Project history

SpeechBase is the joint effort of an interdisciplinary, international specialist team to serve all people in Africa with hearing, swallowing, and communication disorders.

The project cooperation spanned a period of four years, between 2020 and 2023, and was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the funding line “PAGEL – Partnerships for the Health Sector in Developing Countries”. Each partner institution represented a subject area featured on the website.

The SpeechBase project team consisted of five partner universities:

•    Leibniz University Hannover (LUH, project management) in Germany

•    Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

•    University of Pretoria (UP) in South Africa

•    Kenyatta University (KU) in Nairobi, Kenya

•    Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania

 The originally planned intensive exchange of expertise between team members from all five partner institutions through excursions and mutual site visits was temporarily made impossible by the coronavirus pandemic and required a rapid rethinking of the previous goals. During the period of global travel restrictions, the focus of the cooperation shifted to the creation of the SpeechBase website. With the end of pandemic-related travel restrictions, the project team not only regained the opportunity to visit each other's locations, but also developed a jointly developed tool for the sustainable dissemination of information and teaching materials and for international professional networking, based on actual needs.

The website is aimed at people of all ages with hearing disorders, neurological and developmental disorders, and/or with a need for early childhood development and augmentative and alternative communication. It also addresses other target groups such as relatives, professionals, scientists, and interested parties. The projects results are presented on this website as materials in the areas diagnostic, therapy methods, consulting and research. There are also teaching and learning modules for speech and language therapy practice.

Although various members of the SpeechBase team are now working at other universities and in practice in Germany and abroad, they continue to strive to provide the best possible care for the population of sub-Saharan Africa in all relevant areas of hearing, communication, and swallowing disorders, even after the end of the project.