Inspiration
The pain and regret of never hearing the voice of family members and the dream to help preserve the voices of loved ones, elders and family members
What it does
EchoRoots is a webapp created to preserve culture, memory and voice of Africans and Ghanaians. Most African oral traditions have never been documented. When the last speaker dies, the story dies. It records the voice of the elder or anyone who wants to tell their story. Elders speak Twi, Ewe, Ga. Grandchildren may only speak English. Translation is rare and expensive. Diaspora families lose connection to their roots. Grandchildren never hear the stories.
How we built it
By using Claude AI and Claude code we were able to create this amazing app. one app. one conversation, one story preserved forever. What AI Does Transcribes speech in local languages Translates while preserving idioms & proverbs Formats raw speech into readable narrative Extracts family names, places, and dates Makes stories accessible across languages Enables those who can't write to author stories
Challenges we ran into
During the project we ran into a lot of problems. One being the tight deadline in addition with our upcoming IA. With the limited hackathon timeframe, prioritizing features was difficult. We had to balance ambition with practicality, cutting down on non-essential ideas to deliver a working prototype.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Now that the prototype is functional, our priority is to polish the main features, improve stability, and streamline the user experience We plan to connect with more APIs and platforms to broaden the EchoRoot’s capabilities, making it more versatile and practical for real-world use.
What we learned
Working under pressure taught us the importance of clear communication, task delegation, and trust in each other’s strengths We discovered how to quickly move from idea to implementation, balancing creativity with practicality in a short timeframe.
What's next for EchoRoots
We plan to pilot EchoRoots with local schools and community groups, gathering real-world feedback to refine the platform. Optimizing the backend so EchoRoots can handle larger datasets and support more users without performance issues. Collaborating with NGOs, environmental organizations, and universities to broaden reach and credibility. Developing a lightweight mobile app version so users can access EchoRoots on the go and Position EchoRoots as a global hub for environmental awareness, where communities can share data, stories, and solutions to drive collective action.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.