What happens when people who have never edited Wikipedia before sit down with experienced editors, learn the basics, and then go out and inform their community?
This was the idea behind Wikipedia Camp Kurdistan 2026, a three-day gathering in Erbil that brought together Wikimedia communities, new contributors, and young people interested in open knowledge.
Organized by Wikimedia Kurdish, Wikimedia Kuwait and Wikimedia Iraq, in partnership with the Erbil Youth hub Center as a local partner, the camp provided a space for participants to learn about Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons and to meet the people behind the movement.
The first two days focused on practical learning. Participants learned about the Wikimedia movement, how to edit Wikipedia, contribute images to Wikimedia Commons, and participate in collaborative editing activities in two languages: Kurdish and Arabic.
The sessions were conducted in both Kurdish and Arabic, making Wikimedia projects more accessible to people from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
For many newcomers, this marked the beginning of their Wikimedia journey, with others who could answer their questions, explain the rules, and encourage them to continue contributing.
On the third day, the focus shifted from editing to documentation. Some participants toured parts of the Kurdistan Region, including Shaqlawa and Bakhal, taking photographs of landscapes, local places, nature, and daily life.
The photography tour showcased another important aspect of Wikimedia. open knowledge isn’t limited to writing encyclopedia articles; images can also preserve places, communities, and moments, making them freely available to people worldwide.
The images captured during the camp were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, adding new visual documentation of Kurdistan to the global free media repository.
One of the most important outcomes of the Wikimedia Kurdistan camp was the networking among the various Wikimedia communities.
Wikimedia members from Kuwait, Iraq, and Kurdistan were able to share their experiences, while new participants had the opportunity to discover how to join the movement.
The Wikimedia Foundation later highlighted the Wikimedia Kurdistan camp as an example of collaborative learning and knowledge transfer among Wikimedia communities.
This type of networking is particularly important for Kurdish Wikimedia. Building a stronger community of contributors increases the amount of reliable and freely available knowledge in Kurdish and ensures broader representation of Kurdish history, culture, geography, and daily life online.
By bringing people together to learn, edit, photograph, and share, the camp offered more than just an introduction to Wikimedia projects. This initiative helped create new connections between individuals and communities working toward a single goal, making knowledge easily accessible to everyone!
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