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Kilimanjaro, Tanzania — In the sun-scorched soils of Moshi, where every drop of rain counts, two female farmers have defied the odds through technology. Mwajuma Rashid Njau and Mumii Rajab, once locked in a daily struggle to survive, have found a mobile phone their best ally.

For years, farming was a way of life they struggled to master. Their fields, a patchwork of red earth and wilting crops, symbolized hardship rather than prosperity. Pests came with the seasons, the soil quality deteriorated, and their harvests barely provided enough to feed their families. But now, a simple app–Kiazi Bora–has changed everything.

On a sweltering afternoon, Njau was out in the field, staring helplessly at the rows of wilting sweet potatoes ravaged by pests, when he realized things could be different. She had no idea how to stop it–until she opened the Kiazi Bora app on her phone.

“This app has changed everything,” Njau, 38, says with a tired but hopeful smile. “I didn’t know where to start, but now I can check my phone, and it tells me exactly what to do.”

The Kiazi Bora app, designed specifically for small-scale farmers like Njau and Rashid, focuses on helping them grow nutritious orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) to feed their families and earn income. The app offers simple instructions on planting and pest control to farmers with little education.

The app, Kiazi Bora (“quality potatoes” in Kiswahili), wasn’t just another farming tool–it was powered by cutting-edge AI voice technology. And for the first time, it spoke their language.

Creating Kiazi Bora wasn’t easy. Kiswahili, a language spoken by over 200 million people, presented unique challenges for AI developers. The problem? There simply wasn’t enough high-quality voice data to train the technology.

“One of the biggest challenges has been the availability of diverse, high-quality data,” said EM Lewis-Jong, Director of Mozilla Common Voice, a global project dedicated to making AI accessible to speakers of underrepresented languages.

“Kiswahili is a diverse language with many regional variants, and our tools are primarily designed for English, which complicates things further.”

To solve this issue, SEE Africa, the nonprofit behind Kiazi Bora, turned to Mozilla’s Common Voice platform. Unlike other AI data collection methods, which often rely on scraping the web or underpaid gig workers, Common Voice harnesses the power of community. “We use a crowd-sourced model where people voluntarily contribute their voice data,” explained Lewis-Jong. “This ensures that the data reflects the true diversity of the language, including different accents and dialects.”

This community-driven approach has already seen tremendous success. In Tanzania, the Kiazi Bora app is now used by over 300 women, empowering them with knowledge on how to grow and market their crops. “These women are learning in Kiswahili, their first language, which makes a huge difference,” noted Gina Moape, Community Manager for Common Voice. “We’ve seen firsthand how access to information in their own language improves both their nutrition and their ability to participate in economic activities.”

But Kiazi Bora is just one example of how voice-enabled technology can make a real impact.

For Mozilla, these projects reflect a broader vision: democratizing AI so that it serves everyone, not just speakers of dominant languages. “If data creation is left to for-profit companies, many of the world’s languages will be left behind,” said Lewis-Jong. “We want a world where people can create the data they need, capturing their language as they experience it.”

That’s why Mozilla’s Common Voice is not just a tool but a movement. Its open-source platform allows communities to collect and contribute voice data that anyone can use, fostering local innovation across Africa. “We’re particularly excited about the potential for African languages,” Lewis-Jong added. “Our long-term vision is to integrate more African languages into global voice recognition technologies, and Common Voice is a critical part of making that happen.”

For Rashid, 42, who had once lived in uncertainty, the app was a useful tool. “Before, I felt powerless,” she recalls. “When pests attacked, I would just watch as my crops withered. Now, I can fight back. I know what to do.”

Both women have honed their skills and improved crop yields. The app taught them how to manage soil health, optimize planting schedules, and handle pest outbreaks.

Their orange-fleshed sweet potatoes stand out in contrast to the dusty earth, a sign of resilience and renewal.

The duo, who were entangled in a cycle of poverty, now speak with pride about their success.

“We’ve learned to control our future,” Njau says.

Through Kiazi Bora, Njau and Rajabu have unlocked opportunities to improve their livelihoods and break free from poverty.

Njau, who had to drop out of school when her family moved to a remote village, calls the app her “teacher.” She explains, “I never completed school, but this app has taught me everything I need to know about farming. It’s like a teacher that’s always there when I need it.”

The voice-enabled Kiswahili features make it user-friendly. “The app speaks to me in a language I clearly understand,” Njau says.

Through the app, Njau and Rajabu learned how to process potatoes into flour and pastries, which fetch a higher market price.

Rajabu explains, “I didn’t know you could make flour from sweet potatoes or that you could sell it for more money. Now, I have customers who buy the flour because it lasts longer than fresh potatoes.” This new skill has allowed them to diversify their income.

In just a year, their income increased from zero to USD 127 per month. The extra income has enabled them to take care of their families, reinvest in their farms, and secure a better future. “With the money I’ve made, I’ve been able to send my children to school and even save some for emergencies,” says Njau.

The potatoes, which are rich in vitamins, have helped them fight malnutrition in their communities. While neither Njau nor Rajabu had children with malnutrition, they both knew families who struggled with it. Thanks to the app, they now understand the importance of incorporating OFSP into their daily meals to ensure their children stay healthy.

Rajabu was quick to share the app with her relatives. “I told my sister about it, and now she’s also growing OFSP. Her children are healthier, and she’s even making money from selling sweet potato flour,” she says proudly.

For both women, the app has empowered them as farmers, businesswomen and community leaders. “I feel confident now,” Rajabu says. “This app has changed my life, and I know it can help other women like me.”

Both Njau and Rajabu see immense potential for Kiazi Bora to help other rural women. They advocate for expanding the app beyond OFSP farming to include other crops like vegetables and edible roots, as this could further diversify their income streams and enhance food security in their communities.

“Women in rural areas need this technology,” Rajabu emphasizes. “We need to make sure that we can feed our families and earn better incomes.”

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Source: allafrica.com

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“When I learned about family planning, I felt like I had control over my life,” said Mwanaisha Rajabu, a 28-year-old mother of three living in Fuoni, a village on the Unguja island of Zanzibar, in the United Republic of Tanzania. “It’s not just about preventing pregnancy; it’s about planning a better future for my family.”

Family planning is often regarded as a taboo subject, an issue that is sensitive and even sexual in nature. But Ms. Rajabu’s comments highlight the profoundly important role of family planning – and the information, health services and medicines that enable it – to the well-being of women, their children, their futures and their communities.

Family planning is essential to enabling women to choose the timing and number of their children, if they want to have children at all.

For Ms. Rajabu, the ideal family size has always been clear. In a country where the average fertility rate is estimated to be 4.5 children per woman, she says, “I always wanted to have a smaller family. But I didn’t know how to access the right information and services.”

The need for options

According to the most recent estimates, some 19 per cent of Tanzanian women who are married or in a union have an unmet need for family planning. Yet filling this need is not always simple.

Decades ago, lack of awareness about and access to contraception were leading reasons for not using any; today, it is fear and concerns over potential side effects. To address these issues, a range of methods must be made available, alongside accurate information about the benefits, side effects and efficacy of each.

Though she wanted a smaller family, Ms. Rajabu had not been using modern contraceptives until health educators, working with a community outreach initiative supported by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, explained the various methods available.

After seeking more information from a community health worker, she was able to select an option that suited her needs.

“Family planning has given me the power to choose how many children I want and when to have them,” she said.

A cascade of benefits

The ability to plan ahead enables women like Ms. Rajabu to invest in themselves as well as their children. They can pursue their education, invest in small businesses and allocate resources in ways that improve their health, earning potential and long-term outcomes.

Cumulatively, family planning benefits not only individuals and families but communities as a whole.

“Access to family planning has changed our shehia,” said Juma Abdallah, a local community leader, referring to small administrative areas within Zanzibar.

“Families are healthier, and women are more confident in making choices about their futures,” he said.

Tatu Omar Sharif is one of those women. She lives in Uondwe, an area on the Pemba island of Zanzibar, with her husband and eight children.

“My husband and I didn’t intend to have many children – I was often surprised that I was pregnant again,” she described to UNFPA.

She and her husband learned about family planning together at a UNFPA-supported clinic, and saw it as an opportunity to safeguard their children’s future.

“We want to use a family planning method so we can take good care of the children we already have.”

Focus on a better life

UNFPA works with the health ministry to strengthen family planning services, including widening the range of contraceptive methods available. These include oral contraceptive pills, long-acting reversible contraceptives, injectables, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and condoms.

From January 2023 to November 2024, with financial support from the United Kingdom, UNFPA delivered enough reproductive health commodities to prevent an estimated 999,000 unintended pregnancies, 271,000 unsafe abortions and 1,300 maternal deaths.

UNFPA also works with governments, NGOs, community-service organizations, faith-based groups, young people and the private sector to strengthen community-based and youth-friendly reproductive health services.

They, like Ms. Rajabu and Ms. Sharif, recognize how reproductive health information and care have benefits that ripple outward from the individual to the family and community, from the present into the future.

“Now,” Ms. Rajabu said, “I can focus on giving my children a better life.”

Source: allafrica.com

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