My name is Atim Sally Ruth, and I contribute to Wikimedia projects as ASally Ruth. I am a member of the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda and, in 2026, I had the opportunity to support Wiki for Minorities in Uganda as part of the Core Organising Team (COT), with a primary focus on communications. My fellow COT members were Sandra Aceng, Emmy Okwir and Emmanuel Oruk.
Running from 30 April to 17 July 2026, Wiki for Minorities brought together contributors and supporters around an important shared goal: strengthening the visibility and documentation of Uganda’s underrepresented communities, cultures, languages, and environmental heritage.
Making underrepresented stories visible
Uganda is home to remarkable cultural, linguistic, and environmental diversity. Yet much of this knowledge remains underrepresented online. For me, Wiki for Minorities is an important response to that gap.
As part of the organising team, I supported communications by helping share project activities, engage participants, and raise awareness about why documenting minority communities matters. Communications was not simply about promoting activities; it was about helping people understand that their knowledge, histories, traditions, and experiences have a place in the global knowledge ecosystem.
I also supported contributors as they learned and contributed to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. One of the most rewarding parts of the experience was seeing new contributors discover that they could transform local knowledge and research into reliable, accessible, and freely available information.
From local knowledge to Open Knowledge
My own contributions during the campaign were another meaningful part of the experience. I created 6 new English Wikipedia articles, improved 5 existing English Wikipedia articles, and uploaded 31 files to Wikimedia Commons.
Overall, the campaign achieved significant results, including 33 new English Wikipedia articles, 105 Wikidata items created, and 100 media files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The campaign also supported 18 new editors, while 8 experienced Wikimedians actively engaged as mentors, providing guidance and support to participants throughout the campaign. More detailed information and statistics about the campaign can be found on the Wiki For Minorities in Uganda – Outreach Dashboard, which provides a broader overview of participant contributions and the overall impact of the campaign.
While numbers cannot capture the full value of this work, each contribution represents an opportunity to make something more visible, accessible, and discoverable. An article can introduce readers to a community or aspect of Uganda’s heritage. A photograph or other media file can preserve a place, tradition, person, or cultural expression. An improvement to an existing article can make information more accurate and useful.
Together, these small contributions become part of a much larger effort to close knowledge gaps and ensure that Uganda’s diversity is represented online.
More Than Editing
What I value most about Wiki for Minorities is that it goes beyond editing encyclopaedic content. At its heart, it is about people, participation, representation, and preservation.
The project creates opportunities for students, volunteers, and community members to become storytellers and documenters of their own communities. At the same time, participants develop practical skills in research, sourcing, writing, editing, media documentation, and digital preservation.
This matters because representation is not only about how much content exists online. It is also about whose knowledge is visible, whose stories are being told, and whether communities have the opportunity to participate in documenting their own heritage.
Why I Support Wiki for Minorities 2026 in Uganda
I support Wiki for Minorities because I believe every community deserves to be seen and every community has knowledge worth sharing.
For communities that have historically received less attention in mainstream documentation, Wikimedia projects provide a powerful space where information can be made freely accessible to people in Uganda and around the world.
The project also reminds us that building knowledge is a collective effort. Experienced Wikimedians can support new contributors. Researchers can work alongside community members. Students can become editors. Photographers can become digital archivists. And local knowledge can become part of a global movement for open knowledge.
Supporting Wiki for Minorities 2026 has therefore been much more than contributing content. It has been about helping build a community of contributors, amplifying underrepresented voices, preserving Uganda’s diverse heritage, and making local stories more visible to the world.
I am proud to have played a small part in this work and grateful for the opportunity to continue growing as a Wikimedia volunteer committed to open, accessible, and inclusive knowledge.
Our stories matter. Our knowledge matters. Our communities deserve to be seen. And when we document them, we help ensure that they are not invisible in the digital world.
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