CEE/Newsletter/Newsroom/Wikimedia MKD's productive start of the year
Wikimedia MKD continued its successful activities in the new year 2025. Successful activities included several trainings for students as well as two conferences for teachers and editing marathons. Оn February 4, 2025, Wikimedia MKD held a conference for teachers at the Gymnasium "Josip Broz Tito" in Skopje. This conference was attended by 24 teachers who demonstrated the possibilities of using Wikipedia, both as a tool for teaching purposes and as a place where new free content is created.
First, Snezana Štrkovska, executive director of Wikimedia MKD, spoke about how Wikipedia works, which are the benefits by the use of Wikipedia as a teaching tool and the correct use of Wikipedia as an information source for accurate and verified information. After her, Irena Trajkovska Sterjovska spoke about her experience and the achievement of the Wiki Club that she leads. At the very end, Bosa Filipović, the educational program manager of Wikimedia MKD, had a speech and explained in detail the most common mistakes made when editing and improved the basic principles of Wikipedia. The conference took place in a pleasant and working atmosphere.
Wikimedia MKD's call for participation in the 1Lib1Ref 2025 was announced in January 2025. The editing competition ended on 5 February 2025, where 8 users took part in and 1239 references were added in 840 articles.
One of the most significant initiatives for involving young people in the Wikimedia movement are Wiki Clubs. Here students learn how to edit articles, check sources and contribute to the development of free knowledge. Therefore, on 12 February 2025, a Wiki Club was opened for the first time at the Primary School "Krste Petkov Misirkov" in Radoviš, which will aim to educate young people in editing and creating content on Wikipedia. This is Wikimedia MKD's newest wiki club.
On February 20, 2025, the Wikiclub in Veles celebrated its fifth birthday with a festive celebration held at the City Library "Goce Delchev". The event began at 2 p.m. and was attended by 20 participants, including club members, supporters, friends, and guests who have been following the development of the club since its founding. One of the most important moments of the celebration was of course the birthday cake, a symbol of the dedication and enthusiasm of the club members. In a pleasant atmosphere, those present had the opportunity to reminisce about past successes and exchange ideas for future projects and activities.
On February 26, 2025, another successful training for students was held at the premises of Wikimedia MKD in MKC. 11 students from High school "Vasil Antevski - Dren" participated in the training under the leadership of the coordinator Liljana Stojkovska. The first part of the event was a speech by Bosa Filipović, Wikimedia MKD Education Program Manager, who introduced the students to the encyclopedia itself. After the presentation started the editing on the topic "Get to know Slovenia", which is the topic of the current editing marathon for members of Wiki Clubs in Macedonia, which is held from February 1, 2025 to February 28, 2025, and is organized by Wikimedia MKD in cooperation with the Slovenian Center of Macedonia and Slovenian embassy in Skopje.
On February 27, 2025, Wikimedia MKD held a second conference for teachers for this year at High school "Koco Racin" in Skopje. This conference was attended by 15 participants, the school's teaching staff who expressed a strong desire to use Wikipedia, both as a tool for teaching purposes and as a place where new free content is created.
Wikimedia MKD is always striving to celebrate equality, social and cultural values and promote the idea of diversity. Decreasing the gender gap regarding Wikipedia content and its related project has been one of the key focuses of the organization's efforts. Like previous years, Wikimedia MKD organized an edit-a-thon on 7 March 2025 on the topic "Women at the Macedonian front", which it celebrates the International Women's Day with. The event was attended by 12 members of the Wiki Club from the "Josip Broz-Tito" High School in Skopje, who, under the mentorship of history professor Irena Trajkovska Stejrovska, came to the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle. Educator Ana Vishinova gave a lecture on significant women in Macedonian history. The lecture served as inspiration for the participants, which was followed by joint editing of articles related to the topic.