Breaking Barriers: Tech for Community Joins Mozilla Common Voice

Kampala, Uganda – May 2, 2026 — Today marks a significant milestone in the journey toward digital inclusion in Uganda. Tech for Community is proud to announce its official partnership with Mozilla Common Voice, a global open-source initiative dedicated to making voice technology accessible and representative of all the world's languages.

This partnership aims to build Africa's largest open-source voice dataset for Ugandan languages—starting with Luganda, Runyankole, Ateso, Acholi, and Lugbara. By putting the power of AI training into the hands of everyday Ugandans, we are ensuring that the next generation of artificial intelligence understands and respects our local dialects, cultures, and unique ways of speaking.

"For too long, voice assistants like Siri and Alexa have failed to understand a single African language spoken by millions, leaving over a billion people digitally excluded. For a continent of over 2,000 languages, this is not just an inconvenience; it's a digital crisis."

The Problem: Why AI Ignores Our Languages

Did you know that the most advanced AI systems in the world are virtually blind to most African languages? Recent research shows that even widely spoken languages like Hausa are often only recognized by a mere 10–20% by major large language models.

The Digital Language Gap:

• Less than 0.02% of global online content is currently available in African languages.
• There are an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 indigenous languages in Africa.
• Yet, none of the major global voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant) support a single indigenous African language out of the box.
• UNESCO warns that up to 10% of the world's languages could vanish within the next century if they do not enter the digital space.

This lack of data leads to systems that cannot understand local accents, translate medical information, or power educational tools in the languages our children learn best in.

Our Vision: A Localized AI for Uganda

At Tech for Community, we believe technology should serve everyone—not just those who speak English. By joining the Mozilla Common Voice platform, we are building the foundational blocks for:

The Luganda Dataset is Ready

Luganda is already listed as one of the official languages on the Common Voice platform, making it available for voice recording and validation. However, to train a truly effective AI model, we need hundreds of hours of diverse voices—men, women, elders, youth, and people from different regions of Uganda.

How You Can Help: Contribute Your Voice Today

You do not need to be a coder or a tech expert to help train AI. If you speak Luganda, Runyankole, or any other local language, your voice is immensely valuable.

1. Visit the Portal: Go to commonvoice.mozilla.org.
2. Create an Account (Optional): Track your progress and see your impact on the global leaderboard.
3. Select "Speak": Click on the "Speak" or "Donate Your Voice" button.
4. Read the Sentence: Press the microphone button and read the short sentence on the screen aloud in a natural, clear voice.
5. Review Others' Clips: Click on "Listen." If the voice matches the written sentence, click "Yes."
6. Share: Repeat this process for just 5 to 10 minutes a day.

Together, let's build an AI that speaks Ugandan.