Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Visible Wiki Women South Sudan (ID: 22798644)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
MakurProTyler
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Visible Wiki Women South Sudan
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2024-11-30 - 2024-01-31
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
South Sudan
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Other (please specify) Visible Wiki Women
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
South Sudan has one of the lowest representations for women, especially black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC), both online and offline. This is demonstrated by the small amount of photos on Wikimedia Commons featuring South Sudanese women. The underrepresentation of women is both reflective and a manifestation of the larger problem where women are marginalised in public, digital spaces forcing their invisibility on gender lines. The idea for the project will help close this visibility gap by working to create images of South Sudanese women on Wikimedia Commons. The project aimed to counter the erasure of black, brown, indigenous, trans and non-binary women from South Sudan online working toward creating a more diverse pool of knowledge. This will help address the imbalance and work towards more truthfully depicting South Sudanese women in our digital global spaces. Even its future goal is to make women, especially black and brown South Sudanese indigenous trans/non-binary communities more visible on Wikimedia Commons. These groups are grossly underrepresented on global digital platforms, which contributes to their invisibility online as well as in the wider societal narratives. This project looks to redress this balance by uploading images of these women on Wikimedia Commons so that their contributions, faces and stories are reflected. The organisers believe it will be not only a step towards better representation of South Sudanese women on one of the world's largest online platforms but also create more diversity and inclusion in digital spaces globally. Seeing these women will no doubt have a knock-on effect on how they are seen and where their worth lies within society. Seeing representation of themselves and their peers will likely empower women in South Sudan, as well as force wider society to appreciate both the role that they play and what they contribute. Invisible Survival of Women in South Sudan Thousands of women in South Sudan, particularly those from marginalized communities do not get recognition on the wider digital global platforms. This underrepresentation serves to reinforce stereotypes and minimize their role in the engine of society. Problems with access to digital tools and knowledge South Sudan is a country with an almost infinite number of potential contributors but very few would have the necessary technical skills to play their part in any Wikimedia projects especially uploading and managing content on to Wiki Commons. Poor Understanding of Open Licensing & Digital Rights. This also teeters into how little people and institutions do not recognize the importance of open licensing, copyrights, and digital rights and this discourages them from adding their content in Wikimedia Commons. Approaches and Strategies: Community Training and Workshop Series Approach: Train local women, photographers and community members to help increase the number of contributors from rural parts by organizing targeted training sessions or workshops on how to contribute their photographs to Wikimedia Commons. This approach empowers participants to upload content, giving them more control over what their digital representation becomes. They will be able to access workshops that cover both the technical side and larger issues like copyright as well as open licensing, something organisers said would make them better equipped for engaging with Wikimedia platforms. Similar projects such as WikiGap and Wiki Loves Africa have shown that this kind of capacity building can help bring content from these groups to Wikipedia. Aid in the creation and uploading of South Sudanese women's images into Wikimedia Commons. Strategy: It also directly closes a visibility gap through their content generation and contribution. Photo shoots will be taking place in different communities to ensure a wide variety of women get included. Such campaigns have already proved successful at Wikimedia, as anyone involved in the Visible Wiki Women projects can attest — more images of marginalized women will be now available on Commons. Community Mobilization & Awareness Campaign: Strategy Making work public guarantees that the project will be widespread and not just limited to those who took part in workshops or were photographed. It raises awareness, sure; and a construction like that can also help to ensure future contributions during (and afterwards) the project. Data shows that people-led initiatives are usually more sustainable and effective in the long run. Working With Local Groups: Collaborate with women’s organizations, media outlets and the Wikipedia Community User Group South Sudan to use their networks; Why: Because Collaboration multiplies the spread and effectiveness of the project. These local organizations are trusted within the community and therefore make sure that anything prepared is both culturally appropriate as well as sensitive to what happens in this cultural entity. In other Wikimedia projects, collaboration with community organizations has proven inspiring and more sustainable as well. How These Are Going To Work: Wikimedia projects and gender equality have also shown that more focus is put on training; community building & creating content, which results in a fast reduction of knowledge gaps. These projects show that when local communities are actively engaged in contributing to Wikimedia Commons the diversity and amount of content generated can grow over time. Contextual Adaptation: Selected strategies are designed exclusively for South Sudan, with particular consideration of challenges in access to digitalization and cultural sensitivities that require community-led models. To ensure success, the project relies on a strong emphasis on community engagement and capacity building. Innovation in the Proposal: Traditional and Digital Media Mix: The project mixes traditional photo sessions with digital contributions to Wikimedia Commons. By taking this double tactic, anyone who cannot maintain the level of digital skills can still have a stake in what is happening to globalising digital society. While it reinstates women as both subjects and not just supporters, the project will also become a rallying cry for empowering more women to help shape how they are presented in digital spaces. This is a key step towards challenging gender stereotypes and ensuring that digital spaces can be accessed by all genders. In general, the project is conceived on techniques which have proved efficacy in any part of the world but are made suitable to South Sudan and its requirements or scenarios as illustrated above. The result of the project will be an increase in inclusivity on Wikimedia Commons, which is expected to have a lasting impact on living conditions and visibility for South Sudanese women.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
Photo sessions: Coordinate photoshoots for South Sudanese women — activists, educators and cultural leaders, as well as the everyday working woman. The sessions, to be conducted in Juba — will focus on different communities for the sake of broad representation. Host Photoworkshops with women organisations to help local community upload, as the photographed woman who can participate in uploading or their envoy. Local photographers and institutions will be encouraged to release the images of women that they have under non-free licenses on Wikimedia Commons focusing predominantly on photo-related programs targeted at South Sudanese or other exhibitions yet unrepresented. Campaign: Promote knowledge-sharing in local communities, and the value of women’s representation on Wikipedia/Wikimedia using social media. This will be done through storytelling where women recount their experiences, reiterating the need for a larger representation offline on digital platforms. Alliances: Partner with women's groups, and use media to increase the outreach and participation in this campaign. Visible Wiki Women South Sudan - Timeline: Planning and Preparation November 2024 Week 1-2: Planning and Coordinating a Project Activities: Establish partnerships with community women’s organisations, photographers, and media outlets. Book and provide logistics for photography sessions/workshops. Including venue specification & provision of equipment Create marketing and communication materials to inform students about the campaign. Justification: This is critical to have strong partnerships in place and logistics sorted out for smooth proper implementation. Early promotion helps in getting initial momentum and engagement. Week 3: Community Outreach & Participant Engagement Activities: Hold Community meetings to notify a broader audience about the project and/or seek participation for taking part in the project. Start reaching out to participants on social media and other communication avenues. Reasoning: building trust in the earlier stages with the community will aid in active participation of during project activities. Week 4: Pre-event Training Workshop Activities: Conduct workshops on Wikimedia Commons, image uploading and copyright license as training. Reason: Preparing the participants for their main events will better efforts first outspokenly in Wikimedia Commons and second to meet standards. December 2024: Execution & Content Development Week 1-2: Photo Sessions Activities: Organize photo shoots with women in different Juba communities, activists, educators and cultural leaders. Rationale: The base of the project is producing and submitting photos. Doing photo submissions earlier in the project timeline allows time for editing and uploading images, as well as dealing with any problems. Week 3: Content review and editing Activities: Review, and touch up photos to ensure they conform with WikiCommons quality mandates. Upload: Process of uploading images to Wikimedia Commons. Rationale: There is a need for quality control so the contributions are kept high. Uploading early helps in identifying and fixing images on time. Week 4: Follow-up Workshops Activities: Conduct workshops to help the participants upload images, supporting and guiding them as required to train everyone to learn how they could upload images and work on the project. January 2025 – Wrapping up and Getting the counter Week 1 — Final Submissions & Community Feedback Activities: Transfer all images to Wikimedia Commons. Collect input and responses from program participants and members of the community on their experience as well as how (or if) the project has affected them. Rationale: It will apply all content, and collect feedback thereby to evaluate the success of a project and gather lessons for future projects. Week 2: Record Keeping and Documentation Task: Report the project results (uploaded images, participation engagement, community impact) Write the final report and submit it to the Wikimedia Foundation. Rationale: Documentation and Reporting for Transparency & Accountability It also aids in determining the success of the project and figuring out potential future projects. Week 3-4: Post-event Engagement and Sustainability Activities: Keep online engagement with participants through recapping activities and sharing results. Look for opportunities where you can keep the same impact, such as future projects or local organizations to continue partnerships with. Rationale: Engagement after project: Making use of these results; it's here the importance shifts to maintaining Continued impact and Sustainability. Meta Page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Visible_Wiki_Women_South_Sudan
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
Team Description: 1. Makur Majeng Role: Team Lead and Trainer Wikimedia Username: MakurProTyler Makur is a seasoned Media Monitor, fact-checker and activist. We appreciate the contributions of Makur to various Wikimedia projects and his involvement in the ISA Tool hackathon as a volunteer. Makur is the project coordinator and main interface with stakeholders and leads workshops. 2. Local Photographers (to be determined) Purpose: Content Creators and Event Support (New contributors) Particulars: The photo sessions will be conducted by a group of local photographers who take images of South Sudanese women. They will be pivotal in maintaining image quality and taught how to upload their work on Wikimedia Commons. These photographers will be chosen in partnership with local women´s organizations. 3. Community Outreach and Participant Support Wikimedia Username: (N/A) Information: Women from local women’s groups will help to communicate with the community, locate participating project participants and ensure that cultural attitudes are addressed. These organizations are vital partners in making sure that the project brings meaning to and can change things on a longer-term scale. 4. Town Hall Support (Volunteers TBD) Position: Event Organizer/Tech Support Wikimedia Username: (N/A) Overview: We are seeking a small group of volunteers to help with event planning logistics and technical support during workshops. These people will also help make sure things run smoothly and that the participants who are attending get all the help they need. Final note: Some of the last people will include photographers and volunteers, all to be confirmed with project matching stages in the beginning when everyone comes on board for track alignment purposes.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
Specific Target Participants: Women from multiple communities, South Sudan local photographers. Wikimedia Commons Contributors and women's organizations. Engagement Strategy: Engage with participants through community meetings and discussions. Train on Wikimedia Commons, importance of increasing women's visibility online At Events: Promote attending photo sessions and workshops. Empower women to control their online presence by adding images directly to Wikimedia Commons. Post Event: Follow up with participants by providing ongoing support and ensuring the sustainability of contribution through mentorship and online engagement.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
1. Working with local women's organizations Local women organisations in South Sudan whose work is focused on promoting the rights and empowerment of women were consulted about their input on "Visible Wiki Women South Sudan". Such organizations are operating at the grassroots levels and are focused on gender equality, betterment of women's education as well as writing & advocacy for preventing Gender Based Violence. In these reviews, the topic often reverted to how this project could further amplify South Sudanese women who tend not to have a strong presence online and offline. 2. Reviews from the Media and Cultural Organizations We are engaging with local media working on gender and cultural stories in South Sudan. This was an aspect of the project many outlets were excited to amplify as it's a rare opportunity for South Sudanese women to be highlighted on such a global scale. They gave us valuable insights into potential partnerships and reshaped our perspectives of who are the most important people or communities that should be involved in this project. The cultural groups said it was equally important to be sensitive in preserving the stories of these women and their images, stressing that local customs and traditions needed to be incorporated. 3. Integration with Current Activities:
Project alignment with the women's visibility and empowerment is to existing initiatives in South Sudan. For example:
We have numerous women's empowerment programs in South Sudan, from leadership and business training to educational courses. This ensured that a program was in place to record the stories of women who are already making an impact on Commons; and attribute those photos directly from these programs.
Media and Digital Literacy Campaigns: Emerging initiatives to promote digital literacy in South Sudan with a focus on women and young people are significant. The project supports these efforts through training, empowering women to contribute to specific, digital projects like Wikimedia Commons.
Cultural Heritage Documentation: Several local projects concentrate on documenting and preserving South Sudan’s cultural heritage. This project captures the digital preservation of the country’s heritage by adding the stories and pictures of South Sudanese women.
4. Community and Partner Involvement in Planning: The project's planning has included the opinions and ideas of women’s organizations, media firms, and cultural groups. These key stakeholders have expressed their interest in identifying women to take pictures, providing resources to arrange photo sessions, and rallying around their networks through the project. This move ensures the project is well integrated through the current women empowerment structures and cultural preservation in South Sudan.
Challenges in On-Wiki Discussions: Little knowledge on-wiki discussions have taken place, and the context of South Sudan, limited internet access, and a growing Wikimedia community make it difficult to have extensive on-wiki discussions. However, the offline forums have been conducted with local stakeholders, and the efforts to document the forums and update the discussions on the Wikimedia platforms are ongoing.
Conclusion: The “Visible Wiki Women South Sudan” project fully aligns with the existing efforts to increase the presence and recognition of South Sudanese women. The project is relevant and is conducted with the collaboration of key community stakeholders. It has been challenging to have on-wiki discussions since the project enjoys significant support from local organizations and groups, which are already working to achieve the project’s success.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Gender and diversity
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geographic
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Ensure Equity in Decision-making
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
What is effective: Assessing the impact of workshops and community engagement on increasing the number of images being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons; Obstacles: Find and detail some of the obstacles that South Sudanese participants experience in contributing to Wikimedia Commons.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 60 | Participants: 60 individuals, including women and photographers. |
| Number of editors | 40 | Editors: 40 individuals actively contributing to Wikimedia Commons |
| Number of organizers | 5 | Organizers: 5 core organizers. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 50 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 150 |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
Content Contributions: 150+ images of South Sudanese women uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
Measuring Participation: Event Attendance Sheets & Engagement Logs We can monitor new content uploads in Wikimedia Commons under the category VisibleWikiWomen. Collecting Feedback: Survey and Interview Participants
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Eck5HGJfONZEBF1gpiVUQOxueVyHPNdNjFRULNd5ywk/edit?usp=sharing
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
19890000 SSP
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
5000 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).