Education/News/February 2021/Philippines Climate Change Translate-a-thon

Philippines Climate Change Translate-a-thon

Author: Anthony B. Diaz

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Summary: The Philippines Climate Change Translate-a-thon was held last January 2021 and still on-going. Its primary focus is to create articles related to climate change. This is to improve environmentalism awareness and engage teachers in editing articles on Wikipedia.

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  Participants using the content translation tool
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  Brochures and flyers for the program
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  Participants during the translate-a-thon
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  On teaching Wikipedia
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  The participants for the PH Climate Change Translate-a-thon

The Philippines Climate Change Translate-a-thon was held last January 24, 2021, at Naga City, Philippines, and was attended by a total of 7 teachers, 4 students, and 3 Wikimedian volunteers. This activity was spearheaded by three active Wikimedia volunteers of the Central Bikol Wikipedia and are members of the Pagsirang Inc., an organization of writers and artists that were also engaged in contributing to Wikimedia projects. The activity has focused on translating articles on climate change events especially in the Philippines with the use of the content translation tool of the Central Bikol Wikipedia. Most of the created and translated articles have ranged from the typhoons that devastated the country and their massive impact on the economic state of the Philippines. It has also aimed to promote disaster preparedness which is timely for the Philippines, as the country has experienced three consecutive typhoons last October and November 2020. One of them is the Super Typhoon Rolly (International name: Super Typhoon Goni) which has reached typhoon signal number 5, a first time in the history of the Philippines. A large portion of Luzon was put in the state of calamity with the aftermath of the disaster. Other topics that were discussed during the edit-a-thon and tutorial were Wikipedia: Policies and guidelines, the Five pillars of Wikipedia, Wikipedia:Verifiability, and Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Participants were also taught how to use the Content translation tool and publish articles with it. The project is expected to end by March 31, 2021, with a total of 50 new articles created on Central Bikol Wikipedia. As of now, there are 30 articles created and edited by 19 editors.