COVID-19 second wave and protection of our most valuable movement asset - Wikimedia-l

28 Apr 2021

Dear Bodhisattwa,

Could I ask you to please keep us up to date on the further Wikimedia
response to your request?

I would love to hear about anything good that is happening as a result of
your having asked here – and if nothing useful is happening, I would love
to hear about that too – here or by private email, if you prefer.

I am very aware that the WMF ran its first fundraising campaign in India
this fiscal year, and that one of the fundraising banner messages asked
people ... "to donate. Show the volunteers who bring you reliable neutral
information that their work matters."[1]

And as you can read in my other post today, it's not like the Wikimedia
Foundation is poor.

Be safe.
Andreas

[1]
https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/wikipedia-makes-an-awkward-reques…

Dear Wikimedians,

We (the community resources team at the Wikimedia Foundation) have been in
contact with colleagues from the Wikimedia movement in India and wanted to
share some of the preliminary outcomes of our discussions.

Firstly, we want to acknowledge the disastrous effect COVID-19 has had on
Wikimedia communities and its members across the movement. The COVID-19
pandemic has affected many of us in both direct and indirect ways.

As has been noted by others on this email chain, we all agree that
Wikimedia volunteers are the most valuable assets of our movement.  As
mentioned in the previous email, providing insurance support to Wikimedia
volunteers in India would not have been possible due to regulatory and
legal challenges. However, we are committed to provide other help and
service to ensure that the movement is supported.

As discussed on this chain, we feel that our partners are the best placed
to understand the needs locally and regionally. We are therefore working
with colleagues from India directly to provide practical help and support
to the movement there including access to vaccines, PPE kits, disseminating
knowledge and fighting misinformation. We will continue to partner with
them and others to establish criteria in line with our mission to support
the communities. These are exceptional times, indeed but together we will
be able to make a difference and support each other.

For any questions about this initiative please feel free to contact:
communityresources(a)wikimedia.org

Regards,

On behalf of Community Resources Team,

Tanveer Hasan

ಗುರು, ಏಪ್ರಿ 22, 2021 ರಂದು 02:41 ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ರಂದು Bodhisattwa Mandal <
bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com&gt; ಅವರು ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ:

...
  Hi,

 COVID-19 has hit hard in India again making it the leading epicentre of
 the disease caused by the new mutated strains. The infection and death
 tolls have reached record high and the health system in different parts of
 the country is on the verge of collapse.

 Like other common people, many Wikimedians might have lost their jobs last
 year. Like last year, this year too, many volunteers have been infected and
...
  hospitalised. Some of them have lost their family
members, relatives,
 friends and other dear ones.

 Volunteer online community is the heart of our movement and every
 dedicated, experienced and long-term volunteers are our most valuable
 asset. It is not at all exaggerating to say that many language Wikimedia
 projects or WikiProjects are dependent completely on one (or two or
 three...) person's persistence to build it as a tall building from scratch
 and if we lose some of those people, those projects might totally stop
 forever. There are so many fantastic people in the movement who have been
 doing incredible work in their volunteer capacity for such a long time
 (sometimes more than a decade) to make what Wikimedia is today.

 I would like to urge people with power and money in the movement to find a
 way to protect these assets. We not only cannot afford to lose them, but
 also need to proactively protect them. Maybe a small step to provide
 personal or family COVID-19 insurance might help a lot. Maybe sending money
...
  to buy COVID-19 vaccines might save some of them. Who
knows?

 If we can spend millions of dollars for conferences or a couple of hundred
 thousand dollars to celebrate 20 years of Wikipedia during Wikimania, can
 we not spend a few thousand dollars to protect at least some of the people
 around the globe to some extent who made it possible to turn Wikipedia into
...
  its 20th birthday?

 Disclaimer: I had tried to convince the grants team from my personal
 capacity last year when COVID-19 was spreading rapidly in India but was
 denied due to their legal concerns regarding insurance registration as
 well as settlement and liability issues. Few others tried to convince them
 too but failed. I am reaching out to the community to start a conversation
 this time and find a way together.

 I am sorry for my long mail. I could not help it.

 Regards,
 Bodhisattwa 