Hello everyone! My name is Seimawu Sugri Seidu, same as my username from Ghana, and I am proud to be a 2025 fellow of the Africa Wiki Women Leadership and Fellowship Program.

When I joined this fellowship, I saw it as an opportunity to grow, but it turned out to be even more than that. It became a space where I learned, connected, and discovered the power of using open knowledge to tell women’s stories across Africa.

What I Learned

During the fellowship;

• I gained practical skills that helped shape both my confidence and my capacity to lead.
• I learned how to contribute effectively to Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
• How to create event Meta pages and Outreach dashboard.
• How to use Google Suite tools to organize and manage campaigns.

I also developed;

• stronger communication and collaboration skills, from delivering a speech at a community roundtable to co-authoring a Diff blog and
• serving as the social media handler for Africa Wiki Women’s platforms.

These experiences deepened my understanding of how digital storytelling and community engagement can amplify women’s visibility on Wikimedia projects.

How the Fellowship Transformed Me

This program has truly transformed me. I started as a passionate contributor but grew into a confident organizer and advocate for women’s representation online.

Through mentorship and teamwork, I learned that leadership is not just about having a title, it’s about service, collaboration, and empowering others to find their voice. My confidence, organization skills and ability to communicate with diverse audiences have all improved significantly.

The fellowship also deepened my sense of purpose. I now see Wikimedia not just as a set of platforms but as a powerful movement for inclusion, visibility and shared knowledge — especially for African women whose stories deserve to be told.

My Next Steps

As I graduate from the Africa Wiki Women Fellowship, I’m excited to take what I have learned into a new phase of impact. I’ll be leading an upcoming Africa Wiki Women campaign aligned with the#VisibleWikiWomen 2025 initiative, focused on improving the visibility of African women across Wikimedia projects.

This new project, set to launch soon, builds directly on the skills I gained during the fellowship, from campaign planning to content creation and community engagement. I’m currently working with the team to prepare for its rollout and I look forward to creating more opportunities for African women’s stories to be seen, shared and celebrated.

Gratitude

I’m deeply grateful to the Africa Wiki Women Leadership and Fellowship Program for this transformative experience, for the guidance, encouragement and community it provided.

To my mentors and fellow participants, thank you for inspiring me to lead with courage and empathy. The lessons I have learned here will continue to shape my journey as I contribute to closing the gender gap and strengthening feminist communities across Wikimedia.

To learn more about the fellowship and other Africa Wiki Women projects, visit the Africa Wiki Women Meta page.

If you would like to connect or collaborate, If you would like to connect or collaborate, you can find me on Meta. Together, we can continue to make women’s knowledge visible and accessible to the world.

Image Credits: Seimawu Sugri Seidu, Seimawu Seidu, and One of WikiMissingSources Office hour — all images are from Wikimedia Commons and licensed under free-use terms.

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