On May 9, 2025, the Africa Wiki Women (AWW) community held a vibrant and impactful Wikidata training session to enrich its International Women’s Day (IWD) campaign themed “Accelerating Action for Gender Equality.” This session was part of a broader ongoing project dedicated to improving the visibility of African women in journalism and politics across Wikimedia platforms.
Following two successful Wikipedia editing training sessions that covered minor and major edits facilitated by the Wikipedia expert, Muib Shefiu, this Wikidata session provided participants with hands-on experience in structuring and representing open data. The event was moderated by Airat Abdul Rahmon, a broadcast journalist, social advocate, and AWW fellow, and facilitated by Blessing Timothy Ojewuyi, a skilled Wikidata trainer and fellow of the AWW initiative.
To set an engaging tone, the session began with an interactive icebreaker using Mentimeter, where participants responded to fun prompts that fostered a relaxed learning environment.
Training Highlights
Blessing Ojewuyi then introduced the session with a presentation that delved into the core components of Wikidata, explaining how data is structured and how contributors can create accounts, add labels, items, descriptions, statements, and references using both Wikipedia and external sources.
A significant highlight of the training was the demonstration of tools that enhance data input on Wikidata. Participants learned how to enable the Recoin tool, which suggests improvements to entries, and Babel, a translation feature that broadens the accessibility of content across languages.
The Q&A segment offered a deeper dive into practical challenges and solutions around data entry and content enrichment. Participants left with greater confidence and clarity about contributing to open knowledge, and were encouraged to remain active in the campaign by exploring additional resources on the Meta campaign page.
Call To Action
In a closing remark, Amarachi Okoro, the campaign coordinator, who is also an AWW ambassador, announced the next training session focused on Wikimedia Commons, scheduled for Friday, May 16. She urged participants to stay engaged for a well-rounded contribution to the campaign.
The session wrapped up with a symbolic group photo and a collective call to action to keep contributing, keep learning, and keep amplifying the voices of African women through open, reliable data.
Watch the event on our YouTube channel, and stay connected with us on social media via:
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