Grants:IEG/Mbazzi Village writes Wikipedia

This project is funded by an Individual Engagement Grant

status: selected

project:

Mbazzi Village writes Wikipedia

project contact:

paulugandagmail.com, dan.frendintelia.com and eihpossophiegmail.com

participants:

grantees: Paul Kiguba
volunteers: Dan Frendin
advisors: Jan Ainali (WMSE), Sophie Österberg

summary:

Create a Wikipedia-center in the Mbazzi Village in Uganda, for inhabitants to contribute in Wikipedia Luganda version, primarily about 1.Health (Sanitation,hygiene and medicine) 2.Rural economic empowerment (Sustainable agricultural practices).

engagement target:

Luganda Wikipedia

strategic priority:

Increasing Participation, Improving Quality

total amount requested:

2880 USD

2013 round 2

Project idea

Paul Kiguba, Deputy Headteacher at the school Kisubi Mapeera in Entebbe met Dan Frendin, a teacher in Sweden, through an exchange program for their students. Paul is originally from Mbazzi where he has a farm. At one point after the yearly exchange Dan had his class of high-school students run a Wikipedia Education Program where they wrote articles about Uganda on Swedish Wikipedia after having been introduced to the idea of Wikipedia Education Program by Sophie Österberg. When the teachers and students from Uganda came to Sweden, some of them came to meet staff and volunteers from Wikimedia Sweden to learn edit Wikipedia. Whilst doing this, they found the Luganda Wikipedia language version which sparked great joy. They found that the language version was rather limited in articles width and depth and had an urge to change this. They also wanted to use the knowledge they had in their village around health and agriculture to share to others reading the Luganda Wikipedia version, which may freely be accessed via Wikipedia Zero. In the village there is a empty house owned by Paul, the teachers, which he wants to change into a Wikipedia center where his students as well as others may contribute with their knowledge, specifically in these two areas. Paul has made a list of what is necessary to have this happen, which may be found here. See more of the project plan here.

Project purpose

The purpose of the project is to make relevant knowledge accessible to the people of Mbazzi village, so that this knowledge can be used to transform the people economically, socially and in health issues etc.

Mission statement

To ensure that villagers undergo holistic growth in their lives through knowledge acquisition within the relevant areas of sustainable development of agriculture, health, education, economic empowerment etc.

Project goals

General objectives;

To make knowledge on agriculture, health, education, income generation, general wellbeing etc available on Wikipedia
To promote the role of Wikipedia in rural development
To provide a reliable source of knowledge for rural challenges
To increase the working hours of the rural folk though e-exchanges
To promote literacy among the villagers
To generate employment opportunities for the school drop outs and the unemployed youth/graduates by using knowledge generated from Wikipedia.
To promote environmentally friendly practices among the villagers
To transform villagers from peasant thinking to modern sustainable ideologies of development
To promote health knowledge.

The two SMART goals for the year are to;

Educate 100 people in how to edit Wikipedia which will be measured by their contributions on Luganda WP.
Have 120 new articles on Luganda Wikipedia in the area of health, agriculture and economic empowerment.

These both goals, are as may be obvious, easily measurable on WP.

Part 2: The Project Plan

Project plan

Scope:

Scope and activities

Set up a Wikipedia center in the village of Mbazzi
Have one of the villagers who knows Wikipedia from the workshop in Stockholm be assigned as trainer for the village
Create a list with suggestions of articles which are to be written in the area of health & agriculture on Luanda Wikipedia
Set up weekly schedule for Wikipedia writing and training throught the year
Upon completion, 120 articles are to be written on Luganda Wikipedia in the area of health and agriculture and at least 100 new users should have been introduced to Wikipedia.

Tools, technologies, and techniques

Security with guard
Weekly meet-ups for the villagers to learn about and write Wikipedia
Common care/safety shelter and security*((Dikgosi Sejabodile))

Budget:

Total amount requested

$2880

Budget breakdown

ITEM	QUANTITY	UNIT COST	TOTAL
Trainer	12 months	$160	$1920
Guard	12 months	$80	$960

Total			$2880

Intended impact:

Target audience

Two groups primarily;
- The group of people in Mbazzi who will learn to share their knowledge in the areas of health & agriculture.
- The much greater group of four million people who speak Luganda and may reach this information through Wikipedia Zero.

Fit with strategy

Improving Quality
- The current state of Luganda Wikipedia is rather limited. At the same time, Wikipedia Zero has made it possible to access knowledge on Wikipedia for free. This should be utmost utilised by having more editors who speak luganda or any other smaller WP language which is also accessible through Zero increasing the quality of the content. Paul has suggested that this project is focused on categories which are currently important for people to get a better knowledge of, health & agriculture. The project therefore quite distingtly focuses on improving the quality of articles in these categories.
Increasing Participation
- To have 100 editors from Mbazzi village write on Luganda Wikipedia will most surely increase the general participation on Luganda Wikipedia but perhaps most importantly, increase the diversity of editors on Wikipedia generally.

Sustainability

The project is to be seen as a pilot project which is to be extended to other smaller Wikipedia language versions where there is a need to develop articles that are useful for the population who reads it whilst it being freely accessible thanks to Wikipedia Zero. Possibilities to extend should therefore be focused on where Wikipedia Zero exists and where there also are smaller language versions which lack articles about health and agriculture among other topics.

Measures of success

To have 100 new editors on Wikipedia who make at least five edits each
To have 120 new articles on Luganda Wikipedia in the area of agriculture and health

Participant(s)

Paul Kiguba is the Deputy Headteacher at the school Kisubi Mapeera in Entebbe. He has been taught Wikipedia whilst being in Sweden on an exchange trip with students. He comes from Mbazzi village where he has a farm and a empty house which is to be used as a Wikipedia-center.
Dan Frendin is a high-school teacher at Stagneliusskolan in Kalmar, Sweden. He has been going on exchange trips with his students to Uganda. In the autumn of 2012, he ran a Wikipedia Education Program with his pupils where they primarily wrote articles about Uganda & South Africa.
Sophie Österberg is working as Global Education Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation and met Dan when working as Education manager in Sweden.

Discussion

Community Notification:

Please paste a link to where the relevant communities have been notified of this proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions, here. Answer from Paul Kiguba: Every notification in the village have been oral. The communication with the possible trainer at Makerere university have been done on email.

Endorsements:

Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

Community member: add your name and rationale here.
Wikimedia Sverige is starting to collaborate on projects regarding the Luganda Wikipedia and this project will help kick-starting an active community there, thus making our efforts more valuable. Jan Ainali (WMSE) (talk) 09:29, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
- Wikimedia Sverige has been awarded funding from WWF Sweden to send two volunteers to Uganda on a teach-the-teachers training. These two projects could have great synergy effects! Jan Ainali (WMSE) (talk) 19:43, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
Sounds like a great project to me: engages with new communities, brings new content in one of our neglected languages, makes active use of Wikipedia Zero and involves international collaboration. -- Daniel Mietchen (talk) 22:48, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
I also find this an exciting project, especially its aim of creating a list of articles to be written in the area of health & agriculture on the Wikipedia for Luaganda which, after all, is spoken by more than 15 million people. I firmly believe those of us working on the English Wikipedia could help by writing articles about Uganda in support of local education. It is also probable that this list will help with the selection of topics for Wikipedia development in the many other minor languages of the region.--Ipigott (talk) 17:11, 20 December 2013 (UTC)