Reflections from the Third Month of the AWA Fellowship through Learnings, Contributing, and Connecting

The third month of the fellowship has been marked by growth, collaboration, and tangible impact. For the month of August, the African Wikipedian Alliance (AWA) Digitise Youth Project has been both inspiring and action-driven in my journey as a Fellow. This phase centered on deeper engagement, stronger collaboration, and meaningful progress toward our shared goal of advancing open knowledge in Ethiopia and Senegal through Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Capacity-Building Sessions

We hosted two interactive training sessions to further strengthen participant’s knowledge and skills.

Day 1 of the training was filled with how to expand Wikipedia Articles and make sure the citations used are reliable, and notable. We further expanded a total of 7 wikipedia articles during this month’s training session and 2 new Wikipedia articles from scratch. We also further did training on how to successfully run a petScan Query to further explain to them how some topics were generated and how to know they need more expansion. The participants were glad to learn something new. 

Day 2 was focused on editing wikidata Items and how to successfully update an item and how to address warning banners on statements on wikidata items. We also went further to do a practical session on how to merge two wikidata items. 

On 14th August, we hosted an Office Hour, where participants were given the chance  to ask questions, share updates, and get clarity on any challenges they experienced during their contributions.  It was a productive session that helped strengthen community bonding and resolve questions  .

This month, our collective efforts led to the creation and improvement of significant content across Wikimedia projects:

This month’s outcomes reflect the hard work and commitment of our participants:

• 33 contents were worked on.
  
• 2 new Wikipedia articles were created, and 7 articles were updated.
  
• On Wikidata, 14 new items were created, and 10 items were updated.
  

Some outstanding articles created in the month of August are :
UN Women Ethiopia
Action for the Needy in Ethiopia (ANE)
Organization for Social Services, Health & Development (OSSHD)

All the detailed contributions can be accessed through the report page on the Metapage here. 

As we move into the next phase of the fellowship, the focus will continue to be on sustaining participants’ momentum, and also getting new participants to be mentored and contribute towards  building stronger skills, and increasing contributions to bridge existing knowledge gaps.

Reflections and Next Steps

This journey is not just about ticking boxes or completing tasks, it’s about the effect of updated knowledge, freedom of expression, and digital empowerment across Africa especially in Ethiopia and Senegal.
As we move forward, I am excited to dive deeper into more training, more collaborative sessions with other Experienced Editors, support the fellows in any capacity they may need, and continue building vibrant digital participants in my community.
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 “Together, we are not just digitising, we are transforming the African narratives”