Skype to be used by emergency.lu during Disaster Relief
Last December, emergency.lu, a global public good supported by the government of Luxembourg that offers a rapid response solution for disaster relief and humanitarian operations, was created. Providing a solution that covers the entire service chain during large-scale disasters including air transport, satellite infrastructure, terminals and services, we at Skype were moved by the cause and wanted to get involved.
In the first few hours after a large-scale disaster, communication is often a major problem. In knowing that, Skype has announced a technical partnership with emergency.lu to help provide a multi-layer communications platform helping bridge the communication gap during these dire times of need. In fact, this past week, the Luxembourg government announced that the low-bandwidth Skype client, also used by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), will now be fully integrated and distributed via emergency.lu.
Additionally, a specific Skype integration of Group Chat is being developed to use Skype as a channel for alerts and coordination from the field. To date, we’re pleased to know that this Skype client has already been deployed in four camps in South Sudan, helping provide communication channels to those most in need.
For more information, please visit emergency.lu.
