I believe that for non-profit technology projects, their mission should be to improve the lives of everyone they encounter, every step of the way.

I do not believe we should ask Africans to work for free, even on things like open source translation initiatives. And I believe that for technology that can help the poorest people in the world, we should use every opportunity to help improve their lives – even when the project is early, unfunded or ongoing.

These are my aspirations:

• We pay a living wage to our workers and contributors. 
• For 1-hour audio contributors, each hour of audio is 5 days of the family’s food expenses
• Our workers work relatively short shifts- with breaks. We understand that some transcription training and fine tuning work can be rote, so we work in sprints, take fun breaks, and try to gamify it.  
• For some, this will be their first employment opportunity. We hope it creates confidence and happiness. Every worker is a creative contributor and is invested in the mission. Even if they only contribute 30 minutes of spoken audio, they are part of the team. 
• Contributors and workers and their families should never be hungry. If food insecurity and malnutrition are issues in their immediate area, we will access humanitarian assistance resources to apply food assistance. We will partner with emergency food programs in times of crisis and support local efforts.  
• Our workforce is diverse – from university students to those who have little or no formal education. We welcome people who are new to Smartphones. It is critical to train AI translation models on the voices of the poor, along with the rich – a speech that includes vocabulary about their lives.
• We supply the phone and 2 months of internet credit. We are largely a remote workforce, except in some cases where you need to meet in person, or have fun events.  
• In addition, we contribute to community infrastructure, like cell phone towers and maintenance and support of the electricity grid. 
• Even for those who contribute 1 hour of audio, we will pay for a visit to the local health clinic if they need care.