Wikimedia Foundation elections/2024/Candidates/Mohammed Awal Alhassan

Mohammed Awal Alhassan (Alhassan Mohammed Awal)

Alhassan Mohammed Awal (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)

Total word count for the whole application (required + optional questions) is 1000 (one thousand) words
Candidate details	Personal: Name: Mohammed Awal Alhassan Location: Ghana Languages: Dagbani and English Editorial: Wikimedian since: 2019 Active wikis: Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, MediaWiki
Required questions
Why are you running for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees? What would you contribute? What would you like to learn more about?	I have a passion for volunteering and when I first heard that there was an Internet space where volunteers could promote their languages and make the knowledge shared on that platform freely accessible to all, I never hesitated to learn how to become a member. I quickly created my Wikimedia User Account as a digital Dagbani language Activist. I later discovered several other Wikimedia projects aside from Wikipedia, which increased my interest in getting more involved in the Movement Activities, including availing myself of volunteer roles.
Please describe your Wikimedia experience (such as contributions to the Wikimedia projects, memberships in Wikimedia organizations or affiliates, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation with a Wikimedia movement ally organization).	Since becoming a Wikimedian, my track record for conduct, leadership roles, and contributions to several projects voluntarily are something I take pride in. I am a core team member and served as Communications, Outreach, and Campaigns Manager for the [1]Dagbani Wikimedians User Group. I am currently the Co-lead for the Dagaare Wikimedia community and helped the Dagaare Wikipedia to go live from the incubator in less than a year in 2023. Creative Commons: In 2022, I Co-led the Traditional Knowledge and Copyright Intersections Working Group (WG) to gain a better sense of the important issues about the relationship between traditional knowledge, groups, and resources and the CC licenses, CC principles, and copyright. I also served as a Working Group member, Digital Community Heritage, and Open Access and Participated and Contributed to the group's research findings, and analysis of cases of international digital community heritage initiatives. My efforts in the CC community allowed me to become one of this year's winners of the CC activity fund. I volunteered as an advisor to the MCDC and Movement Charter ambassador. I volunteered as LD4: LD4 2023 Conference Planning Committee and Outreach Subcommittee Member. This year, I am a co-chair for 2024 which will take place later in the year. I was the lead organizer and Project Lead for Wiki Loves Folklore 2022 in Ghana and Coordinator for Wiki Loves Folklore and Feminism and Folklore 2023 and 2024. I am a regular Art+Femism campaign organizer and Mailing list administrator for the Art+Feminism community. A Wikimedia Tech Ambassador and one of the session presenters at WikiIndaba 2021 on Lexicography.
From your perspective, what should the Wikimedia Foundation be prioritizing over the next 5-10 years, and why do you see these as the most important priorities?	The Foundation should make efforts to ensure Equity in Decision Making in the movement activities which is one of the Movement Charter Initiatives and invest more in supporting the indegenous and the underreprented groups. The minority/indegenous and groups should be involved in decision makings to feel part of the processes and to ensure no one is left behind and the mission of the foundation in maikng knowledge freely accessible to all would have become a reality.
Optional questions - Professional Experience, Skills and Education
Please describe your experience with governing bodies of organizations (nonprofit or for-profit), mentioning the scope of your responsibilities, as well as the complexity of the organization (in terms of scale of operations, budget, number of people involved, or other meaningful measures) and the size of the board or body.	I serve in different organizations in diiferent capacities. I am a Council Member for Global Voices, a Fellow and mentor at Ghana School for Internet Governance which is a Fellowship program by E-Governance and Internet Governance Foundation for Africa to train Fellows from different parts of Africa on internet governance issues. Internet Society Ghana (ISOC Ghana): Communications Team Member. Manage all the organization's communications, including mailing lists, social media platforms, and general publications voluntarily. Also was Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): Member of the Universal Acceptance Communications Working Group in charge of crafting and sending out posts and general communications to the public through emails, social media, and blogs/websites.
Please describe your professional career experience.	Professionally, I am an educationist working with Ghana Education Service since 2007. I worked a classroom teacher, a Head teacher, and was later elevated to the education directorate where I served in variouse schedules as an examinations officer, Basic Education Coordinator and currently serving as School Improvement Support Officer where I offer mentorship support to teachers on the job and young and upcoming teachers to improve learning outcomes in the Ghanaian schools. I am also a Digital Language Activist interested in supporting the preservation of the indegenous languages on the internet space.
Please briefly describe 3 situations that show how you tackled, or advised others on, a complex problem in an organization. How did you work with others to address the situations?	The first was when the Executive Director of a local NGO I co-founded with never appreciated any efforts I made in the organization and always get angry with me at every little situation. My colleagues noticed it and was worried and they were afraid of the results if I decide to react. I calm the nerves of everyone by secretly meeting with the Executive Director alone and voicing out my frustrations to him and sought for his advise as to how I could possibly meet his expectations without compromising on the vission priciples of the organization. He explained that I made a damning remark about him to one of members of the organization and the person came to tell him what I said and that angered him. He advised me to always say about my superiors words that will not hurt them when they hear it and that I should be careful of those I call my friends. I apologized to him and we were good to go. The second case was in one of my field work at Ghana Education Service where I was paired with two other people for some data collection in schools. These two guys got angry at each other and would talk to each in the field. I realized this was going to affect our work if allowed to continue. After work the fisrt day, I called one of them and told her that the other one said I should apologize to her on her behalf and that she should her if she accepted the appology. I did the same to the other one and lo and behold, the two bought and eat food together before we started work the next day
Please describe your educational background, including degrees, certificates, and courses of study finished, and their relevance to board work.	1. Dilolma in Basic Education, specialized in Dagbani Language. With this background, I can translate materials into the indegenous Dagbani Language to aid undersatnding by native Dagabani Wikimedians and to ensure diversity and inclusivity in the governance issues. 2. Degree in Basic Eduaction, specialized in social science which is relevant in relating well with or socializing well with people from diffent backgrounds to achive a common goal.
Please add any relevant links describing your professional background, experience, profile (such as LinkedIn, staff page, etc.).	https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2022/06/22/meet-alhassan-mohammed-awal-dagbani-language-activist/ and LinkedIn
Optional questions - Leadership Experience
Please describe ways in which you have helped to form a bridge between multiple communities (such as by working on projects outside your home wiki, or working on a collaboration between multiple affiliates).
Can you describe a policy, on wiki or off, that you helped to create or change? What did you learn from this experience?
How have you been able to empower people to make their voices heard?
Sometimes in professional situations, there are personality conflicts. Explain how you remain productive even with personality conflicts.	I keep in mind the core values/priciples, mission and vission of the organization and work towards that while taking appropraite steps to seek redress of any concerns I may have.
Optional questions - Strategic Thinking
Where do you see the need for greater diversity in the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees or within the movement? What steps would you take to improve diversity on the Board or within the movement? What steps would you recommend the Board take to improve diversity?
Verification	Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee
Verification	Eligibility: Verified Verified by: KTC (talk) 20:03, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]	Identification: Verified Verified by: – NahidSultan (WMF) (talk) 04:28, 2 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]