Case Study: CLEAR Global develops Sheng chatbots with Appen

CLEAR Global - Customer Case Study

CLEAR Global, a nonprofit organization, partnered with Appen to develop a voice-enabled mental health chatbot for the Sheng language, a rapidly evolving slang in Kenya. The challenge was that Sheng lacks formal documentation and has high lexical variability between neighborhoods, making it difficult to train an accurate automated speech recognition (ASR) model.

Appen provided pro-bono linguistic services, delivering a detailed Language Specific Peculiarities (LSP) document for Sheng and consultation sessions. This solution equipped CLEAR Global with the research methodology and a template to independently develop similar models for other under-resourced languages, unlocking vital communication tools for underserved communities.

CLEAR Global

Paul Waramabo

Swahili Language Lead