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Good practice Imported

Kalimani — AI-Powered Tanzanian Sign Language Learning App for Deaf Pupils

Tanzania · Dar es Salaam · See the Tanzania profile · See the Dar es Salaam profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 25% 60/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Jenga Hub's Kalimani app uses AI to turn text and speech into Tanzanian Sign Language for deaf pupils, reaching 5,600+ learners and training 150+ teachers since 2022, with a national rollout via the Tanzania Institute of Education planned for 2026.

5,600+
Learners reached (since 2022)
150+
Teachers trained (since 2022)
Kalimani — AI-Powered Tanzanian Sign Language Learning App for Deaf Pupils

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Jenga Hub, with the Tanzania Institute of Education and the Tanzania Association of the Deaf (CHAVITA)
Period
2022–2026 (national rollout planned)
Keywords
education technology, disability inclusion, assistive technology

Context

Tanzania has an estimated 15,000 school-age children who rely on Tanzanian Sign Language (TSL), among more than a million people with hearing impairments nationwide, yet the country has long faced a shortage of TSL-trained teachers and accessible learning materials.

Activities

Kalimani, developed by the Tanzanian non-profit Jenga Hub with the Tanzania Association of the Deaf (CHAVITA), parents and AI developers, translates text and speech into Tanzanian Sign Language through avatar-based sign videos, covering early literacy, numeracy, science, life skills and digital-safety content, and works offline for schools with limited connectivity.

Results

Since 2022 the app has reached more than 5,600 learners and trained over 150 teachers in pilot schools across Dar es Salaam, Moshi and Shinyanga. In March 2026 Tanzania's Institute of Education co-hosted a workshop with Jenga Hub to align Kalimani's mathematics content with the national curriculum and the Tanzania Sign Language Dictionary, and its Director-General committed to scaling the app nationally.

Conclusions

A public app-store release is planned for late 2026, alongside discussions with telecom operators on zero-rated data access, but no independent, peer-reviewed evaluation of learning outcomes has yet been published; reported gains come from the developer and partner organisations rather than an external study.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Jenga Hub development team (AI developers), Tanzania Association of the Deaf (CHAVITA) as co-design partner, Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) for curriculum alignment, parents involved in co-design

Conditions for success

  • co-design with the Deaf community (CHAVITA) and parents rather than building for them
  • offline functionality for schools with limited connectivity
  • alignment with the national curriculum and the official Tanzania Sign Language Dictionary via TIE

Common failure modes

  • no independent, peer-reviewed evaluation of learning outcomes has been published to date

Where it fits

Governance type
NGO-led, partnered with a national curriculum authority and disability association
Scale
pilot across 3 regions (Dar es Salaam, Moshi, Shinyanga), national rollout planned
Income level
low-income

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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