AWA Digitalize Youth Project in Benin and Guinea Final Report by Faisal Ali

The African Wikipedian Alliance (AWA), powered by Code for Africa (CfA) in partnership with global institutions, offered fellowships to empower African Wikipedians-in-Residence which I was fortunate to be part across three key initiatives in partnerships with theNorwegian Embassy of Foreign Affairs,Digital Democracy Initiatives, andDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). These fellowships aimed to close critical content and contributor gaps on Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons.

AWA Digitalise Youth Fellowship in collaboration with EPD, AfricTivistes, KAF, and others, six fellows which I was fortunate to be one amplified youth voices and promote digital rights in Benin and Guinea, which focused on the promotion of peaceful, non- bias, and inclusive societies, along with ensuring access to justice and building effective, accountable institutions. In many regions, however, reliable and openly accessible information on key issues such as e-democracy, freedom of expression, and human rights remains limited. I coordinated this project to address these content gaps on Wikipedia and Wikidata, with a specific focus on Guinea and Benin.

This initiative aimed to strengthen public understanding, support civic engagement, and contribute to a more informed digital ecosystem. Through research, content creation, and community capacity-building, the project enhanced the presence of underrepresented topics, helping ensure that global knowledge platforms better reflect the realities and priorities of these countries.

I ran the project for 6 months from June to November 2025, held more than 20 training sessions with the help of other 4 trainers. We organised the sessions in hybrid mode, and participants either improved and translated and items created a total of 180 articles.

Recruitment and Training Effort

With the support of Bukola James, the African Wikipedian Alliance project coordinator, I had proper onboarding and received guidance on how to coordinate my fellowship in the Guinea and Benin region which witnessed participation from Wikimedians and new participants alike. I recruited them using WhatsApp on the AWA Anglophone Community and other existing Wikimedia communication channels.

Additionally, I employed the voluntary services of 4 experienced Wikimedians with language and fact-checking backgrounds. These Wikimedians include Jesse Akrofi-Asiedu, Emmanuel Assilidjoe, Abdulai Abdul-Rashid, and Emmanuel Gyan all from Ghana.

The trainers together with me completed the campaign deliverables on training which included a virtual launch, more than 20 online and in-person training sessions on editing Wikipedia and Wikidata, and office hours for new participants for 6 months from June to  November 2025.

Milestones Achieved

My experience as a Wikimedian-in-Residence of this fellowship was a great one with the following milestones achieved:

1. Creation of a project documentation on the AWA Digitalise Youth Project meta page: I created the metapage that provided participants with detailed information about the campaign which included event description, deliverables timelines, and resources and suggested articles.
2. Recruitment of Trainers: I recruited 2 Wikipedian language editors, 1 Wikidata editor, and 1 fact-checker who led 4 training sessions.
3. Community Building: I created a WhatsApp platform for participants to connect and cultivate a sense of community engagement. Through collaborative editing, shared learning experiences, and mutual support, new and existing participants enhanced community relationships and forged networks that would extend beyond the event, paving the way for future collaborations and ongoing community engagement among members.
4. Capacity Building: I trained 120 participants on how to edit on Wikipedia and Wikidata to increase visibility of the identified topics in line with the platforms’ core content policies and notability guidelines. I invited participants to participate in the virtual launch, and also hosted online and in-person training sessions and office hour sessions for them.
5. Article and Item Creation and Improvement: The project I undertook recorded 42.4K total edits, 52 editors, 17.4M words added, 3.35K references added, 67.6M article views, 6.97K articles edited, 1.19K articles created, and 1057 Commons uploads as recorded in the dashboard statistics. Additionally, participants created 115 new Wikidata items, which can be viewed on the report table on the project meta page.
6. Stipend for Fellows and Data reimbursement for Contributors/Participants: With the support from the funders, I was provided with a stipend of 500$ throughout the 6-months period. I shared data reimbursements to active editors and participants who joined online sessions.

Strategies for Achieving Outcomes

To ensure maximum participation and engagement during the Digitalize Youth Project, I implemented the following strategies:

1. Clear guidance: I made available a list of suggested articles and items to the participants via the event metapage, for easy identification of articles and items they could work on. Additionally, I hosted a series of online training sessions and office hours to provide guidance and support for the participants throughout the project with the help of the trainers. I uploaded the recordings of each training session in English on the event page for participants to easily access and refer to.
2. Publicity: I promoted the event using the event invitation system and e-posters on various Wikimedia communities communication channels such as WhatsApp, recommendations from other Wikimedians to create awareness and attract a larger number of participants. I wrote monthly diffs to highlight what happened during the month throughout the project.
3. Communication: I together with other fellows shared bi-weekly updates about the project with Bukola James, the project coordinator throughout the fellowship. This regular communication kept the coordinator informed and the fellows motivated throughout the project phase.
4. Personalised support: I followed up with participants individually who needed extra support to provide them with one-on-one support and assistance to create or translate articles to their local languages, and contribute to the campaign. This personalised support helped participants overcome any technical or logistical hurdles they might have encountered.

Areas for Improvement

Though the project I undertook made significant progress in creating new Wikidata items and translating articles to various African languages.  I also faced difficulty getting participants from the focus countries which were Benin and Guinea, however, I recruited editors from Ghana who helped implement the project. While this resulted in the creation of higher-quality Wikidata items for the project, it did not meet the project’s target of recruiting new editors from Guinea and Benin.

Conclusion

The AWA Digitalise Youth Project spearheaded by the African Wikipedian Alliance (AWA) and Code for Africa (CfA) in partnership with Digital Democracy Initiatives, EPD, AfricTivistes, KAF made remarkable strides in amplifying the voices of youth voices and promote digital rights in Guinea and Benin, focusing on cybersecurity, freedom of expression, and online civic engagement on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Through a concerted effort to address content and contributor gaps, I was able to successfully create and improve a substantial number of items, bringing greater visibility to organizations, NGOs, digital hubs, human rights defenders etc to these countries.

Despite these successes, including high-quality contributions from experienced editors, I would like to highlight areas for improvement in my fellowship. The predominance of experienced editors underscored the need for a more balanced approach to recruitment, with a stronger focus on engaging new editors especially from Guinea and Benin.

The AWA Digitalise Youth Project I undertook improved and added content on Wikipedia and Wikidata while fostering a sense of community and collaboration among participants. The statistics on contributions recorded, reflect the impact of this initiative and highlight the importance of continuous learning and mutual support. The lessons I learnt and relationships I built during this campaign will serve as a foundation for ongoing efforts to close the content gap and ensure that the stories of organizations, NGOs, digital hubs, human rights defenders etc in Guinea and Benin are told with the depth and accuracy they deserve.