Grant stage: grant application approved

Grantee: Open Foundation West Africa

Amount granted: US$20,900 (-)

Funding period: 1 July 2018 to 31 December 2018

Midpoint report due: 15 October 2018

Final report due: 30 January 2019

Application

Background

These two requests are required of first-time applicants. In future years, you can use reports to substitute for these requirements.

Link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements in the past year.
Last year we organised many projects that yielded impact both within and outside our jurisdiction of work (West Africa). Such projects include but not limited to Wiki Indaba 2017, Africa Wikimedia Developers Project, Summer Open School (SOS), Ashesi Education Program + Wiki Club Ashesi, etc.

We are providing 3 reports from our activities that have drawn impact for several communities and individuals:

Felix Nartey, co-founder and leading member of our user group was named Wikimedian of the year, mentioning Wiki Indaba 2017 as one of many reasons for being awarded - Read more here
Reports from participants of Wiki Indaba 2017 and press release - report by Bobby Shabangu, WMZA, report by Elianne Dominique,WMUGCI, African Dream (press release), Africa Daily News (press release).
Three months report of the Africa Wikimedia Developers Project

Link to one learning story you have created or contributed to, that demonstrates how your organization documents and applies learning.
In our report for Wiki Indaba 2017 we documented certain learning outcomes that could be useful to anybody organizing a similar event. Visit the link to learn more.

Link to these documents only if you have them.

Link to your organization's staffing plan. This organization is not requesting staff.
Link to your annual plan. *
Link to your strategic plan. *

Please add your global metrics to this sheet. Contact APG staff if you need access. Please visit this worksheet to view global metrics targets and progress.

Programs

Africa Wikimedia Developers Project (AWMD)

A project that was started under the wings and fiscally sponsored by OFWA, to train and recruit volunteer developers to develop for the Wikimedia Foundation and the larger movement. The inaugural training took place in Accra, Ghana which saw the support (partial funding) of the developer relations team to make up for what a rapid grant couldn't cover, since then the team has led the training and creation of a developer community in Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria. There are plans far advanced to replicate similar training in other African countries that have expressed keen interest in starting a developer community in their country. Some of these countries on our radar are currently Tunisia, Gambia, Tanzania and Congo.

The project since its inception has maintained an active developer base of not less than 20 with other contributors volunteering from time to time. Our membership is over a 100 spanning more than 7 countries (including Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Congo, Tanzania, & Gambia) even though we have organised an event in only 3 countries. The community has together supported programs like Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Fundi and working on a request for the Wikimania team. Our members have participated and mentored in outreachy 2017 and mentored in Google Codein as well as submitted more than 74 patches and have had more than 43 patches merged to the MediaWiki core.

NB:We generally planned 6 activities for 2018 (3 for each half of the year) of which we have only been able to organise 2 in the first half of the year due to a possible clash with Ramadan in Tunisia should we decided to orgnaise it in May. Unfortunately we can't request for a rapid grant after may since our SAPG will be opened and may have to concurrently run with the rapid grant (this we learned is unacceptable) and hence our request for 4 events under the AWMD Project in the second half of the year. It also worth mentioning that the AWMD project has its own team and all their activities apart from the disbursement and management of funds are not reliant on the staff of OFWA.

Objectives:

Create a community of active developers across the continent.
Ensure participation of members in international campaigns that are essential to Wikimedia (Summer of Code, (GSoC), Outreachy, etc.)
Create a solution to at least one of the major technical concerns from wider Africa community.
Participate in solving requests from the community wish list.
Organize developer communities for the benefit of local affiliate groups.

Metrics:

Train about 80 new developers on the continent.
Recruit about 40 volunteer developers for the movement.
Submit at least 100 patches and have about 50 merged.

You can read more about the project here

Summer Open School (SOS)

This was an event started in 2017 to train participants about the open movement and to encourage the contribution of participants (students) in at least one of the projects of their choice. It was also an open door for other Open Enthusiast/Contributors to learn about other Open Projects, they wish to contribute to. Going forward OFWA has decided to make it an annual event to promote cross-collaborations among the Open Movements, a subject that evolved from Wiki Indaba and projected to be the future of the Open Movement in Africa.

The event last year saw recruitments of more than 10 ambassadors who have gone back to their schools to host at least one event on their campuses. This project also opened doors to partnerships with several organisations such as tech-based organisation Soronko Academy, Balme Library, Lancaster University, OSM Community Ghana, etc.

Objectives:

Extending the course of Wikimedia to all.
Increasing cross collaboration amongst the Open Movement in Ghana.
Recruit ambassador of Wikipedia and other sister projects to represent the affiliate in various regions where we are not yet there.
Improve contents on Wikimedia projects.

Metrics:

Train about 40 new editors on the continent.
Maintain at least 20 active people.
Get participants to at least extend one content on another Open project to a Wikimedia project

Ashesi WikiClub

This is a campus-based club that was spearheaded by Open Foundation West Africa and has been fully registered under the schools' bylaws and operational on campus. This is intended to promote the Education project as well as other interventions within the movement with a close supervision by Open Foundation West Africa.

The club serves as a continuous platform or medium to engage students all year round. The club is critical because the Education Program runs every other semester on campus and so it serves the interests of students even during this non-engagement period. Students have the opportunity to meet with the club to learn more about other Wikimedia projects and to be encouraged through contests and competitions run by the club on campus. Their normal activities also serve as a recruitment opportunity for even students who don't take part in the social theory course (our partners for the education program) yet have the interest to join the club. Due to the diversity of students at Ashesi (usually covering students from a lot of other African countries) we believe that lessons learnt could be taken back to their respective countries.

Objectives:

Extending the course of Wikimedia to students.
Recruit and train new prospective editors.
Complement the activities of the Education Program by providing additional support to students.
Support new recruits all semesters of the year, since the Education Program only runs every other semester.

Metrics:

Train about 100 new volunteers.
Maintain at least 40 active people.
Craete at least 50 articles.
Upload at least 200 pictures to commons.

You may read more about the club here or get in touch with them on facebook

Wiki Loves Africa Ghana

We annually participate in the photo contest that projects the rich culture and heritage of the African people. We have participated in this campaign since its inception and contribute to the yearly theme through photowalks and expeditions.

It has gradually become an opportunity to run awareness campaigns and to recruit towards our future projects. Our campaigns in the past have sourced more than a 100 unique uploaders who are not members of our community and through this campaign able to reach out to their expertise. Through this campaign, we also maintain our partnerships with photowalk groups and professional photography networks.

Objectives:

Add more images about the theme of the campaign.
Improve articles by integrating these images in their related articles or creating articles for non-existing articles.
Recruit and train new editors through the various photo expeditions, upload sessions and edit-a-thons.
Engage existing editors to contribute to Commons and other sister projects.
Create awareness about the Wikimedia movement and its activities.

Metrics:

Engage a minimum of 20 participants in photowalks sessions.
Engage at least 20 more uploaders who a remote and not part of our movement.
Upload a minimum of 700 photos for the contest.
Use at least 10% of the total images on Wikimedia projects

Organizational development

Team Retreat & Strategic Planning and End of year meetup

The section consists of two different events targetted at revising our work in the past year and building community and staff health.

End of Year Meetup - This event is targeted at bringing all of our stakeholders together in a session to draw feedback of all activities run throughout the year. It will be an engaging event to connect our stakeholders, volunteers and members of the public who have an interest in what we do. We will also take the opportunity to celebrate our one year as a user group.

Team Retreat & Strategic Planning - This event is critical for gathering and increasing the working spirit amongst the team and planning for the future of our organisation. The event will focus on strategizing for the future, increasing team spirit and building capacity of team members in all areas where there are needs. Feedback from the end of year meetup will be gathered and taken to this event with hopes of coming up with strategies that take into consideration stakeholders and volunteer plights.

Objectives:

Ensure every community member have a sense of belonging and identity towards OFWA.
Gathering feedback from all stakeholders and considering these in planning towards the incoming year.
Invited target or prospective partners to learn about what we do.
Growing team spirit and bonding to improve productivity.
Drawing a strategic plan for the future.

Staff

This organization is not requesting staff.

Budget and resource plan

Link to a detailed budget (that also includes a plan for raising the resources you need). 2017 OFWA Simple APG Budget

Midpoint report

15 October 2018

Midpoint Report

Kindly find our midpoint report on Commons

Final Report

Our final report can be found here

Remaining funds of $14,593.71 was returned to the WMF