Roger Bamkin

In 2025 I joined the partnership and with some success. I teamed up with another new member and we persuaded the partnershop to stop copyrighting its images and to use open licensing. They agreed and it was announced on 28th March.

Ten years ago I started a group called “Women in Red” which consists of hundreds of Wikipedia editors in thirty plus languages who are concerned about the on-line gender gap. When we started there were a quarter of a million biographies of notable people on the English Wikipedia and only 15% of them were women. Over ten years we have organised over 300 on-line editathons and about 70 in person meetings at Edinburgh University. We have written 100,000 new biographies of women and the percentage of women is now 20%. The budget over that ten years was zero. You do not need money to do this. Anyone with access to the internet can do this, Wikipedia is free (and there is a version in Chichewa and Timbuka)

My interest in Malawi came about when I discovered that the BBC had chosen Ulanda Mtamba from Malawi to be one of their “100 Women” together with people like Michelle Obama and Melinda Gates. Ulanda is a fellow Rotary member making a big difference to the education of girls but there was no profile for her on Wikipedia in any language. There is now. I have discovered the partnership, Roseby Gadama and Thondwe. Roseby leads the 40 Malawian women MPs and not many of them had articles (they do now). The visibility of African women is very low.

NOTE - All the images in this profile are cc-by-sa and their attribution is available on line via google images

Type the name of a Malawian woman MP into Google. Chances are I wrote some of what it says.

What can the partnership do? It is supporting a drive to put Malawian women and places on Wikipedia (by anyone of any gender and any nationality). One of the biggest barriers is photos - we need the licensed permission to use lots. The Scottish, UK and US governments use open licensing and now so does the partnership. They use the same license as Wikipedia so that anyone can re-use the common wealth. We can help and put photos of role models on the phones of girls in Malawi by just changing the way we work.

Ulanda Mtamba, Grace Kwelepeta, Halima Daud, Roseby Gadama, Aisha Adams, Abigail Shariff, Agness Nkusa Nkhoma, Gladys Ganda, Susan Dossi, Lonnie Phiri, Francesca Masamba, Joyce Chitsulo, Ireen Mambala, Martha Mzomera Ngwira, Mary Navicha, Grace Malera, Tusayiwe Mkhondya, Bertha Mackenzie Ndebele,Chrissie Kanyasho, Esther Kathumba, Grezelder Jeffrey, Jacquiline Chikuta, Rachel Zulu Mazombwe, Temwani Chilenga, Chisomo Ngulube, Ivy Kamanga, Dorothy Kamanga, Mary Chavinda, Agnes_Patemba, Victoria Kingstone (politician)