Education/News/August 2020/3rd edition of Wikipedia Education Program in Hebron, Palestine. (COVID-19 edition)
3rd Edition of Wikipedia Education Program in Hebron, Palestine (COVID-19 edition)
Author: Mohammad Hijjawi
Social Media channels or hashtags: Wikimedia Levant on Facebook, Wikimedia Levant on twitter
Summary: An article about the online verison of Wikipedia education program in Hebron, Palestine.
In July 2020, Wikimedia Levant launched the third edition of the Wikipedia Education Program in Hebron, Palestine. Unlike previous editions, this one was conducted completely online; since due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and following Wikimedia Foundation’s policies, it wasn’t possible to organize any on-site activities.
The Education Program’s team in Hebron opted, instead, to convene with the students online via various video conference programs. The students were virtually taught about Wikipedia, its community and history, and its sister Wikimedia projects, and were trained on how to edit the encyclopedia professionally from A to Z.
Surprisingly, this was yet the most successful education program in Palestine. The 45 participating students did a magnificent job, creating a total of 430 articles and expanding 70 more on the Arabic-language Wikipedia, and uploading 415 photos to Wikimedia Commons. One student contributed, all by herself, the sum of one hundred Wikipedia pages, completing the 100 wikidays challenge in less than two months.
They achieved all these accomplishments despite the increasing number of infected patients with Coronavirus in Hebron, which became one of the most infected cities in the Middle East recording about 300 cases daily. Some of the participants were diagnosed positive, too. But this didn't stop them from achieving their amazing work.
We would like to offer many thanks to all the distinguished students, to the education program team members in Palestine and to Wikimedia Levant volunteers (namely: Bara’a Zama’rah, Nagham Jamjoum, Tala Sarabtah, Aseel Zama’rah, Mohammad Hijjawi, and Sami Al-Jabari).