On the occasion of International Roma Day, Wikimedia Serbia organized the sixth global edit-a-thon, where Wikipedia volunteers around the world wrote and improved articles on Roma people and their history and culture. The goal of this campaign is to fight prejudice and discrimination against Roma people by spreading knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wiki projects. This year Roma Day Edit-a-thon was supported by Wikimedians of the Republic of Srpska, Wikipedians of Serbo-Croatian Language User Group, and Wikipedians of Bosnian Language User Group, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group, Wikimedia Community User Group Greece, Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova, Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey and User Group WikiDonne.
Following the example of previous years, a page was created on Meta with a table containing a list of articles showing whether they exist in the mentioned language edition of Wikipedia or not. This system also allows participants to work on translating articles if sources and literature on a given item do not exist in their language. A lot of time has been invested in inviting Wikimedia affiliates and communities to join and support this event. We were primarily focused on countries and regions that have a significant Roma minority. Fortunately, the response was good, and we organized two Wikipedia editing workshops for them.
The edit-a-thon lasted from the 1st to the 15th of April. Wikipedians on Turkish Wikipedia will have this campaign by the end of April. This year, 56 participants from 8 language versions of Wikipedia wrote 86 and improved 110 articles. Wikipedians on Turkish, Serbian, Romanian, and Macedonian Wikipedia contributed especially significantly to this event. The editors were also encouraged to work on Wikidata as well as on Wikiquote. On Wikidata, 2 new items were improved. On Wikiquote, 58 quotes were added.
The final results can be viewed on Meta-wiki.
Articles about Romani people and their culture are an integral part of the CEE Spring competition, so editors from Central and Eastern Europe who are interested can contribute to this topic and participate in their local competitions until May 31st.
As we close the chapter on this year’s edit-a-thon, we invite you to join us next year. Whether you’re an experienced editor or new to the world of Wikipedia, your contributions can make a big impact. Together, let’s continue to enrich the narrative of the Roma community and ensure their history and culture are represented with the depth and respect they deserve.
We certainly invite you, whenever you have time, to write an article on Wikipedia on the topic of any minority or marginalized group of people to reduce the existing knowledge gap.
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