Grants:Project/Rapid/Houssem Abida/Write for the Rights Tunis
Goals
[edit]Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went? I managed to reach many of my goals such as the number of articles (more than 80) and the number of languages (more than 10). Yet, I didn't manage to bring the number of participants I had in mind (10), and couldn't bring people from non priviliged countries (only a participant from Nigeria and a Tunisian). So apart of arabic, Yoruba, Romanian (thanks to Ana who participated remotely), and Ukranian (thanks to Sergey who participated remotely as well), no other languages where there is a gap on Wikipedia were present.
Outcome
[edit]Please report on your original project targets.
| Target Outcome | Achieved outcome | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Number of events: 4 | 4 events: 3 Workshops for the local community (2 for wikipedia and 1 for Commons) + the international editathon that lasted 3 days | |
| Number of participants: 10 internationals and 10 locals | 6 internationals and 2 locals from the Wikimedia community (me and Salma) + 15 in the begining from the LGBTQI+ tunisian community but ended with 5 | For some logistic and political reasons some participants didn't make it for Tunisia (Visa, costs, engagement with other activities).
For the local participants, the members of the LGBTQI+ community we trained were part of the organizing committee of the Queer Film Festival so were all busy during the international editathon and didn't manage to take part of it. |
| New editors on Wikipedia: 10 | 15 Tunisian + 1 french participant | We trained 15 participants from the local NGO and a participants sponsored by Wikimedia France also made it. |
| New contributors on Commons: 10 | 15 | Same participants |
| Number of articles created: 40 | 104 new article and 15 improved article, in 14 languages | We were very productive and competitive as everyone wanted to write the most. Also, I engaged the activity in the Wiki Loves Love 2019 contest which made it even more competitive. Also, I asked that we break the record of Wikipedia for Peace Stockholm Europride in 2018 where I participated. |
| Number of photos uploaded: 50 | 0 | The policy of the festival's organized didn't allow us to take photos in order to ensure the security of the participants. |
| Continuity of the event: | We are now working on a second "Write for the Rights" activity" for the refugees in Marseille, France.
In Tunis, we are discussing now a WikiClub for Mawjoudin's association. |
Learning
[edit]Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:
- What worked well?
- I am quite satisfied with the output in general: Articles list, participants engagement, the exchange with the festival's participants and organizers. Most thing I am happy about is the diversity in the languages of the articles written, and the fact that most of them are ones where there is a huge gap on Wikipedia when it comes to LGBTQI+ topics (arabic, romanian, ukranian, yoruba, etc). Also, the support of the other chapters (Wikimedia CH, Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia España and Wikimédia France was very important. I am happy I managed to engage them in this. Finally, I am very proud of the support of the librarian User:RachelWex to find us good references in the languages we used.
- What did not work so well?
- Engaging the local participants as they were very busy with the festival, and also accessing them in the first place as they are very discrete and precautious about their identity. Also, adapting to the policy of Mawjoudin was quite difficult as Wikimedia believes in transparency and open data while for Mawjoudin, they need to keep many infos hidden (names, information for communication, photos, etc). Finally, and this is something related to the politics of Tunisia, it was very difficult to bring internationals who needed visa as I could'nt issue them an invitation letter where I mention the term LGBTQI+. Also, as Wikimedia LGBT+ USer group doens't have any legal representation in Tunisia, It was almost impossible for me to find other sponsors who could support me.
- What would you do differently next time?
- Work more on the local community and invest in it even more. Negociate more with the chapters to pay for more participants.
Finances
[edit]Grant funds spent
[edit]Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.
After taking the transfer fees and the bank’s fees, I received a total amount of : 6047.244 TND
Accomodation
[edit]For 8 participants for 3 nights from the 21st to the 24th of March: 2 triple rooms and 1 double room with breakfast included for all :
- 744.600 TND for the double room
- 1038.600 TND for the first triple room
- 1029.600 TND for the second triple room
Total : 2812.8 TND
The queer Film Festival participation
[edit]- 8 Tot bags : 120 TND (15 for each)
- 5 Passes for the show part : 50 TND (10 TND per pass, 3 participants left that day because of their flights : It was on the 24th night).
Total : 170 TND
The editathon's venue
[edit]200.610 TND for 2 days
Food
[edit]On the 21st of March:
- 5 dinner meals for the 5 participants who arrived early : 50.400 TND
- One lunch for Sophie whose flight arrived early in the day : 6.700 TND
On the 22nd of March:
- 12 Small bottle of water for the participants : 5 TND
- Lunch for 8 participants : 120 TND
- Dinner for 7 participants : 78.100 TND (one of the participants didn’t eat)
On the 23rd of March:
- Lunch for 8 participants : 145 TND
- Dinner for 8 participants : 74.500 TND
On the 24th of March:
- Lunch for 2 participants : 20.800 TND
- Lunch for 5 participants : 20 TND (for this one I don’t have a receipt because i twas for sandwiches in a very popular restaurant)
- No dinner for that night as we had lunch very late.
Total : 520.500 TND
Transportation
[edit]As taxi drivers do not give receipts in Tunis, and as the public transportation is not developped, I chose to pay for 2 of my friends and for myself gas to transport the participants during the 4 days from the 21st to the 25th of March. Gas:
- Salma’s car : 120 TND
- Sarra’s Car : 20 TND
- My car : 20 TND
Total : 160 TND
Parking fees: Airport: We went to the airport 8 times (5 to pick the participants and 3 to take them back), for each time we paid 1 TND for the parking but we could not keep the receipt as the agent had to take it when we paid the fees. Same thing for Palmarium parking in Downtown. During the activities:
- On the 22nd of March : 8 TND in Palmarium parking in Downtown Tunis
- On the 23rd of March : 11 TND for palmarium in Downtown and 6 TND for 2 cars for the concert later in Gammarth (3 TND per car, but for this one we don’t have receipts as it was agents who don’t give tickets).
- On the 24th of March : 4 TND (2 TND for 2 cars in Sidi Bou Said) + 3 TND for a car for the festival’s party show in Gammarth (for this one we don’t have receipts as it was agents who don’t give tickets).
Total : 40 TND
Communication
[edit]I used mobile phone tickets for myself to have internet and make phone calls from the 15th to the 25th of March. Also, I paid for the 2 volunteers a ticket each so that we can synchronize when transporting the participants with our cars or from and to the airport.
- My internet and communication from the 1st of March until the 26th of March: 8 cards of 5 TND (each one costs 5.7 TND) and 1 card of 10 TND (that costed 11.4 TND)
- 2 cards for the 2 volunteers (5.7 TND each).
Total: 68.4 TND
Paper work
[edit]To scan all the receipts, I went to a library and it costed 7.5 TND.
Total
[edit]4591.81 TND
Remaining funds
[edit]Do you have any remaining grant funds? Yes. I still have 1455.434 TND.
I would like to use the remaining amount for one of the three options:
- Organizing a second editathon next year for the Queer Film Festival in 2020.
- To set a WikiClub with Mawjoudin NGO to have regular writing sessions and engage further the local community. I will not be able to work on this properly only in June 2019 and starting from January 2020 as I have other committements from July to December 2019.
- Print the QRpedia plaques for Medinapedia Sfax project that I am managing. Yet for this, I cannot engage in the installation's process with the municipality before January 2020 for the same reasons mentionned above. I might find someone from the local team who can work on that but I can't give a word for that now. All I can commit to do for now if this alternative is accepted, is to print the plaques before July 2019.
Anything else
[edit]Anything else you want to share about your project?