Supporting Ghanaian language communities continues to be an important part of the Wikimedia Ghana User Group’s mission to empower and educate Ghanaians to create and improve content about Ghana on Wikipedia.
This year’s activities included a workshop dedicated to creating articles for the Ga Wikipedia in Incubator, as well as support for the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikimedians Community under our Shared Community Resources Program to organize editathons for the Africa Wiki Challenge 2026.
Building on the momentum, we turned our attention to another essential aspect of language inclusion –– software interface localization.
On 11 July 2026, Wikimedia Ghana User Group hosted a hands-on localization workshop to translate interface messages of the Suggestion Mode feature under Edit Check for the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikipedia through Translatewiki.net.
Both new and experienced contributors were introduced to the translation workflow, learned how to create translations on the translatewiki and explored best practices for producing clear, consistent, and high-quality translations.
Why We Chose Suggestion Mode
Suggestion Mode gives edit suggestions within the VisualEditor for improving Wikipedia articles, providing useful tasks that editors can perform to improve Wikipedia articles. It helps newcomers discover meaningful edits to make while reducing the time experienced editors spend identifying opportunities for improvement.
Wikimedia Ghana User Group community loves the new feature. Editathon and workshop facilitators speak of how useful it is for helping editors find tasks. Editors have similar sentiments about it.
Throughout the session, participants naturally divided responsibilities. While some volunteers translated interface messages, others reviewed completed translations, suggested alternative wording, and discussed the most appropriate Ghanaian Pidgin expressions to ensure the translations were both accurate and natural.
These conversations highlighted that localization goes beyond translating words from one language to another. It is also about ensuring that people can interact with technology in their local language, in a way that reflects both linguistic accuracy and the way they naturally communicate.
Impact
By the end of the workshop:
- 7 participants were trained on Translatewiki.net.
- All 110 messages for the Suggestion Mode feature were translated into Ghanaian Pidgin on Ghanaian Pidgin Wikipedia.
More importantly, the workshop strengthened a growing network of volunteers committed to improving the digital presence of Ghanaian Pidgin.
We are grateful to every participant who contributed their time and efforts. We look forward to translating more of Wikimedia’s most loved and widely used features, ensuring that contributors can access them in their languages.
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