In other to create awareness for a sustainable environment, the Wikimedia Foundation has empowered over 30 Senior Citizens on how to create and edit contents that would enhance climate justice on the Wikipedia site.
in her presentation the trainer Wikimedia Foundation Mrs Obialugariaku Ezeilo, explained that the Senior Citizens, most of whom are above 50 years, were selected for the training to increase their knowledge on how human activities such as burning fossil fuels and destroying rainforests, have an increasing influence on the climate and the Earth’s temperature.
She said the training tagged ‘Wiki for Senior Citizens Network’ would focus on data collection, causes of environmental degradation, effects and how to address it.
” As Senior Citizens they are in the best position to spread the knowledge gained by creating content on the Wikipedia site, such as how to stop environmental hazards in our society, this would serve as an encyclopedia for researchers”.
“We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, as well as advocate for policies that enable climate friendly environment”.
Mrs Ezeilo said “We are deeply passionate about environmental sustainability and reducing the effects of climate change to ensure that the sum of all human knowledge continues to be available, regardless of political and global realities.”
“Not just that, more sensitisation is required, we need to go particularly to the grassroots to reach everyone and adding these knowledge on the site would help a great deal for student, teachers and other users to access.’’ she added.
Mrs Ezeilo who stressed that the Wikipedia site helps to keep the older persons busy and connect them to other users around the world, advised other Senior Citizens to avail themselves the opportunity to learn new skills.
Reporting by Julian Osamoto