Africa Wiki Challenge (AWC) is an initiative launched in 2021 by Open Foundation West Africa to strengthen the representation of Africa across Wikimedia projects. For its 2026 edition, themed “Water for Life – Water as a Source of Life in Africa,” the campaign invited contributors to create, improve, and enrich content on water resources, sanitation infrastructure, water governance, and local solutions addressing challenges related to this essential resource.
This year, the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikimedians Community had the opportunity to take part in the Africa Wiki Challenge 2026 campaign. This initiative aimed to develop content related to rivers and water resources in the Ghanaian Pidgin language on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata, while also training new contributors capable of continuing this documentation effort beyond the competition.
As part of Africa Wiki Challenge 2026, the community partnered with Wikimedia Ghana User Group, through their Shared Community Resources Program, supported us with free venue and food (breakfast and lunch), also created and shared flyers on their social media platforms for the campaign. We raised awareness among students and youth in Accra about how they can contribute to Wikimedia projects especially on the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikipedia. This collaboration led to 2 training workshops involving youths, students and first time contributors. In total, 38 participants registered and took part in the campaign.
During the training, participants were introduced to the principles of free knowledge and learned how to contribute to Ghanaian Pidgin Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. They were trained to translate and improve articles, upload freely licensed media, and enrich structured data on Wikidata. Most participants were new contributors and showed strong interest in continuing their contributions after this initial experience.
One of the approaches used in this edition was the provision of lists of articles to be translated, helping new contributors choose articles they would like to translate. Special attention was given to rivers and watercourses in African countries, in order to improve coverage of this natural heritage on the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikipedia. This effort aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 vision and the continent’s development priorities, which emphasize sustainable management of natural resources and improved access to water across African communities.
The local campaign ran from 28 May to 30 June 2026. In total, 38 participants registered and took part in the campaign. Experienced contributors, including some volunteer members, Yaw tuba mobilized to help newbies during the training sessions and Amuzujoe helped with photography and the uploading of images of the sessions to Wikimedia Commons. This collaboration between experienced contributors and new volunteers produced encouraging results, with participants creating 442 new articles, improved 744 existing articles, made a total of 6,000 edits, uploaded 239 media files to Wikimedia Commons, and generated over 10,000 article views during the campaign. These achievements demonstrate both the productivity of the participants and the campaign’s contribution to improving water-related knowledge about Africa across Wikimedia projects.
The most active contributors were recognized after the campaign in recognition of the quality and quantity of their contributions throughout the Africa Wiki Challenge 2026 in the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikimedians Community. The first place was awarded to Achiri Bitamsimli, followed by Ibnali1 in second place and Emmanuel Anin in third place. The female top contributor went to Tenaciuos Ntaawa, the overall newbie contributor went to Ebenezer Sasu and Ibnali1 had the highest media upload on Wikicommons This recognition aimed to highlight their commitment to improving and creating content related to water resources across Wikimedia projects, as well as their consistent engagement despite the challenges encountered. The awards also encouraged other participants to continue contributing and to further engage in free knowledge initiatives.
We are proud to have contributed to Africa’s “Water for Life” initiative on the Ghanaian Pidgin language through Africa Wiki Challenge 2026, adding our part to documenting water-related knowledge on Wikimedia projects. However, due to limited time and the harsh weather conditions, we were not able to fully explore the richness of the topic, particularly the abundance of water sources in Ghana and visual documentation that could further enrich the content. We therefore intend to continue working on this subject beyond the campaign.
We are grateful to Open Foundation West Africa for the opportunity to participate in the Africa Wiki Challenge 2026 and Wikimedia Ghana User Group for their support and all participants who contributed to this meaningful initiative to document and share knowledge about Africa’s water resources on the Ghanaian Pidgin Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
Can you help us translate this article?
In order for this article to reach as many people as possible we would like your help. Can you translate this article to get the message out?
Start translation
