Africa Portal/Community

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You don't need to ask for permission to contribute to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects: just do it. But if you would like to get in contact with other Wikimedians and institutions, here you find some of the ways to reach us.

The best way to reach Wikipedians and Wikimedians is to do it online on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects. Every project has a Community portal and a general discussion page (on Wikipedia in English is called the Village pump); furthermore there are project pages created to coordinate work on specific topics and discuss about it. Also remember that every article and page on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects has a "discussion page"; this page should be used to discuss the topics related to that particular page. Please remember that every Wikipedia project in every language has its own community.

Chapters, thematic organisations and user groups are different kind of organisations who contribute to support and promote the Wikimedia projects and they are recognised by the Wikimedia Foundation.

• Wikimedia Chapters are independent organizations founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects within a specified geographical region (country).
• Wikimedia thematic organizations are independent non-profit organizations founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects within a specified focal area.
• Wikimedia user groups are groups of Wikimedia users who have decided to support and promote the Wikimedia projects in the offline world by organizing meetups and other projects.

There can be Wikipedians and Wikimedians in your country even if there are not jet chapters, thematic organisations and user groups recognized by Wikimedia Foundation. Please find below a list of chapters, thematic organisations and user groups based in Africa or involved in projects related to Africa.

• Iberocoop (Regional Cooperation Initiative for Ibero-America) links together the local chapters and working groups, thus fostering collaboration and experience sharing. Ibero-America supposes a strategic area where the organization of the Wikimedia movement is still a big challenge. In 2012 the network does not include Lusophone African groups.
• WikiFrancA - French speaking community. In 2012 there have been a meeting during Wikimania 2012 and there have been the establishment of a specific mailing list.
• Arabic Language Initiative supports the Arabic Wikipedia community in order to develop the overall status of Arabic Wikipedia and reduce the gap between the over 400 million speakers and the below 200K articles. It is one of the Wikimedia Foundation's global development projects directed towards Global South.

• Asaf Bartov - Head of Wikimedia Grants Program and Global South Partnerships

List of all staff and contractors at Wikimedia Foundation.