Elevating Community Voices as Movement Charter Ambassadors: Story from ESEAP

The Movement Charter Ambassadors Program was created to ensure that all voices are heard, especially those from underrepresented communities in the Movement, and they are included and engaged in the Movement Charter community review process. The Movement Charter Ambassadors come from many regions. In the East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (ESEAP) region, Movement Charter Ambassadors supported their communities to better understand the three draft chapters of Movement Charter available at the time – Preamble, Values & Principles, and Roles & Responsibilities – and elevated the voices from their communities during the Movement Charter Drafting Committee’s first community feedback period in late 2022.

Meet the Movement Charter Ambassadors in ESEAP

Muhammad Faisal Ansari (User:Arcuscloud) is a member of the Wikimedia Banjar community from Indonesia. He is also a contributor to Wikipedia Banjar, Wiktionary Banjar, Wikidata, Wikisource, and Commons. He became a Movement Charter Ambassador because “I see that the Movement Charter is important and needs input from Wikimedia communities, especially small Wikimedia communities in Indonesia.”

Johnny Alegre (User:Buszmail) is a co-founder and the head of the Pilipinas Panorama Community, and has had his long involvement in different leadership roles with other wiki communities in the Philippines in the past.

Activities Carried out by the Ambassadors

In Indonesia, Arcuscloud carried out online meetings to introduce the Movement Charter drafts and collected feedback from three Wikimedia communities, namely the Manokwari community, Banjar community, and Bali community. “I also translated some of the meta pages into Banjar, so that the Banjar language is represented and can be read by all users who are able to speak Banjar,” said Arcuscloud. In the Philippines, Buszmail created a discussion page on meta for their community, translated the drafts into Tagalog and Bicolano languages and made relevant announcements to request comments. 

Observations and Highlights

“The activities went well, community friends have understood what the Movement Charter is and provided useful input,” said Arcuscloud. He also added, “I hope that my friends from small Wikimedia communities in Indonesia, not limited to the Manokwari, Banjar, and Bali Wikimedia communities, but also other Wikimedia communities in Indonesia, will in the future be involved in the process of the Movement Charter.”

“For as long as there is no objection, the consensus is positive. However, the relative complexity of the Movement Charter draft’s language was an intimidating factor,” Buszmail shared. He also suggested the Movement Charter Drafting Committee to draft the succeeding sections of the Charter with less legalese.

Upcoming Community Conversations with Opportunities to Become Ambassadors to Your Communities

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee will proceed with its next round of community conversations for the drafts on Global Council, Decision Making, Hubs, Roles and Responsibilities, and Glossary soon in July 2023. Are you interested in becoming a Movement Charter Ambassador to support your communities by sharing their views with the Movement Charter Drafting Committee?  For this round, we are accepting applications until 20th July 2023, for implementation between 1st September to 15th November 2023. You can find more information about the Movement Charter Ambassador Programme on this meta page. We look forward to receiving your applications and learning your feedback.