Dear All,
We are very pleased to announce the launch of Santali Language Wikipedia ( https://sat.wikipedia.org). The site has been launched on August 2, 2018 and, after the import of pages from Wikimedia Incubator and some maintenance work, it’s now open for all. Santali Language’s own alphabet, Ol Chiki, has been used as the alphabet of this Wikipedia. Santali is a language in the Munda subfamily of Austroasiatic languages, spoken by around 7.4 million people in South Asia (Bangladesh, India and Nepal).
This is a very special moment for us and has been made possible because of the joint effort by Santali Language Wikipedian’s from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Wikimedia Bangladesh and Bangla Wikimedia Community congratulates the Santali Language Community for their accomplishment and are honored to be a part of this tremendous achievement. Manik Soren, a dedicated Santali Wikipedian from Bangladesh, along with some very active Santali Language Wikipedians from Bangladesh and India has been instrumental in this effort. We would also like to thank Shabab Mustafa, President of Wikimedia Bangladesh and Nahid Sultan, a very active steward and Secretary of Wikimedia Bangladesh, for coordinating the effort in Bangladesh and Odia Wikimedians User Group for coordinating the effort in India.
It is worth mentioning that the process of creating a Santali Language Wikipedia began in 2012 and, later on, got momentum in February, 2017. Back in 2012, Wikimedia Bangladesh organized a Wikipedia meetup and workshop with the Santali Language Community in Dinajpur District of Bangladesh with the goal of launching a Santali Language Wikipedia. However, that process slowed down after some time. Then in September 2017, Wikimedia Bangladesh organized another meeting with Santali Language Community in a Dhaka Wikipedia meetup where a decision was made to expedite the launch of the Wikipedia. Following that discussion, a workshop was organized by Wikimedia Bangladesh for Santali Language Wikipedians on December 30, 2017. Santali Language Wikipedians from India also participated in that program through online discussion. Subsequently, another workshop was organized for Santali Language Community in India on March 11, 2018 in collaboration with Odia Wikimedians User Group.
After months of work, Santali Language Wikipedia got the approval of Language Committee on June 28, 2018 and finally, the Santali Wikipedia site was launched on August 2, 2018.
Let us congratulate and welcome the Santali Language Community.
Cheers!
Ali Haidar Khan
Executive Committee Member, Wikimedia Bangladesh