The Wiki Loves Women Focus coaching program is a practical, action-oriented, mentored online training program facilitated by mentors. It aims to provide skills and knowledge specifically designed to support community leaders in creating programs and initiatives for gender equity within the Wikimedia and Open movements. The Focus coaching program will provide insights, guidance, skill transfers, and mentoring to help each member of the working group plan a gender equity program within their community and gather the resources and skills needed to implement this program.
The Wiki Loves Women Focus Group was initially formed in 2021 and comprised 12 women representing 8 African countries (Botswana, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Cameroon, and Rwanda), as well as France. In 2022, the group welcomed two new members from South Africa and Tunisia, expanding its composition. As part of the 2023 program, the WLW working group continued to grow with the addition of 4 new members, making it more diverse and inclusive. The primary goal of the working group members is to raise awareness by organizing the participation of local communities in the #SheSaid initiative. #SheSaid began as an online campaign in 2020 to enhance the visibility of women leaders by creating new entries or improving existing entries on Wikiquote. This ensures that the voices of women are heard.
In 2024, 12 new members joined the group to attend 30 women from 12 African countries (Botswana, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwae, Kenya, Cameroun, Rwanda, Tunisia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Egypt) and France.
Meet the Focus Group Members
Focus Group
Faith Mwanyolo
Focus Group: Kenya
Faith Mwanyolo is a computer science student at Riara University located in Nairobi, Kenya. She began to take an interest in Wiki projects in 2018 and since has organized a WikiGap event at her university, attended the Wikimania Conference in Cape Town, among other things.
Ann Wavinya
Maab Hussien Mohamed Elfaki
Focus Group: Sudan
Graduted from development program and established a voluntrey work since 2018.
Nonny Ntlahla
Focus Group: South Africa
Nonny Ntlahla is a young Social Dynamics graduate and currently an enthusiastic Health and Fitness student completing their Diploma.
Pearl Maatla Melamu
Focus Group: Botswana
A Wikimedian and a library intern at Arthur Portland College in Botswana.
Minette Lontsie
Focus Group: Cameroon
Minette Lontsie is a trained journalist, entrepreneur, and Wikimedian from Cameroon. She is passionate about creating content for Africans and filling the content gap about Africa on the internet, with a strong interest in arts and culture, gender equality, photography, and IT.
Candy Tricia Khohliwe
Admin Intern
Candy Tricia Khohliwe is long-term editor and belongs to the Wikimedia Botswana Usergroup. She has led two successful Wiki Loves Africa photo contest and a successful Art and Feminism Editathon and panel discussion. She has assisted and conducted key activities and for the focus group members, a group made up odd 12 women across different countries of Africa.
Fatima Oury Sow Gueye
Focus Group: Senegal
Senegalese and a passionate librarian who fights for access to information and advocacy for the valorisation of libraries.
Goodness Ignatius
Focus Group: Nigeria
A dedicated member of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group. As a librarian, she has a passion for sharing knowledge and promoting learning, which has led her becoming an active contributor to various Wikimedia projects, including Meta-Wiki, Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikicommons, and Wikiquote.
Florence Devouard
Co-Project Manager
A Wikipedian since 2002, a former Chair of Wikimedia Foundation, Florence Devouard was born in France where she currently lives. Initially trained as an Agricultural Engineer, she transitioned to non-profit leadership, intercultural project management, community building, and skills transfer roles
Zayneb Takouti
Focus Group: Tunisia
I bring a wealth of expertise in partnership management, event coordination, and strategic planning.
Walaa Abdel Manaem
Afek Ben Chahed
Focus Group: Tunisia
unisian, Librarian, an active member of Wikimedia Tunisia User Group since 2016 and the co-founder of Africvs, a youth collective which works on promoting and documenting the Tunisian heritage.
Carolyn Seaman
Focus Group: Nigeria
A lawyer with over 20 years’ experience advancing girls' and women’s rights. And a Social Entrepreneur, Tech Evangelist, Filmmaker, Girl Expert, Founder and Creative Director of Girls Voices Initiative, a non-profit that educates and empowers girls and women to identify their voices to advocate for their rights.
Olla Mahadi
Focus Group: Sudan
Olla Mahadi has been a volunteer with Wikimedia since 2018 on Wiki Gap 1.0. Ever since then, she has been involved in different work related to Sudan – editing mostly and training new users, highlighting the gap in content related to women and the need to write about Sudan by Sudanese. She is the co-founder of Wikimedia Sudan User Group in 2020.
Sichelesile Similo Ndlovu
Focus Group: Zimbabwe
Sichelesile lives in Matopo, Zimbabwe, and is a proudly new African Wikipedian. She has been a librarian at a boarding school for the past 11 years and holds a degree in Library and Information Science. She joined the Wiki Loves Women Focus Group to initiate projects to further the WikiAfrica movement across Africa.
