Knowledge is human.
Knowledge is her.

Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia in human history. Its more than 64 million articles are the result of generous contributions from hundreds of thousands of Wikimedians, which is the name given to volunteer editors who have written, edited, cited trustworthy sources, and fact checked every single page. All are invited to share their knowledge—and the more humans take part, the more representative of the real world and diverse perspectives Wikipedia becomes. Because knowledge is, inherently, human.

This International Women’s Day, and throughout Women’s History Month, we are celebrating volunteers whose thousands of edits about notable women have improved the reliability of the Wikipedia you know and love. Join us in honoring these generous volunteers who embody this idea that knowledge is her.

User:Cmwaura, Kenya
Wikimedian since 2020
Contributions: 2,248 edits, 594 Wikidata edits
As of February 2025

Carol Mwaura

With over 2,000 edits across Wikipedia and its sister projects, Carol is working to increase the amount of reliable articles about women on the free encyclopedia, all while supporting and inspiring the next generation of editors.

Methodical about her approach, perhaps in part to being a librarian, User:Cmwaura begins every “Wiki assignment” by identifying content gaps, researching reliable sources, cross-checking references, and adhering to citation guidelines.

Editing quickly became her calling, specifically making information about Kenyan women more available to everyone. That is also why she translates articles into Swahili, which is spoken by 95% of the population in Kenya.

Carol’s contributions have not gone unnoticed by her peers. During the #1Lib1Ref campaign in 2020, a campaign that invites librarians all over the world to add references to Wikipedia, her numerous contributions led fellow volunteers to name her one of the top 100 editors in Africa and one of the top women editors in Kenya. Her dedication is unparalleled, and she often edits on the go, while chasing an internet signal.

User:Olugold, Nigeria
Wikimedian since 2019
Contributions: 16,859 edits, 119 pages created on English Wikipedia, 788 pages created on Igbo Wikipedia
As of February 2025

Goodness Ignatius

Goodness has created over 800 new Wikipedia articles in English and Igbo and made over 16,000 Wiki contributions overall, helping to make content about women-related issues, Nigerian issues, and the Igbo language freely available. She is a prolific editor who is active across a myriad of Wikimedia projects.

In addition to writing, Goodness coordinates events on Meta-Wiki for both new and existing volunteers who want to learn how to contribute; she organizes data points on Wikidata that can be used to add reliable information across different sites, including Wikipedia, Wikiquote (a collaborative collection of quotes), and Wiktionary, often in Igbo, increasing the availability of information in that language.

A librarian by trade, Goodness focuses on sharing much of the knowledge she has gathered over the years, like the article she created on the Igbo word Ọmụgwọ. Goodness also helps the next generation of Wikipedians in Nigeria feel confident about contributing to the free encyclopedia via their mobile phones.

User:aimeabibis, Benin
Wikimedian since 2021
Contributions: 9,496 edits, 278 new pages created
As of February 2025

Abigaïl Agbenomba

Since 2021, Abigail (User:aimeabibis) has been working tirelessly to make free knowledge accessible for everyone. She has made over 9,000 contributions across Wikimedia projects, including the creation of over 270 new articles on French Wikipedia, making free, reliable knowledge more accessible for speakers of that language. Her work spans a wide variety of topics, from pop culture, such as the article about Beninois-German singer-actress Victoire Laly, to politics, including an article on Beninois diplomat Arlette Dagnon Vignikin.

The sense of participating in something as big and meaningful as Wikipedia is one of the reasons why she feels inspired to contribute. Besides writing, Abigail finds the time to engage and organize events where she offers training, hosts workshops, and inspires more people to edit Wikipedia. Promoting gender equality, especially within the local Benin volunteer community, is something that’s near and dear to her heart.

Recently, her work with the “Gender Equality in Benin” campaign involved trying new strategies to engage more women volunteers. As part of this, they set up and ran a WhatsApp community to facilitate their involvement, with incredible results: Together the group created 660 new articles and improved 1,150 existing pages on Wikipedia.

Meet more editors helping to make Wikipedia whole

Learn more about the humans that are working tirelessly to ensure that more content about women appears on Wikipedia in our series, Open the Knowledge: Stories.