer to the problem of the improvement of women participation (active contributors) to the wikimedian projects.

Increase the contributions for a better impact

WikiForHumanRights 2024 has been an enlargement of 2023 with some changes.

On the theme aspect

It was not only question of staying on the pollution issue, we associated biodiversity to enables editors to increase their content production. A good part was based on scientific knowledge. Many scientific articles and outcomings linked with pollution and biodiversity issues in Cameroon were referenced on Wikidata.

On wikimedian projects aspect

In 2023, of fact the new activities of the members of WAFTAI which became contributors, the project visualized five projects initially (Wiktionary, Wikidata, Commons, Wikipedia and Wikiquote). Wikiquote was not mentioned due to the stress reduction of the contributors issues.
This year, the challenge was to make 5 projects out if life experience, due to Wikiquote default, WikiVoyage was introduced following the needs of the international coordination of the campaign. It was now question of working on Wikidata, Commons, Wikipedia, Wiktionary and WikiVoyage.

On contributors aspect

Our objective was to keep our preceding year contributors and recruit new ones. The choice was then to maintain the same number of active editors, view to increase lightly.
The new WMF event registration tool (event: registration) was our participants counting tool. We have known a good amelioration in terms of registered participants than in terms of active contributors. It is then, viewing the fidelity and recruiting objectives, a link of ancient-new contributors; this brought an evolution in the acquisition of the transferred wikimedian competences.
The countdown of their contributions would be done via the dashboard.

Make attractive activities

WikiForHumanRights is certainly a wikimedian project but needs to be attractive to enable the participants to find themselves. For that, we have introduced activities out of wiki like a guided tour and an international conference. The wiki activities were photowalks and editathons.

Guided Tour at the Ngui compostage site

Occurred on the 5th of June prelude for the beginning of the WikiForHumanRights 2024 in Cameroon coupled to the International Environmental day celebration, this activity had as objective to educate the participants on the transformation of plastic dirts. From the site tour, it was noticed that household dirts are the most focused on because they contain more substances than those of markets, words of one of the production service workers.

Big international conference based on the theme: “working for a better biodiversity saving“

The conference had for objective sensitizing on the importance of the preservation of the biodiversity. The issues touched that day are:

“Impact of biodiversity on soil production” presented by Ms. Dountio Saha Ursula Doriane, specialist in waste management, insisted on the impact of plastic pollution. According to the panelist, the earth is composed of worms which serve as food, the toxic substances destroy these worms and this damages soil fertility.

After her, the president of CEPDEL, Dr Feugue Kenfack Josiane taught the participants on “Reafforestation as a palliative means to environmental problems“. From these sayings it shows that trees are a means of protection. Planting of trees is ensuring a sustainable development.

In last analysis, Dr Nguefack Ulrich Rolind, president of AJEDD taught on: “Saving the biodiversity by education, Wikipedia and brothers projects, educative canals“. Here, he put an accent firstly on what is biodiversity and secondly on the objectives of the Wikimedia Foundation. We retain here that wikimedian projects are the basis of free knowledge. Through these projects we have access to multiple information in different domain notably the environment and precisely biodiversity.

Editathons and photowalks

Majority of the editors were new contributors that is 75% of the total number of participants. Editathons were done all Fridays from 1pm to 7pm at Maroua and from 9am to 4pm at Dschang. It is constituted of training and contributions. These editathons were carried on how to  contribute on Wikidata, Wiktionary, Commons wikimedia, Wikipedia and WikiVoyage.
On Wikidata, the contributions were essentially carried on the referencing of the scientific opening which are based on pollution and biodiversity in Cameroon.
On Wiktionary, the names of animals, plants of the environment in Yemba, fulfulde and bassa languages were introduced in the Wiktionary.
Commons wikimedia was centered on the propagation of images which threat biodiversity and pollution in Cameroon.
On Wikipedia, we were focused on modifications due to the new experience of most of the editors.
Finally, WikiVoyage was carried on the addition of environmental information on different pages.

Photo walks were of two orders: collective and individual.
The collective photo walk was done in Maroua in localities like Doualare, Bamare, Marché abattoir… It was question of capturing images describing pollution of wastes and the destruction and protection of biodiversity.
At Dschang, the editors visited waterfalls, the objective here was to capture the floristic species found there.
Aside of those collective photowalks, editors individually moved around the town to bring out the attractive points of the theme.

WikiForHumanRights 2024 in Cameroon and its challenges

In the popular imagery, the environmental problems don’t have a high impact in Africa, it is not then important for a great part of the population to be interested on the problem. Bring participants to understand the impact caused by the ignorance of populations was our first challenge. Certainly, it is a fight engaged since 2023 but the revision of objectives forced us to re-sensitize  given that we had new participants. Sensitization has been a conductor in physical work sessions and even through communication canals. In addition to the sensitization on biodiversity saving, the second challenge was to realize an average of 1000 contributions per project, that is 5000 for the 5 wikimedian projects. The introduction of rewards was a good means of motivation. Every editor was motivated to be the best contributor to have the first prize, that is a computer and a modem. This permitted to overpass the metric objective which was greater than 14000 contributions realized in all the projects as whole.

Science at the heart of free knowledge

This year, honor has been made to science through contributions from Cameroon scientific and university articles on Wikidata. The attention was made by the jury report who precise that “the maximum of projects was produced on the Wikidata project with more than 2000 contributions per person for the laureats“. Talking about prizes, 3 best contributors that is 2 women and one man received prizes and certifications to help them ameliorate their contributions after WikiForHumanRights 2024. A special prize was given by WAFTAI to the best woman engagement.

A travel through many experiences

WikiForHumanRights 2024 in Cameroon, more than a campaign has been a good travel through which knowledge about pollution and biodiversity in Cameroon was efficiently shared. We won’t conclude this communication without thanking all those who rendered this travel unforgettable. We than the internal coordinators Euphemia Uwandu, Alex Stinson, Ruby Brown D., Valentin Nasibu. Thanks WAFTAI group for your dynamism and availability, to our trainers René Bilé  and Eugène E., to the members of jury Emanuel G. Kakou from Ivory Coast and Franc Akouete from Togo, equally thanks to AJEDD, CEPDEL, to the Musée des civilisations de Dschang, to Campus France, to all the participants and finally to the editors who made no efforts to produce quality contributions.

See also

You will be able to relive the progress of WikiForHumanRights 2024 in Cameroon on X (ex-Twitter), events on commons and the pictures of the contributors who participated in the competition and retracing the reality of pollution and biodiversity in Cameroon.