Kaleyra messaging to facilitate work of the Italian Red Cross

The new text message service developed by the team at Kaleyra for the Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana, CRI), will relieve high traffic volumes on the organization call systems for the Coronavirus Emergency. The Italian Red Cross was facing high call volumes with the rising number of Coronavirus cases, and the systems were overburdened. While watching the press conference by the Mayor of New York City, Bill Di Blasio, about the Coronavirus emergency, Kalerra founder Dario Calogero had an idea to help the Italian Red Cross in a simple way. Over just a couple of days, both Kaleyra and CRI teams worked relentlessly and created a pro-bono SMS service to allow the Italian population to receive services from CRI. The toll-free number, 4353535, can be reached by all local operators, facilitating the booking of essential medical services through text messages.

The service, activated on Sunday, March 15th, 2020, has already seen more than 5,000 text messages passing through the platform in just the first four days of its operation. Having coordinated the entire project from his residence in New York City, Dario added, “As a former ambulance volunteer, I am particularly proud of how our entire team in Milan is working smart, volunteering their time and doing an amazing job over the last week. The strength always lies in the crew. This initiative might be a small contribution, but when many businesses come together for the greater good, society really benefits.”