Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Accessible knowledge digitizing Libyan culture

Dear NAMA [ Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) Tunisie],

Thank you for submitting your application for the Wikimedia Alliances Fund. We recommend funding for this project with the following comments and questions to be taken into consideration;

• We recognize this project as an exciting opportunity to reignite the Wikimedia Libyan community and look forward to seeing the unfolding impact of the project including the development and engagement of new and existing community members/volunteers.
• We recommend that you take and dedicate time and resources towards outreach efforts and strategies geared towards building a sustainable community. It is important that the approach taken to engage newcomers and existing members be done by people with an understanding and experience with the movement.
• We continue to recommend that you work with a pool of experienced Wikimedians who will also have the needed experience of working on various Wikimedia projects, some that are core to the success of the proposed project.
• We found a lack of alignment between the budget request and the proposed project outcomes and goals. We recommend reviewing the budget including the number and amount assigned to staff costs.
• We recommend reaching out to community members in Libya who have been part of projects such as Wiki World Heritage and that can support the training components of the project.
• We recommend that you leverage existing work done in the country with communities such as Wiki World Heritage and Wikimedia Tunisia. These are two local partners that can be useful in the implementation of the project. In line with this, we encourage you to review existing training materials developed by Wikimedia Communities aligned with your project goals and fitting your context to avoid duplicated efforts and promote complementarity.
• We would like you to clarify what specific Wikimedia projects your project will be contributing towards.
• We see your request for support from the Foundation regarding sharing the progress and impact of your work; we suggest using tools such as the outreach dashboard amongst others that are commonly used in the Wikimedia community. We believe that by working with experienced Wikimedians you will be able to access useful tools to support your sharing goals.

Lastly, we would like to meet with you and offer our experience as Wikimedians and as committee members who have been part of projects aligned with yours to share our experiences, contacts and any other information that would be useful for your project.

Please let the program officer supporting your grant application and the MEA region program officer know when you might be available to have a conversation.

Thank you once again for your application and we wish you the very best!

On behalf of MEA Region Committee --VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 13:51, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

Dear Committee members,

Here are my responds to your comments and questions:

- I am glad that you found the project we proposed an exciting opportunity to have more impact in Libya.

- Building a sustainable community was on thing in our mind during communicating, discussing, contacting partners on the ground. We do plan to dedicate time to invest in people who have the passion and would commit to share knowledge. in our proposal we have an activity of having a series of meetings with different stakeholders to establish a user group in Libya, which we hope that would be doing activities sustainably.

- We are very open to collaborate with experienced Wikimedians to implement the activities.

- We will submit a new budget according to the comments we receive during the meeting with the committee.

- We have been in touch with the Libyan NGO that implemented the project with Wiki World Heritage, Scene Culture and Heritage (https://ar.scene.org.ly/?fbclid=IwAR12vulBvsWVb_-mIwIep5NlB-dgf83WkmwQl9nBXPYFGDa-7if-iV-6QFs), we have got an idea about their projects structure and will take into consideration not to duplicate the efforts, though we see the difference between us is with the target group we aim to include in our training which are study centers and researchers groups that already have the knowledge through their daily work and will benefit from sharing it on Wikipedia to make accessible to a larger number of audience.

- our project will be contributing toward Wikipedia Arabic.

- Grateful to consider your suggestion for the outreach dashboard tool of sharing the progress and impact of our work.

Thank you very much for your always support

Rana Al Akabani 2001:B07:646A:F44E:B4D1:71C:5E6E:FAD3 11:48, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

Dear committee members,

after our second meeting this afternoon we are glad to inform you that we are continuing with the same proposal and budget proposed for the activities.

We would like to confirm that through all the projects activities we will have in mind as a goal finding sustainable partners in Libya who will be able to continue with the contribution for Wikipedia Arabic and other Wiki projects, in order to ensure long term impact of the project and partnerships.

We understand that finding the right people is the biggest challenge to growing the movement and the project we proposed best initiates this process, always with your kind support and follow up.

We are very excited to start this project and would do our best for a fruitful collaboration.

All the best

Rana Al Akabani 2001:B07:646A:F44E:B4D1:71C:5E6E:FAD3 14:28, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

Alliances Fund Programme Funding approved in the amount 19828 USD

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 19,828 USD with a grant term starting 1st April  - 30th September 2022. 

We are pleased and excited at the opportunity of MiCT Tunisie / NAMA to collaborate and support the growth of Wikimedian communities in Libya. It was great learning about the efforts you have already taken in identifying collaborative partners from previous engagements on Wikimedia projects who will be valuable for the project. 

We look forward to learning from you on the outcomes of supporting the development of a Wikimedian Libyan community and in learning about the strategies that worked best when collaborating with other like-minded partners including GLAM institutions for sustained engagement of the community. 

Thank you and we wish you the very best! On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff--VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 18:39, 17 March 2022 (UTC)