Today 21 February 2022 marks International Mother Language Day, with this year’s theme being “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities”.
At Turn.io, we are always excited about the possibilities that our chat solution offers our partner organisations to have meaningful conversations with their communities in their mother tongue or in multiple languages. Often this can be a crucial component when using a chat solution on WhatsApp to provide access to vital and often life-changing information. A recent example of this is our work with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to develop WHO Health Alert on WhatsApp during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. People across the world were desperate for credible, accurate information about COVID-19 virus - what it was, what to do and where to seek help - and WHO Health Alert provided access to information in multiple languages. Similarly, in South Africa, Praekelt.org developed Contact NDoH for the South African National Department of Health, offering information and resources in five of the country’s most spoken national languages.
With the focus of this year’s International Mother Language Day on the potential role of technology to advance multilingual education and support the development of quality teaching and learning for all, we are proud to have partnered with a number of education-focused organisations exploring ways to build back better education systems and provide increased access and opportunities through Chat.
In 2021 Sesame Workshop partnered with Turn.io to build the Sésamo Chatbot for Latin America. The Spanish language chatbot enables families and caregivers to easily access free learning resources, including play-based learning activities, audio clips, ebooks, professional and caregiver development support, and much more.
Among other partners, we are also currently working with TeenSmart – a not-for-profit organisation with the mission to harness the power and flexibility of the Internet and mobile devices to help “at-risk” adolescents and young adults ages 10 to 24 develop the knowledge, skills and motivation to live healthy, effective and satisfying lives. An important part of this is the ability of TeenSmart’s JovenSalud mobile app to understand and respond in both Spanish and English. Users can change the language of the bot by verbally asking to change the language – for example, "I want to speak in English/Spanish" or "Change the language to English/Spanish". Simple and effective and in keeping with today’s International Mother Language celebrations!
Turn.io applauds all our partners and social impact organisations working hard to reach communities where they are at, and in their Mother Language.
