Thanks anass, I am sympathetic to this occurrence, as I have suffered from this issue for a long time, I urge all event organizers to take this into consideration and plan as early as possible.
Mohsen Mardetanha On Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 2:43 PM Anass Sedrati <sedra...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello all, > > This might not be relevant for all, but since we are a global movement > striving for equity between all humans, I would like to share a reflection > regarding the situation of some of us, and the challenges that are > unfortunately not yet solved, although we are familiar with them since > years. > > As you know, the Wikimedia summit is happening soon, and our user group > (Wikimedia Morocco User group) had a member invited to attend it in person. > As soon as he knew about his participation, our member started preparing > his documentation and went to book a time at the German embassy. To his > surprise, the first appointments were until October (while the conference > is in September). This resulted in this member not being able to attend the > summit in-person, as well as all our user group (as this is not > person-dependent, but systemic, so anyone living in Morocco and applying > for a visa will not get it before October). > > Unfortunately, this issue is not an exception. It is almost the rule. In > every Wikimedia conference, there are people not able to attend because of > Visa issues, yet it is not properly addressed. > > Many of the challenges in our movement are addressed or at least discussed > in different forums and strategies. However, it feels that the equity in > participating in-person for Visa required participants is not a priority. > Usually, invites come at a time that does not really allow a good > preparation of the documentation (and embassy appointments), and there is > no support with the embassies, so inexperienced volunteers are left to > themselves dealing with very official instances, who just simply reject > their applications or give them appointments within months from now. > > I am sharing these personal reflections after witnessing several problems > that happened to many members through time with the same issue. I would > like to know how this can be better solved in the future? Can conferences > prepare documentation 6 months before they start? Can the WMF give official > support and help contacting embassies? Is there any way to address this in > a good manner? > > I feel really sad that there is no equity in this matter. I know that it > is naïve to think about a world without borders, but isn't our Wikimedia > movement supposed to support everyone? How can we be better at this? > > P.S: This post is not about myself or situation, but rather a reflection > after talking with many people facing this issue in my region, and who > missed so many events because of Visas. I don't want them to miss events > again in the future! Is it possible? > > Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and I wish you a good > Tuesday! > > Best regards, > -- > ----------------------------------------------------- > *Anass SEDRATI* > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/Z7XKE7ZWPUNTGELZCSQNLDEQSKBS7U3N/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
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