Africa Wiki Women Office Hour for Accelerating Action for Gender Equality 2025 Campaign

On Friday, 23rd of May 2025, Africa Wiki Women hosted an Office Hour session centered on the Accelerating Action for Gender Equality Campaign for 2025. The session was coordinated by Amarachi Okoro, campaign coordinator, and moderated by Blessing Ojewuyi Timothy, Wikidata trainer. With over 15 enthusiastic participants, including project leads and community members from across the African continent, the session created a space for connection, learning, and progress.

Icebreaker & Campaign Overview

The meeting kicked off with a fun and interactive icebreaker where participants shared their current moods. This was followed by a light quiz designed to refresh their knowledge about the Accelerating Action campaign, an engaging way to assess awareness and stimulate excitement.

Campaign coordinator Amarachi Okoro officially launched the session by appreciating the participants for their invaluable contributions.

“Without the participants, there will be no campaign,” Amarachi noted.

She emphasized that the Office Hour was designed to showcase and celebrate the campaign’s achievements thus far. Highlighting the broader vision, she explained that the campaign is part of a larger journey toward bridging the gender content gap, one step at a time.

Amarachi outlined the campaign’s primary targets:

• 100 articles expanded on Wikipedia
• 50 quality images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
• 300 items improved on Wikidata
• Hosting in-person events

She also presented a data visualization breakdown of campaign achievements, including article creation, edits, and translations. Notably, the most frequently translated languages were Hausa, Igbo, and Setswana. While progress is commendable, Amarachi encouraged continued contributions, reminding everyone that the journey to gender equality is long but essential.

Wikipedia Update – With Muib Sheifu

Wikipedia trainer Muib Sheifu was pleased to report that the Wikipedia article target had not only been met but surpassed. He expressed gratitude to contributors and then shared some observed errors to help participants improve their submissions:

1. Sharing general Xtools contribution links instead of direct article links.
2. Submitting links to articles they didn’t work on.

Muib gave a special shoutout to the Hausa community for leading in the number of Wikipedia contributions and praised the quality of their translations. He also cautioned against shortcuts in editing, which are being noticed during review.

He concluded with a call to action while encouraging more contributions and extending the campaign deadline.

Wikimedia Commons Progress – With Nwonwu Uchechukwu Pascaline

Wikimedia Commons trainer Nwonwu Uchechukwu Pascaline built upon Amarachi’s earlier report. She shared that only 20 out of the 50 targeted images had been uploaded to Commons so far, and one of the main reasons for the campaign extension is to help meet this goal. She also identified two recurring issues among participants:

1. Re-uploading existing images from Wikipedia, Wikidata, or Commons under the campaign category.
2. Uploading images unrelated to the campaign theme of African Women in Politics and Journalism.

Pascaline stressed the importance of originality and relevance, reminding participants that quality outweighs quantity, a principle that will guide participant reimbursement at the campaign’s conclusion.

Wikidata Insights – With Blessing Ojewuyi Timothy

For the final segment, Wikidata trainer and campaign reviewer Blessing Ojewuyi Timothy addressed the 300 Wikidata items goal, which was not only reached but exceeded by 100 entries.

She noted two main challenges faced:

• Participants failing to include their unique identifier codes, complicating contribution tracking.
• Lack of concise user contribution descriptions, making it difficult to trace activities without digging through edit histories.

Blessing reiterated the importance of accurate documentation and accountability in such a collaborative campaign.

Closing and Final Notes

The session wrapped up with an open Q&A, and links to surveys and training resources were shared so participants could revisit or catch up on the campaign content. For those who missed the session, the link to access it is available on the community meta page. The campaign was extended to the 30th of May as participants were urged to utilize the opportunity to join the campaign and make a positive impact!
We encourage you to visit our YouTube channel as well for previous sessions recordings. Let’s continue to celebrate the inspiring African female politicians and journalists, document their achievements, and capture remarkable moments.

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