On Friday, November 8th, twelve young people gathered at the innovation hub “Kumasi Hive” in Kumasi to become future editors of the free online encyclopedia as part of the project “Young Innovators: Using Digital
Media to Inform about Regular and Irregular Migration Issues”.
On November 13, 2019 thirteen young aspiring editors also came together at Kumasi Hive to learn how to create, edit and translate Wikipedia articles into the local languages Asante Twi, Hausa and Ewe.
They were assisted by Wikimedia Ghana Skills Trainer, Sandister Tei as well as Content Trainers from IOM and GIZ that ensured the correct wording and accuracy of the articles.
The event took place in the course of a six-month pilot project run by the Global Innovation Gathering in partnership with Kumasi Hive, Impact Hub Accra and Wikimedia in Ghana that aims at improving the information base on migration and travel.
While the project is aiming to inform young people about the risks of irregular migration, the organisers are mainly focusing on the needs of young professionals and experts that want to travel to Germany.
The project kicked off with a research phase that included interviews to identify common information needs regarding business and knowledge exchange related travel as well as the challenges encountered during visa processes.
The research phase is now followed by two editathons events in Kumasi and Accra during which young professionals will receive training on creating and updating Wikipedia articles in collaboration with experts that provide inputs on the topic.
On Monday, November 18th, a roundtable discussion with embassy staff and other relevant stakeholders will take place at Impact Hub Accra and provide further inputs for a white paper summarizing the project findings and recommendations.
The outcomes of the editathons will be accessible online and further distributed through an outreach phase covering various social media channels.
