Announcing Selected Communities for the 2025–2026 LDH Mentorship Program

The Language Diversity Hub (LDH) is delighted to announce the selected communities for the 2025 – 2026 LDH Mentorship Program, a 12-month initiative designed to support emerging and recently launched Wikimedia language projects. This year’s cohort represents dedicated communities working to preserve, document, and grow their languages on Wikimedia platforms, each at varying but promising stages of development. After a competitive call for applications, the following communities have been selected:

Selected Communities and Project Status

Rinconada Bicol Wiktionary (bto): The Rinconada Bicol Wiktionary community, based in the Philippines (Asia), is a Wikimedia Incubator project working to rebuild momentum after a period of inactivity. 

Wikipédia Baoulé (wp/bci): The Wikipédia Baoulé is a Wikipedia project based in Ivory Coast (Africa). After 8 months of intensive work, the community has successfully created and translated over 360 articles in the Wikipédia Baoulé incubator.

Wikiamachti (náhuat – PPL): The Nawat Wikipedia is contributed to by volunteers from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica (Latin America). With over 700 articles created, the community hopes to empower volunteers through the mentorship program. 

Yucatec Maya Wikipedia (Wp/yua): The Yucatec Maya Wikipedia incubator is supported by volunteers from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica (Latin America). The project currently has 1,230 articles created, and the community has completed translating the most used messages on translatewiki.net.

Mandinka Wikipedia (Wp/mnk): A project contributed by volunteers from Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau (Africa). The community is building the foundations of a full Wikipedia in Mandinka, developing editing skills, and establishing a small but growing group of contributors.

Abron/Bono Wikipedia (Wp/abr): The Bono Wikimedians Community from Ghana (Africa) was established a year ago, with low and slow contributions due to complaints from community members regarding the need for a data bundle to facilitate editing and contributing more. We have over 300 articles so far and more words and sentences translated to Bono in TranslateWiki, and counting.

Wikimedia Kinyarwanda Community Hub (Wikipedia Kinyarwanda): A Wikimedia language community in Rwanda (Africa). Their main focus is to build a sustainable community, increasing free content in Kinyarwanda on open Wikimedia projects in Rwanda.

Songhay (Koyraboro Senni -ses-): The Sonhay Wikimedia community from Nigeria (Africa) has an online Wikiversity for Songhay speakers literate in French and plans to expand the course and duplicate it for English. Their Wikipedia incubator project grew from 15 articles in late July 2025 to 90 in mid-October. They expect the tally to exceed 100 articles by the end of the year 2025.

Runyankore Wikipedia (Wp/nyn): Since the inception of the Nyankole Wikipedia Incubator Project in Uganda (Africa), there has been consistent growth in content creation and community participation. Over 654 pages have been created in the incubator, with 54 active editors contributing to the Runyankore Wikipedia and 4076 edits made to improve content quality and expand coverage. 

Fulfulde Wikimedian Community User Group (Fulfulde Wikipedia): The Fulfulde Wikimedia community is primarily based in Nigeria; the language is widely spoken in Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sudan and Ghana (Africa). The community is still in the early stages of its Wikimedia journey. Our focus has been on building awareness, recruiting and training new editors, and creating content that reflects the Fulfulde language, people, and culture in Nigeria. 

Fante Wikimedians Community (Fante Wikipedia):  The Fante Wikimedians Community in Ghana (Africa) is still in the early stages of its Wikimedia journey. Their focus has been on building awareness, recruiting new editors, and providing training on how to contribute effectively to Fante Wikipedia and related projects. They are working to strengthen retention by engaging existing members, collaborating with academic institutions, and organizing workshops.

Nupe Wikimedia community (Nupe Wikipedia): The Nupe Wikipedia from Nigeria (Africa) recently graduated from the incubator (within the last 24 months). They are interested in increasing the volunteer base and partnerships. 

Tibetan Wikipedia community: Tibetan Wikipedia (Asia) has its local domain; the community has also applied for a separate domain for Wikisource. There are lots of data to upload and share and translate to Tibetan. 

Why These Communities Were Selected

The chosen communities demonstrated strong commitment to advancing their Wikimedia projects, coupled with clear strategies for sustainability and growth. Selection was based on:

• Applicants showed active participation in building content, organizing local contributors, and strengthening governance structures essential for long-term project health.
• Each selected community articulated well-defined goals for the coming year, ranging from expanding content, improving technical skills, and strengthening contributor networks to establishing administrative practices.
• Communities demonstrated readiness to learn, teach, and participate in cross-community collaboration, an essential pillar for shared learning within the LDH ecosystem.
• Whether still in the incubator or recently graduated, the selected communities displayed strong momentum and the potential to transition into or continue building a vibrant, self-sustaining Wikimedia project.

What the Mentorship Program Offers

From October 2025 to September 2026, participating communities will receive:

• Personalized mentorship tailored to each community’s specific needs
  
• Technical support for project infrastructure, workflows, and content development
  
• Peer-learning opportunities connecting communities across regions, languages, and project stages
  

The LDH Mentorship Program aims to empower communities to build resilient language projects, strengthen local leadership, and contribute to a more inclusive Wikimedia ecosystem.

We congratulate all selected communities and look forward to working closely with them throughout the program year.