Dholuo. Technology. Opportunity.

Help build an AI that translates, and speaks Dholuo

This project is building a practical Dholuo AI system that can help a Dholuo speaker be understood by a non-Dholuo speaker and viceversa through real-time AI translation and voice technology. Your support helps fund paid Luo contributors, data collection, model training, platform maintenance, and public progress reporting.

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Pilot goal: first public Dholuo AI demo with speech understanding, translation, and voice output.

Why Luo people are supporting

  • Break the language barrier to Dholuo speakers i.e can understand and respond to any language.
  • Contributions create paid online work for Luo speakers.
  • The project helps business, education, health, NGOs and digital communication talk to Luos.
  • Every contribution moves the first public model closer to release.
Recent supporters Akinyi from Kisumu

Why this matters

Many African languages are still missing from mainstream AI tools. This project focuses on Dholuo so speakers can be better understood in digital spaces, while also creating a fair community-driven process that pays Luo contributors to help build the language data the model needs.

Luo community and language identity

Language dignity

Dholuo should not be invisible online. Supporting this work helps preserve language, identity, and practical everyday use in the AI era.

Contributors doing transcription work

Paid contributor work

The project creates paid work for Luo speakers through transcription, voice review, annotation, and language quality checks.

Voice technology and translation

Useful technology

The goal is not just research. It is a usable system for voice understanding, translation, and spoken Dholuo output.

What your support will build

When you support this project, you are helping create something practical and long-term for Dholuo speakers. Your contribution helps turn an important idea into a working tool that improves communication, creates paid work, and gives Dholuo a stronger place in technology.

Real-time translation

Build a system that helps Dholuo speakers communicate more easily with non-Dholuo speakers through speech and text translation workflows.

Dholuo voice output

Create a model that can respond in spoken Dholuo so users hear natural language output instead of text alone.

Paid online work

Open opportunities for Luo contributors to earn through transcription, validation, and voice data preparation.

Expected community value

  • Better communication across language barriers.
  • More inclusion for Dholuo speakers in technology spaces.
  • Digital preservation of a major Kenyan language.
  • Practical employment for trained Luo contributors.
  • Training materials that can grow future language projects.

Where this can be used

  • Customer support and service desks
  • Schools and learning tools
  • Health communication support
  • Media, radio, and content creation
  • Community information systems and diaspora communication

How you will track progress

As a supporter or visitor, you should be able to see that the work is moving and that the project is staying accountable. This section is here to show clear milestones, visible targets, and measurable progress so you know what your support is helping achieve.

2,480+

Early supporters interested in the mission

480 hrs

Pilot transcription and review target

150+

Luo contributors for data tasks and QA

KES 2.4M

Pilot fundraising target for first release

Where the fundraising stands

This is where you can quickly see how far the campaign has gone and how much is still needed to reach the first release. As more people contribute, this progress area should give every donor confidence that the project is active, transparent, and moving toward a real outcome.

KES 790,000 raised so far — approximately 33% of target.

Last update: 08 Apr 2026 Public updates enabled Community contributors first

See what you are helping build

This section helps you picture the result of your support more clearly. You can use it to watch a short explainer, hear a voice sample, or see a simple demonstration of how Dholuo speech, translation, and spoken output will work in practice.

Simple product vision

This block makes it very easy to understand for you as a donor who might not be technical.

Example flow 1. A speaker talks in Dholuo. 2. The system understands the speech. 3. It translates to English or Kiswahili for the listener. 4. The listener responds with English or Swahili. 5. System speaks back in response, in Dholuo. This makes Dholuo speakers and other language speakers to talk and understand each other in real-time digital communication.

How your contribution will be used

Before you contribute, you should be able to see exactly what your support will fund. This pilot budget is designed to cover the practical work required to build a credible first release of Dholuo AI, including paid contributor work, speech and text data preparation, model training, technical infrastructure, and transparent reporting.

Item Estimated cost Purpose
Transcription and annotation KES 780,000 Pay trained contributors to transcribe, segment, label, and clean Dholuo text and audio data for model training.
Voice recording stipends KES 320,000 Support speaker recruitment and compensate contributors for recording clear, usable Dholuo speech samples across different voices and accents.
Language review and QA KES 210,000 Cover second-pass review, consistency checks, correction of transcripts, and quality control before data enters training workflows.
Model training and compute KES 460,000 Fund cloud compute, model experiments, storage, inference testing, and the technical work needed to produce a usable pilot system.
Platform engineering and hosting KES 230,000 Maintain the website, support contribution workflows, backups, uptime, security updates, and public-facing project pages.
Contributor onboarding and support KES 140,000 Prepare contributor guides, task instructions, onboarding calls, support materials, and day-to-day coordination for distributed workers.
Operations, payments, and reporting KES 160,000 Handle mobile money disbursements, reconciliation, admin follow-up, public updates, and milestone reporting to supporters.
Compliance and contingency KES 100,000 Provide a buffer for unexpected technical needs, revisions, contributor replacements, and essential project administration.
Total pilot estimate KES 2,400,000 From paid language data work and voice collection to model training, infrastructure, and public pilot release.

What this pilot is expected to fund

  • 180 to 220 hours of reviewed Dholuo speech recordings suitable for pilot training and evaluation.
  • 800,000 to 1.2 million words of cleaned and validated Dholuo text, transcripts, and related language data.
  • 60 to 90 paid contributors across recording, transcription, review, and quality assurance tasks.
  • A public-facing pilot demo for speech understanding, translation workflow testing, and progress reporting.

How different contributions help

  • KES 500 helps fund short transcription and validation tasks.
  • KES 1,000 helps review and clean a larger batch of language data.
  • KES 2,500 helps support voice recording, speaker coordination, and quality checks.
  • KES 5,000 helps move model training, hosting, and pilot release work forward.

Why you can support with confidence

Your support matters, and you deserve the confidence that it is going to a real, accountable project. This section helps you see who is behind the work, how contributions are handled, and what practical safeguards are in place so you can give knowing your support is helping move Dholuo AI forward in a transparent and credible way.

Trust signals on this campaign

  • Named project lead with direct public contact details.
  • Clear budget showing what the pilot is expected to fund.
  • Mobile money contribution flow with submission records and confirmation process.
  • Privacy policy and contributor consent steps for handling submitted information.
  • Monthly public updates on funds raised, work completed, and next milestones.
  • Use of paid contributor workflows rather than vague volunteer-only promises.
  • Visible reporting on language data collection, review progress, and pilot release targets.

Founder and contact block

Project lead: Douglas Assesa

Role: Product lead and project coordinator for Dholuo AI.

Focus: Building practical Dholuo speech, translation, and language data systems that create both digital access and paid local work.

Email: hello@dholuo.digital

Phone / WhatsApp: +254 734 220 002

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Working model: Small independent project team working with paid Dholuo contributors, reviewers, and technical collaborators.

Supporter updates: Monthly milestone summaries published on the project site as fundraising and delivery progress continue.

This campaign is structured to show who is responsible, what support is funding, and how progress will be communicated as the pilot moves toward public release.

Questions donors usually ask

If you are thinking about supporting this project, it is normal to want clear answers first. This section is here to answer the most common questions about the purpose of the project, how contributions are used, how people will be paid, and how progress will be shared publicly.

Why does Dholuo AI matter?

Because Dholuo speakers should be understood in digital spaces, customer support, health, education, media, and everyday communication. This project helps bring Dholuo into modern AI systems through speech, text, and translation tools.

What will my contribution support?

Your contribution supports paid transcription work, voice recording, quality review, model training, contributor onboarding, website maintenance, and public progress reporting.

Will Luo contributors get paid?

Yes. A key part of the project is creating paid online work for Luo contributors who transcribe, review, and validate Dholuo language data.

What will the first release do?

The first release aims to understand spoken Dholuo, translate key Dholuo phrases into English or Kiswahili, and speak back in Dholuo for selected real-world use cases.

How will donors know progress is real?

The platform should publish regular updates showing money raised, work completed, data collected, contributors onboarded, and milestones achieved.

Support Dholuo AI

Your contribution helps build a practical AI system for Dholuo, create paid work for Luo contributors, support transcription and training, and keep the platform running with clear public updates.