EDIT-A-THON: A Perfect Close to A Worthy Campaign.

One of the ways World Pulse has continued to stand tall as the giant that she is, tiredlessly carrying and shining the light on the visions of many inspiring but unsung women is by continuously seeking ways to bridge the digital divide and make every nook and cranny of this www easily accessible to women.

The many training opportunities and workshops organized are so very important and timely in a world that is constantly evolving and shifting towards a more digitalized one. There's a need to ensure that #NoWomanLeftBehind and World Pulse is leaving no stones unturned in this regard.

The huge potential of women continue to be underutilized vastly because of the gender disparity observed in the digital world. The digital divide is so big that it would take a long while to close it.

Undaunted, World Pulse, through its dynamic team and dedicated partners, continue to seek every way possible to bridge this divide and shine the light on women doing amazing stuff.

One of such opportunities given to women is the just ended Edit-A-Thon workshop which was held on the 27th of April 2021. Organised by World Pulse in partnership with Whose Knowledge?, the just-ended #VisibleWikiWomen campaign was an eye-opening moment of learning and relearning new things in the digital space.

There was tangible excitement when so many of us Ambasssdors logged into the call. Having missed the #ThrivingThursdays calls for some time now, seeing the sisters again online was like a happy reunion of sorts. There was palpable excitement in the digital air as we all excitedly greeted each other.

Ana, I believe started the workshop by welcoming us all and as it is customary, we all introduced ourselves and where we were joining in from, making use of the chat box mostly.

Next,  the partner teams were introduced. We had Adele, Claudia, Mariana, Pamela from the Whose Knowledge? team joining Dawn and Ana. The special guest this day was our one and only dynamic trailblazer, Carolyn Seaman!

With this formidable team in place, the workshop was set to start. The importance of making women visible online could not be over-emphasized during this #VisibleWikiWomen2021 virtual workshop especially as it was highlighted that women's presence online is a paltry 20%. I say paltry because we all know just how much women do and contribute to the development of their countries and yet, their achievements are underreported and underrepresented online. The invisibility of women online is seen as a form of systemic violence, like a firm vise choking women from getting the visibility they and their work deserve.

And here is where World Pulse comes in through its many practical trainings to ensure women get the right tools and exposure to continuously and courageously put their stories out there.

In the course of this 2 hours virtual workshop, I along with everyone present, learned some interesting things. One thing I learnt was that #VisibleWikiWomen had a campaign running this 2021 from March 8 -31, to ensure about 5000 images of women were uploaded on Wikipedia.

Carolyn is always ready alongside Dawn and Ana, to guide everyone who is interested to join the campaign to get more women on Wikipedia.

We were told to nominate others and even ourselves and Mama Tam asked how do we know that someone we nominate may have already been nominated and is already on Wikipedia? How do we track our profiles? Is it possible to delete an old account? What do you do in case you forget your password? These were some of the general questions asked during the workshop. 

Adele and Mariana took time explaining all this to us and then we had a 5minutes break with soothing music on play after which we all went into break rooms for 30mins.

It was super cool, to be in the same break room with Ana and Jill. Adele was our trainer and since I was mostly a learner that day, Jill graciously agreed to do the demo for our group on how to create, upload pictures and everything in between on Wikimedia. It was quite interesting and seamless to do. In fact, I could say it was as easy as ABC once you got the hang of it. All you need is to get your pictures ready and make sure you have authorisation to use them online, log on to commons.wikimedia.org and you are good to go. In case you get stuck, always remember the dynamic World Pulse team is ready to assist.

An interesting and fun moment during our breakout session was when Jill reached the category section. She wanted to put World Pulse but there wasn't a category for World Pulse. The next question was why isn't there a category for World Pulse and Ana's rejoiner was there ought to be one! We indeed live and breathe World Pulse! And of course, I just had to ask if there was a category for sickle cell which Claudia's quick research when we all got back together showed there indeed was.

It was a two hours well spent with so many take-home lessons. One prominent lesson I got and which has stayed with me since then is that Wikipedia is for EVERYONE! I used to believe it was only for prominent figures like heads of states, royals, celebrities, because in a way, those are the kind of people one easily sees out there...needless to say, that view was scattered that moment and I realise we are all doing amazing work as women determined to question existing status quos and change perceptions and mindsets, therefore we all do have just as much rights as anyone to be on wikimedia.

World Pulse is like that safe haven, where the mother eagle with its sharp vision, prepares its young. It lets them fly with the full assurance that there will always be a safer haven for them to land when they feel the need to rest their wings, refuel and fly again or gently nudged to soar again.

We are grateful for these numerous opportunities given to us because of the confidence in our potential to shine in a world that is more or less, determined to clip the wings of women and dim their lights.

With the theme \"Feminist Realities: Living our Resistance and Liberation\", the EDIT- A- Thon 2021 #VisibleWikiWomen in partnership with Who's Knowledge? was an apt and beautiful way to close the just ended #SheTransformsTech2020 cohort program. Let's get ready to shine the light on more women to be visible online. Nominate a sister doing amazing work today!