About Wiki Club Ohrid
GLAM Macedonia from Skopje is a non-profit association for free content reproduction whose main purpose is to develop Wikipedia into Macedonian language, which is a source of knowledge and information not only for students, but also for everyone. One of our projects is the establishment and operation of wiki clubs throughout Macedonia, where primary and secondary school students are trained in editing and creating Wikipedia articles in Macedonian. With this activity, young people gain many benefits: they learn how to express themselves in writing, they are proficient in the Macedonian language, they learn foreign language translation, they learn media literacy, group collaboration and more.
On 4.12.2019 we had a meeting with Gordana Loleska, a civic activist in the Movement for Rare Diseases in Macedonia and a member of the Life with Challenges association in Macedonia. At the meeting, the members of the Wiki Club Ohrid were introduced to what it means to be a rare disease, what challenges they face and how much they are represented in Macedonia. After a brief research we came to the conclusion that Wikipedia in Macedonian these diseases are present in a small number, so we decided as a club to supplement Wikipedia in Macedonian with articles on these diseases.
On 15.12.2019, with the support of the Red Cross of Ohrid, in the village of Ramne, near Ohrid, in the premises of the Church of St. Ilija, with part of the members of the Wiki Club Ohrid we organized an editorial marathon dedicated to rare diseases. We researched, edited articles, wrote completely new ones, and uploaded them to Wikipedia in Macedonian.
This process is expected to take a long time, and a roundup would be expected on the occasion of the World Day of Rare Diseases in February. The goal is for us as a Wiki Club to join with our own contribution, to read the data on each of the rare diseases in Macedonian language so that everyone has access and opportunity to be informed.