Hello, Thanks for sharing the thought. I agree that there is a necessity to seriously think of the support, and taking necessary actions. Very rarely we face such a threat directly affecting so many people. This is an exceptional situation, possibly needs exceptional measures (there was a thread/open letter on Wikimedianindia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2021-April/014955.html )
A few countries are badly affected. I believe other than the main pandemic, the simultaneous and post-pandemic socio-economic difficulties will be a huge problem. Other than the humanitarian aspect of it, this will have a direct impact on important areas like editor onboarding, editor retention, educational and institutional partnership etc. I feel, possibly a COVID-19 (support) committee can be set up soon? ইতি,/Regards, টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta বৃহস্পতি, ২২ এপ্রিল, ২০২১ তারিখে ২:৪১ PM টায় এ Bodhisattwa Mandal < [email protected]> লিখেছেন: > 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 > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >
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