In November 2024, the UNICEF Venture Fund announced its Health Systems Strengthening Cohort, selecting four ventures out of 500 submissions from 71 countries. By supporting these companies, the UNICEF Venture Fund will gather further evidence of promising use cases to scale solutions that can best deliver results for children. The ambition is to ensure every child, regardless of ability, socioeconomic status or circumstance, receives the healthcare they are entitled to. 

Among these was BITZ IT that was founded in 2007. Before its application to Venture Fund, it was the software vendor supporting several national child helplines across African countries. 

The Venture Fund funded BITZ IT to develop voice to text translation and transcription models in a child helpline setting. These models can help to relieve the resourcing constraints and improve the productivity of child protection frontline workers and call operators. 

While existing models in Swahili exist, BITZ’s work to label transcripts and train the model in phone dialogues (often lower quality, with multiple speakers and contain background sounds), specific vocabulary (relating to case protection issues), and child speak (incomplete sentences etch) is expected to be valuable.

In this interview with the BITZ team and their partner, C-Sema, they reflect on their journey over the last year co-developing their solution.

What was your biggest achievement over the last year?

Over the past 12 months, our team was able to transform an operational child helpline system into a scalable, AI-enhanced child protection platform supporting real-world case response across multiple African countries.

One of our biggest achievements was building and integrating the OpenCHS AI Service directly into the 116 helpline workflow. This prototype demonstrated how AI can support counsellors by transcribing and translating calls, generating summaries, surfacing key case insights, and providing first-pass quality assurance—helping frontline teams respond faster while keeping supervisors in control of final decisions.

We also achieved significant progress in scaling deployment beyond a single context. OpenCHS is now operational in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Lesotho, and recently Somalia, strengthening case management, coordination, and protection data systems in diverse environments.

Finally, we successfully applied for OpenCHS to be recognized as a Digital Public Good. By meeting rigorous open-source compliance milestones—publishing documentation, implementing governance and contribution structures, and reaching nearly 85% test coverage—we have created a transparent and sustainable foundation that governments and partners can adopt without vendor lock-in.

Together, these achievements mark a major step toward building responsible, scalable digital infrastructure that improves protection outcomes for children and survivors across Africa.

Where will your solution have the greatest impact in the next phase, and why?

Gearing up to the next phase, we see OpenCHS having the most impact in strengthening national child protection and survivor support systems across sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in countries where 116 helplines and case management structures already exist but remain under-resourced and heavily manual.

From a geographic standpoint, we expect the greatest near-term impact in East and Southern Africa, where we already have operational deployments in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Lesotho, and Somalia. These countries provide strong foundations for regional scaling, shared learning, and deeper institutional integration with government social service systems.

From a social impact perspective, our solution will continue to deliver the greatest value in improving responses to Violence Against Children (VAC) cases—where timely documentation, prioritization, and coordinated follow-up can directly change outcomes for vulnerable children and survivors. By reducing delays, strengthening referrals, and ensuring that no call or case is lost, OpenCHS helps protection systems respond more consistently and safely at scale.

From a technological standpoint, the next phase of impact will come from expanding the OpenCHS AI Service within real helpline workflows. Our VAC-focused AI prototype has already shown how transcription, translation, summarization, triage insights, and AI-led QA can reduce administrative burden and improve decision support while keeping human oversight central. Building on this foundation, we plan to responsibly train and extend our models to additional high-need domains, including gender-based violence (GBV), mental health crisis support, maternal health pathways, and protection risks faced by migrant workers and other vulnerable populations.

From a business standpoint, we see growth through a partnership-driven model focused on government adoption, implementation support, integration services, and capacity building rather than licensing. OpenCHS is increasingly recognized as shared digital infrastructure, and our impact will expand through deeper institutional partnerships and a growing ecosystem of local implementers and contributors.

Overall, we believe OpenCHS will have the most impact where governments and partners are ready to adopt scalable, open, and AI-supported protection systems—starting with VAC and expanding into broader survivors and social service needs—so that children and vulnerable communities across Africa can access faster, safer, and more coordinated support.

Can you share a memorable user or field test and the key lessons you learned?

One of the most memorable field testing moments occurred during a live training and walkthrough session with child helpline team leaders and supervisors. This happened shortly after we deployed the AI prediction features into the production system.

During the session, a team leader watched the system transcribe live conversations accurately in Swahili, the primary language used by both counsellors and callers. The reaction was immediate. For the first time, users could clearly see how AI could remove the burden of manually writing long case notes while managing emotionally sensitive calls in real time.

The team leader noted that AI-powered transcription, summarization, and classification could significantly reduce time spent on documentation, allowing counsellors to focus more on active listening, empathy, and critical decision-making during calls.

What made this test especially memorable was the shift from curiosity to operational insight. The team quickly began discussing how AI-generated summaries and insights could help standardize case documentation, improve consistency, and free up time for better survivor support. It was a clear signal that the system was not only technically functional, but immediately valuable in real-world helpline conditions.

The key lessons we learned were that transcription accuracy is essential for trust, time savings drive frontline enthusiasm, and early user exposure accelerates adoption. Most importantly, field testing revealed real operational value that could not be captured through technical metrics alone, validating the importance of embedding AI responsibly into helpline workflows with human oversight.

How has being Open Source benefited your solution and your company? Can you cite specific examples?

Being open source has benefited both our solution and our company in concrete and measurable ways.

One of the most important decisions we made this year was to build OpenCHS as open digital infrastructure, because in child protection, trust, accountability, and long-term ownership matter as much as the technology itself.

First, it has increased trust and adoption with government and institutional partners. By releasing the OpenCHS AI Service under an OSI-approved license and keeping the full codebase publicly accessible, governments and NGOs can review how the platform works, deploy it without vendor lock-in, and adapt it to national workflows. This has directly contributed to growing interest from multiple countries seeking sustainable protection infrastructure.

Second, open source strengthened the maturity and reliability of our product. To meet the Venture Fund’s requirements, we established governance and contribution structures, implemented automated CI/CD pipelines, and expanded testing to 80% coverage—improving quality and readiness for scale.

Third, it accelerated collaboration and adoption. By publishing documentation, deployment guides, and public repositories, we lowered the barrier for partners and local implementers to engage and build on the platform.

Overall, being open source has made OpenCHS more transparent, scalable, and sustainable, while enabling our company to grow through partnerships, integration, and support rather than licensing barriers.

Who are the key collaborators you’re seeking, and how can they add value to your business?

As we move into the next phase of growth, we are looking to collaborate with partners who can help scale OpenCHS as shared digital infrastructure for child protection and survivor support systems across Africa.

What are you most excited about for your company next year, and what are your main goals?

Looking ahead to next year, we are most excited about entering a true scaling phase for OpenCHS—expanding deployments, strengthening our AI capabilities across countries, and positioning the platform as regional digital public infrastructure for child protection and survivor support.

One of our main goals is to grow OpenCHS into additional operational contexts through a phased approach with government and UNICEF partnerships. Countries such as Eswatini (Swaziland) and South Sudan are high on our wish list, where stronger digital helpline and case management systems could significantly improve protection response. Our aim is to work with UNICEF and national stakeholders to explore adoption pathways and support gradual rollout as readiness and resources align.

We are also focused on moving beyond our initial AI prototyping work in Tanzania. Over the next year, we want to adapt and train models for other countries where OpenCHS is already operational, ensuring that AI performance reflects local languages, workflows, and protection realities across diverse contexts.

Another major goal is to strengthen OpenCHS as a regional technical support and implementation partner for Africa. As more governments adopt digital case management and AI-enabled helpline services, there is a growing need for trusted regional expertise in deployment, safeguarding, training, and long-term system maintenance. We want OpenCHS to play that role.

Finally, we will continue investing in our position as a leading Digital Public Good—expanding open-source collaboration, improving interoperability with national systems, and ensuring that countries can adopt and sustainably own the platform without vendor lock-in.

Overall, next year is about scaling responsibly: supporting phased expansion into new countries, strengthening AI across deployments, and building the institutional foundation for OpenCHS to serve as shared protection infrastructure across Africa.

How has the UNICEF Venture Fund supported your solution beyond financing?

The UNICEF Venture Fund has been instrumental in accelerating the growth of OpenCHS over the past year. Beyond the financing, the Fund provided strategic support that helped us strengthen not only the technology, but also the business and operational foundations needed for long-term scale.

A key area of value was guidance on our business model and go-to-market approach. The Fund helped us refine our strategy away from traditional licensing and toward a partnership-driven model focused on government adoption, implementation support, capacity building, and long-term institutional ownership. This has shaped how we approach sales and growth—prioritizing trust, integration, and sustainability within public protection systems.

The Fund also strengthened our development practices. Through structured milestones and mentorship, we improved our engineering discipline, introduced stronger QA processes, expanded automated testing, and built more reliable deployment pipelines—ensuring the platform can operate as production-grade infrastructure.

In addition, UNICEF’s emphasis on privacy, safeguarding, and open-source accountability pushed us to mature significantly in these areas. We improved our compliance with Data Protection Guidelines, formalized governance and contribution structures, and established OpenCHS as a transparent digital public good that governments can adopt without vendor lock-in.

Finally, the Fund provided critical guidance on responsible AI. This support helped us prototype the AI Service in a careful, human-centered way—integrating transcription, translation, summarization, and triage insights into helpline workflows while ensuring human oversight, quality assurance, and ethical safeguards remain central.

Overall, the Venture Fund delivered far more than capital: it provided mentorship, accountability, credibility, and strategic direction across business, technology, privacy, open source, and responsible AI—positioning OpenCHS for sustainable growth and impact across Africa. 

Connect with BITZ IT

Follow BITZ IT’s LinkedIn to receive live updates. If you would like to partner them, contact them at [email protected].