Sadaa Echo

inspiration

Sadaa didn’t start as an app. It began as a humanitarian campaign we created in high school. Our focus was on Sudan; we raised funds, but more importantly, we worked to raise awareness. We went into 4th-grade classrooms and taught students about what was happening, breaking down complex global issues into something they could understand and engage with. That experience changed how we saw education.

We realized the issue wasn’t a lack of information, but how overwhelming and inaccessible it often feels for both students and the general public. Many people struggle to follow current events, understand the context behind them, or feel confident forming their own perspectives. But we also saw that when information is made clear and accessible, people genuinely care and want to learn.

That realization became the foundation of Sadaa.

We wanted to create something that removes barriers between learning and awareness, making current events as approachable and essential as any subject in school. Sadaa is designed as a multi-format learning platform where users can read, listen, or explore topics at their own depth, with access to context, history, and multiple perspectives.

At its core, Sadaa is about making knowledge more human—turning complex information into something digestible, meaningful, and actionable. It’s about helping people better understand the world around them and feel empowered to engage with it.

What it does

Sadaa Echo is a context-first news and history learning platform that bridges the gap between information and understanding.

Users browse a personalized feed of current events and historical topics. When they open a topic, instead of a raw article, they get a structured context panel with three depth levels — Surface, Balanced, and Deep — each revealing more of the historical record, timeline, and analysis behind the story.

Key features:

Layered context — Every topic includes a chronological timeline, a "Why This Matters" breakdown, and multiple perspectives from different political, regional, and international viewpoints, all sourced from verified outlets like Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera, the UN, and human rights organizations.

Highlight to define — Users can select any text in a topic panel and instantly receive an AI-generated definition grounded in the specific context of that story — not a generic dictionary entry.

Gamification — XP points, daily streaks, level progression, and three Duolingo-style mini-games (Timeline Sort, Pair Match, and an Enhanced Quiz) are built into every topic to reward consistent learning.

Take Action — Each topic connects users to vetted organizations working on the issue, a ZIP-code-based representative lookup, an AI-generated letter template, and a fundraiser board — turning awareness into direct civic participation.

Classroom mode — Teachers get full unrestricted access to all content. Students can be assigned topics, and comprehension is tracked through game scores and read completion.

Verified sourcing — Every topic panel displays its source list with direct links, color-coded by type: news outlets, NGOs, UN agencies, legal bodies, and academic institutions.

How we built it

Sadaa Echo is a full-stack TypeScript monorepo built with React + Vite on the frontend, Express on the backend, and PostgreSQL via Drizzle ORM. We used Clerk for authentication, OpenAI's GPT model for contextual definitions and AI-generated letter templates, and the WhoIsMyRepresentative API for civic lookup. The UI is component-driven with Tailwind CSS, Cormorant Garamond italic as the brand font, and a custom echo-wave SVG logo. Gamification is layered on top of a real XP/level/streak system stored in the database. The Duolingo-style mini-games — Timeline Sort, Pair Match, and Enhanced Quiz — are fully custom with character reactions and XP bonuses. Everything is deployed on Replit.

Challenges we ran into

Getting AI definitions to feel genuinely contextual — not just dictionary entries — required careful prompt engineering that anchors the term to the specific topic being read. Representing controversial and ongoing events (like Gaza) without sanitizing the language was an intentional design decision that required overriding default neutral-framing tendencies. Positioning the highlight-to-define popover correctly inside a scrollable, fixed panel took some iteration (we ended up using fixed viewport coordinates for reliability). Syncing XP, streaks, and level-gating across the whole experience without slowing page loads also needed careful query structuring.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The highlight-to-define feature is seamless — select any text in a topic panel and you get a definition, historical context, and a "why it matters" framed specifically to that topic. The layered timeline + multi-perspective context panel genuinely changes how you understand a news story. The civic action tab goes from reading to doing in one click — look up your rep, generate a letter with AI, and send it from your email in under a minute. And we're proud that the app doesn't pretend to be neutral: it names things accurately while still showing multiple perspectives.

What we learned

That context is the actual missing layer in news consumption — people don't lack information, they lack the scaffolding to make sense of it. We also learned that gamification only works if the rewards feel earned; random XP pops feel hollow, but XP tied to finishing a timeline or acing a mini-game feels meaningful. And that civic features only convert if the friction is near zero — so we pre-write the rep letter and just ask for a ZIP code.

What's next for Sadaa Echo

A classroom mode where teachers assign topics and track student comprehension through mini-game scores. A forum layer so students can debate perspectives under real events. Regional and international edition feeds so the same story is shown through the lens of different geographies. Mobile app with streak notifications. And eventually, letting students submit their civic letters through the app — with a tracker to see if their rep responded.

Built With

• claude
• replit