Mission and Approach

Our mission is simple. We empower communities across Africa and the diaspora to use technology in ways that preserve language, culture, and dignity. We focus on tools and training that people can own and run themselves.

Core principles

• People first. Solutions start with community needs, not technology trends.
• Local leadership. We support local champions to lead projects.
• Practicality. Small, testable projects scale better than big, unproven ideas.
• Openness. We share what works, and learn from what does not.

How we work. We follow three steps:

1. Listen. Meet community members, map needs, and learn local context.
2. Build. Create simple tools and training that address those needs.
3. Embed. Train local people to maintain and adapt the work.

Examples of the approach in action. We run weekend workshops on content creation in local languages. We develop lightweight apps for vocabulary collection. We support community radio partners to publish transcripts and learning materials.

If you'd like a short slide deck on our approach to share with partners, request it from services@tonative.org.