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Peace Corps Volunteers Create Mobile Language Application

By Nick Skytland, 01 April 2013
 Nick Skytland

At RHoK in December 2012, we introduced “featured problem sets” in an effort to create stronger and more refined challenges. The first featured problem set was offered by the Peace Corps as part of it’s “Innovation Challenge.” The Peace Corps Innovation Challenge is a worldwide collaboration to develop innovative solutions for the real challenges faced by people throughout the developing world as identified and articulated by Peace Corps Volunteers. Today they announced that they will be doing a second Innovation Challenge and are seeking submissions of relevant problems through their website. The submitted problems statements will then be reviewed and voted on by current and returned volunteers, Peace Corps staff, technology experts and entrepreneurs. The best problems will be offered at a hackathon in June 2013. Below is their press release, which describes one of the top solutions from the first Innovation Challenge - a Mobile Language Application developed by Zambian software developers that translates English words and phrases into one of seven languages spoken in Zambia. The app, Bantu Babel, is now available for Android compatible devices in the Google Play store.  The NASA Open Innovation Program team worked closely with the Peace Corps on their first Innovation Challenge and continue to exchange best practices around effective mass collaborations like this.

Cross post from Peace Corps website.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 1, 2013 – Peace Corps volunteers, working closely with Zambian software developers, have developed a mobile application that will translate English words and phrases into one of seven languages spoken in Zambia. Bantu Babel is now available for Android compatible devices in the Google Play store.

The app is intended to help Peace Corps volunteers, international aid workers, and host country nationals communicate more effectively. The app has two parts: a dictionary for translating individual words, and a survival phrasebook which contains helpful terms for accommodation, shopping, food and emergencies, among others. Bantu Babel, which can be used as a training tool for government and aid workers or as a supplement to formal language training, runs offline eliminating the need for an internet connection.

“Peace Corps has a phenomenal language training program and to be able to share it is both exciting and inspiring, and to be able realize a solution in collaboration with host country nationals truly embodies the spirit of Peace Corps,” said Tony Tseng, a third year volunteer from Sacramento, California.

Peace Corps volunteers Tony Tseng, Melissa Stetler, and Rasa Kent worked with developers from BongoHive, a Lusaka-based technology and innovation hub to develop the app. BongoHive provides a place for the local tech community to meet, swap experience, and attend training, networking and hackathon events.

“It is my belief that Zambia, like many other developing countries, is in a great position to leapfrog over traditional technology infrastructures. Almost all Zambians own a cell phone and the market for mobile applications is growing. To be able to utilize the mobile phones already in use is a new approach to development that has proven to be successful in other countries across Africa,” said Tseng.

The framework for the program was developed during a two-day “hackathon” in December 2012 in Lusaka, part of the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) global hackathon that included participants in 32 cities and 16 different countries. RHoK’s mission is to create a self-sustaining global community of innovators building practical open technology for a better world, and to ensure their work creates impact in society.

The Peace Corps participated in this worldwide event by collecting ideas for problems and solutions through the Peace Corps Innovation Challenge. Peace Corps is again seeking submissions of relevant problems through the Innovation Challenge website. Problems will be reviewed and voted on by current and returned volunteers, Peace Corps staff, technology experts and entrepreneurs. Once problems are reviewed and refined, technology experts will team up to develop solutions during the next hackathon in June.

About Peace Corps/Zambia: Nearly 1,435 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Zambia since the program was established in 1993. Currently, 284 volunteers serve in Zambia. Volunteers work in the areas of education, community development, environment, agriculture, health and business. Volunteers are trained and work in the following languages: Bemba, Kaonde, Lunda, Mambwe, Nyanja, Tonga and Tumbuka.

About the Peace Corps: Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps by executive order on March 1, 1961, more than 210,000 Americans have served in 139 host countries. Today, 8,073 volunteers are working with local communities in 76 host countries in agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health and youth in development. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment and the agency’s mission is to promote world peace and friendship and a better understanding between Americans and people of other countries. Visit www.peacecorps.gov for more information.