How did the Marathon WikiClub Côte d’Ivoire 2025 turn me into a mentor ?

I’m a French-speaking Wikimedian from Côte d’Ivoire, I love contributing to and participating in the Wikimedia community’s activities.

Context

The WikiClub Côte d’Ivoire Marathon or Wikimedia Club Contribution Day is an initiative that aims to unite WikiClub members around a topic, on one of the remote Wikimedia projects. The first edition of this Marathon took place on 20 April 2024 and focused on improving the quality of Wikipedia articles. The second WikiClub Marathon was held on 26th April 2025, remotely via zoom. For this second edition, the theme is to update the demographic data of more than 400 Ivorian localities on Wikidata.

My mentoring during the WikiClub 2025 Marathon

To ensure the success of the Contribution Day, six groups were formed, each with a Mentor. So I had the onerous task of being the Mentor for Group 2. Like my peers, I mentored five volunteer contributors. My experience of mentoring new contributors on Wikipedia has enabled me to assist the participants in my group. In order to enable each contributor to fully express his or her difficulties, I have sometimes resorted to personalised coaching. Overall, all participants were able to contribute. Despite the fact that some participants were new to Wikidata. This contribution day also enabled me to update the demographic data for six localities in Côte d’Ivoire.

1. Utilisateur:Anneprudence
2. Utilisateur:Ruth Emmanuella
3. Utilisateur:KouadioK57
4. Utilisateur:GNABROU
5. Utilisateur:Samigolden07

Acquired

The WikiClub 2025 Marathon enabled me to develop of mentoring skills: active listening to others to understand their concerns, and patience because some people find it hard to understand things. The fact that I went from being a participant in the first year to a mentor for a group of contributors in the second year, is for me a sign of progression in the movement.

Acknowledgements

I would like to reiterate my thanks to the organising committee, and in particular to Paul Bouaffou, for involving me in this day of contributions. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants for their commitment. I would like to express my gratitude to the various mentors for their patience and willingness to listen. I can’t finish without thanking Wikimedia Côte d’Ivoire for its constant support.

See you at the Marathon WikiClub 2026