How often do you witness and capture the display of rich culture, beautiful faces, magnificent ancient traditions, and charming ornaments exhibited during festivals? Are these captivating moments you witness during festivals a true reflection of how they are represented on the web?

Wiki Club Ashesi under the umbrella of Open Foundation West Africa was founded in 2017 by Edith Violet Naisubi who, at the time was a sophomore at Ashesi University. The club which is an affiliate of Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) has since grown to become a multi-member student organization focused on enhancing student participation in open resources and open projects through education and training.

Getting new editors who would be dedicated to advancing the course of Wikipedia has never been easy, not to talk about retention of new recruits. People show interest in editing Wikipedia but varnish after their first training and there are others who start editing, gain more interest and slip away along the way.

When Felix Nartey, co-founder of Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA), encouraged me not to miss Asaf Bartov’s visit to Ghana, I thought it was one of his ways to just get me present at the training.

Ever seen participants bursting with so much excitement learning about the Open Movement for the first time? Ever witnessed young people so obsessed with Wikipedia after finding out they can actually contribute? Ever seen energetic participants changing the world immediately after training?

Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA), and Asaf Bartov, Senior Programme Officer Emerging Communities, Wikimedia Foundation held fruitful discussions with the various departments at the University of Ghana on Wikipedia initiatives.

Wikipedia mirrors the world, the biases that exist in the world also come to play in Wikipedia. In our part of the World, Wikipedia is not trusted as good educational material in our schools especially institutions of higher learning mainly because it's a Wiki.

The Africa Wikimedia Developers Project (AWMD) organized its second workshop in Cote d’ivoire last week after the first edition was held in Ghana last year. The two-day workshop saw participants schooled on how to use phabricator to track bugs (problems on media wiki: the software responsible for all Wikimedia projects.)

Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) has launched a Wikipedia for Schools Programme with the African Science Academy (ASA).The partnership was initiated by the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Victoria Coleman of the Wikimedia Foundation, who served as a mentor for the young female students of the Academy.

Wikimania 2018 was the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa and diverse news about the annual event was nothing short of exciting and educational. At OFWA, the event meant a lot to us as three of our members contributed immensely in various sessions at the conference.