Distant Voices: Putting Unheard Voices on the Map, with AI
An AI-powered platform for ethical, multilingual, community-led data, built to surface lived experiences at scale and transform them into insights.
The Data Divide Is Still Growing
Many of the world’s most affected communities are still excluded from decision-making. Even in the AI age, multilingual, inclusive engagement remains slow, extractive, and inaccessible.
Marginalized voices are often absent from data used to shape policy.
Insight extraction from data remains slow, even when it’s abundant.
Traditional surveys are time-consuming and unsuitable for low-literacy or offline contexts.
It’s time to shift from top-down decisions to co-created, voice-driven intelligence.
What is Distant Voices?
Distant Voices is Ushahidi’s AI-powered, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for capturing and analyzing voice, image, and text feedback from communities in real time. It enables people to share their experiences using channels they're already engaging in, like WhatsApp and Telegram, and translates these into insights that drive action.
From Data to Insight in Four Simple Steps
Collect:
Community shares stories via voice notes, photos, or texts
Process:
AI transcribes, translates, and analyzes multimodal input
Visualize:
Insights displayed on a live, geotagged dashboard
Act:
Partners respond, advocate, and adapt based on real feedback
Real voices. Real change.
Why Distant Voices Is Different
VALUES
“We believe lived experience is data. That stories carry insight. That communities should be at the center of the systems that affect them.”
BENEFITS
Let’s Inform the Future, Together
Want to explore how Distant Voices can support your work? Whether you're responding to crises or shaping policy, we’re here to help you listen better.