Wiki for Human Rights, Nigeria: May Wiki Source Virtual Training and June Wiki Indaba Scholarship Application Training

May began with Wiki for Human Rights, LGBTIQ+, Nigeria, prioritizing its thematic activities, which involved training young queer people to understand Wikimedia projects. We discovered that while we have done a lot on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons, the next step was to move beyond what we have always known. At Wiki for Human Rights Nigeria, we are not only encouraging individuals to become contributors but also helping them understand the Wikimedia ecosystem and the foundation’s work. This entails understanding that Wikimedia’s goal is also to preserve history through well-sourced, copyright-free information. 

The Wikisource training involved introducing participants to what Wikisource is about: a digital archive for freely licensed source texts, historical documents, speeches, and general literature. Wiki for Human Rights, LGBTIQ+, Nigeria had the honour of hosting the program manager for Wikimedia Nigeria, Kaizenify, who briefly outlined how Wikisource operates in hosting texts and content. The training covered how to add texts and sources, understand copyright, create index pages, proofread, apply typography, validate pages, transclude content, and complete the finishing touches.

Through the concerted effort to bring more LGBTIQ+ people into the Wikimedia ecosystem, the training was successful and was designed to help participants understand how they can contribute to, become part of, and benefit from the ecosystem while also making Wikimedia projects better known to the general public.

Within our group, we understand that, beyond contributions, the team also needs to help the members build life competency skills. As a result, we organised a Wiki Indaba scholarship application training for those who expressed interest in applying for the conference to be held later this year in Côte d’Ivoire. We invited the executive director of Wikimedia LGBT+ Global, Bisi Alimi, to facilitate the session titled “Wiki Indaba Scholarship Application Training.”

The training covered the dos and don’ts in scholarship applications, particularly how to draft an application that captures the attention of reviewers. Bisi also walked participants through some of the application questions and discussed effective ways to answer them. He emphasized the importance of original thinking rather than relying on large language model applications to generate responses. When everyone uses LLMs, the outputs often become similarly promotional and overly flowery.

A unique outcome of both sessions was that participants left with practical knowledge that extends beyond Wikimedia and can help navigate other aspects of life. In Nigeria, LGBTIQ+ people face significant discrimination and often lack opportunities to have a seat at the table, where these kinds of conversations take place. Through Wiki for Human Rights, LGBTIQ+, Nigeria, we are working to equip them with Wiki-related skills that they can also apply in their day-to-day work and advocacy.