Grants:Project/Rapid/Articles for disabilities in Macedonian/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Articles for disabilities in Macedonian.
You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went? All in all, we were happy with how the project went. Despite the fact that we had only one event out of two with 8 participants, they managed to create 7 articles during the edithaton and another 9 during the following week remotely. Due to having the flu our photographer couldn’t make it to a scheduled event and make photographs from a person with cerebral palsy and assistive technology used in Macedonia, so that we could upload them to the WikiCommons. Our event attracted additional media attention after a participant who happened to be a journalist from an online newspaper (link) published a piece about the event. As a result, after the project ended two returning Wikipedia editors contacted us to help out and expand articles in the future. We also noticed that one of our newly created articles was further expanded by people not registered as our participants.

(2019) Taking into account the specificity of the subject and the expertise needed to create new articles, we are satisfied with the content that has been created. Even though we wished for much more new editors to be involved, at least this is a starting point for many topics that will encourage people to become editors and to motivate existing editors to continue nurturing their editing habits. From the months after the 1st event, we saw that other editors contributed to our articles and we hope the same will be achieved after this 2nd one. Overall, looking back a year, Wikipedia in Macedonian is enriched with knowledge, which we will try to the best of our abilities and efforts, to continually improve and update with relevant medical and regional information.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
2 events	2 events	There were 11 people registered, 2 announced by phone + 2 of Shared knowledge. (2019) Six people, 4 were the newbie editors from the last event + 2 returning editors that contacted us last year, were interested to attend; only 3 attended (+1 remotely from home).
27 participants	8 participants + 4 participants	Our efforts to spread the word included: creating a FB event and a group, posting about the event a couple of times a week through HO Iskra’s FB and Twitter account, by inviting the med students association directly through email and FB, posting in a highly visited translators FB group, asking other nonprofits to spread the word, posting in a highly visited group for parents and relatives for people with disabilities, posting on Facebook and Twitter with informative links about editing on Wikipedia and with a public announcement through a national online medium. The promotion did not include attending a morning show, since they needed booking in advance. The overall attendants on Day 1 included: 4 newbie editors, two experienced editors from Shared knowledge and two more with some previous Wikipedia editing experience helped create and improve articles remotely, from home. (2019) In order to avoid no shows since interest was low in the upcoming days, we contacted the people that attended the previous event and the returning editors (that contacted us after the 1st event). Practically those were the people that attended this 2nd event (3 in real time + 1 from their home).
24 new editors	4 new editors	Despite the fact we sent out a notification email a day before the event, only 4 newbies showed up and two returning editors who previously notified us they would help out remotely.
7-10 articles created or improved	16 articles created or improved and (2019) 7 new + 4 improved.	We focused on creating articles by translation from English to Macedonian and their expansion with Macedonian context ( e.g. statistics, what is the current legislature).7 articles were written during the edithaton event, and 9 more during the following week. (2019)7 new, 3 improved. We encountered some difficulties posting the articles due to the slow network, so most of the time there, participants translated into Word and posted at later times from home.
2-3	3	The experienced editors were planned as repeat participants, but we didn’t hold a second event. (2019) The newbie editors from the previous event were repeat participants.

Learning

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?

The choice of the venue (a private high school) was appreciated by our editors, since it was located near the centre of Skopje, with parking, nearby bus stops and a highspeed, reliable internet connection. What really helped make quality translated articles and a higher than anticipated number of articles was the combination of the experienced editors from Shared knowledge and the newbie editors which were people from different professional backgrounds ( med student, a translator, parents of people with disabilities etc.). For example, we had productive discussions on the adequate translation on contested terms (such as disabilities, wheelchair) from various points of view. This is why we decided to stay for an additional hour and a half of the planned 3 and a half hours. What also helped the process to create 9 additional articles from home, with Macedonian context on the topic during the next week was the pool of relevant literature in electronic format for the editors to use during translation and expansion of the articles. It was all added in the Facebook group created for this event and for further communication between the participants. Another thing that worked well was the option for people to opt out of getting their pictures taken, since one of the registered participants expressed not to have his picture taken and we were ready to resolve that issue with having a different colored collar for the name tag.

(2019) We believe that the location, refreshments and the gift bags were a good way to be accessible and motivating for the editors, since we had returning editors.

What did not work so well?

We were faced with not enough registered people for the second day and no shows.

(2019) Attendance was again lower than predicted, despite holding the event on a workday in the evening.

What would you do differently next time?

The attendants expressed their satisfaction from the usefulness of their giftbags, which were intended to attract participants and make them feel appreciated for volunteering their time and efforts. But since we were faced with no-shows, despite having a registration form and a reminder email, what we would do differently is use the swag from the giftbags as prizes for a certain achievement for editing or maybe give out attendance certificates to each participant instead, for getting the Wikipedia training for all newbie editors . Even though the event was open for the general public, in order not to face with a problem of shortage from participants and due to the medical character of some of the articles, there was a focus on recruiting medical students. We invited the Medical students association (EMSA) directly and posted in a group for medical students. Maybe we should have tried to partner up with them from the very beginning, the way we did with Shared knowledge, in order to create more interest for them to attend. Also, even though we were careful to not have the event during exam season, we weren’t aware of the fact that usually students from other cities from Macedonia go home for the weekend and don’t stay in Skopje, where their university is located (and the event was held). Next time we will not hold an event during a weekend, instead it will be during the workweek in the evening hours, after 6 pm. Maybe this will help with attracting more of the general public as well.

(2019) In the future, we are going to organize only online edithatons, before we organize a physical one again, unless we are equal partners with the medical student association from the very start. Due to the specificity of the subject and it involving certain level of medical knowledge, students are the best crowd to attract ( or translators with experience in medical translation); though seems only an invitation wasn’t quite enough to attract them.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Venue $240
Banner $59.33
Refreshments $75.78
Project Management $283
Giftbags (T – shirts $75.64; USB lamps $19.63; Candy $6.16)
Name tags $9
Reserve

Extension cords $11.22
Bank fees $25(Currency Conversion fee and monthly maintenance fees) + $10( Interbank settlement)

TOTAL $814.77
(2019)

Venue $287
Food and drinks $40.27
Monthly bank fees $33.25

TOTAL $360

Remaining funds

Remaining funds are retained by the grantee with WMF's permission until after the report review has been completed and report has been accepted, at which time the WMF program officer will also provide instructions regarding the grantee's reallocation or return of the unspent grant funds.

Do you have any remaining grant funds? Yes, we do have remaining funds in the amount of $ 635. This is a result from the fact that we didn’t hold a second event and the places we intended to buy from (the swag , banner, refreshments) had discounts in February so we were able to come under budget on all that. We would like to use part of the leftover money and swag to hold the second event.
(2019) We have leftover money in the current amount of $275, from which additional bank transfer fees will be deducted, if any.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project? In the name of HO Iskra we would like to thank Wikimedia for their support. This was a great experience, hopefully we will continue to cooperate, spread the word about the importance of Wikipedia's mission and make knowledge about people with disabilities accessible for everyone. Here is a list of all the articles and some photos of both events.

1st Event (2018) These are the article created on the day of event and in the next few days from our editors.

1. Cerebral palsy
2. Ataxic cerebral palsy
3.Spastic cerebral palsy
4.Athetoid cerebral palsy
5.Spastichemiplegia
6.Spastic diplegia
7.Spastic quadriplegia
8.Paralysis
9.Spasm
10.Muscle tone
11.Disability
12.Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
13.Physical therapy
14.Assistive technology
15. Wheelchair
16.Caregiver stress

2nd Event (2019)
Expanded
1. Cerebral palsy [1]
2. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [2]
3. Physical therapy [3]
4. Muscle tone [4]

Newly created
1.Patient lift
2.Autism therapies
3.Autism spectrum
4.Occupational therapy
5.Management of cerebral palsy
6. Gross Motor Function Classification System
7. Choreoathetosis

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 2.1
Photo 2.2
Photo 2.3
Photo 2.4