Kenya Red Cross, Airtel launch disasters SMS alert system

Kenya Red Cross team test the TERA application and send sample messages to Airtel subscribers. PHOTO | COURTESY | KENYA RED CROSS 

In Summary

• The Short Message Service is expected to save lives by delivering timely targeted advise to communities affected by disasters.
• Kenya Red Cross has partnered with mobile phone service provider Airtel to launch a disaster alerts system.

By MARYANNE GICOBI
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Kenya Red Cross has partnered with mobile phone service provider Airtel to launch a disaster alerts system.

The system, Trilogy Emergency Relief Application (Tera) will send text messages to Airtel subscribers in areas affected by disasters.

Kenya Red Cross Society Secretary-General Abass Gullet said the service would help reach out to millions of Kenyans not to be caught unawares in case a disaster strikes such as terrorist attacks, floods and fires.

“It will be a way of making sure that Kenyans are not caught unawares, we are talking with other service providers like Safaricom to partner with us so that we can reach to every corner of this country,” said Mr Gullet while addressing a news conference in Nairobi on Friday.
The messages will also contain information on relief distributions such as clean water, food, shelter, detailed advice on a range of issues such as hygiene and warnings on looming natural disasters.

EBOLA

The system will also be used to gather information through simple questionnaires, which will inform and improve the effectiveness of Red Cross activities.

“The mobile alerts sent to the customers will have advice on general information to keep the community up to date with developments of the disaster, the kind of action the community impacted should start doing to protect their life e.g. in floods and health outbreaks such as Cholera," said Airtel Kenya's CEO Adli El Youssefi.

Kenya becomes the second country in Africa to use the Tera technology.

The technology was first used in Sierra Leone where International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) partnered with leading mobile operators to reach out to people during the Ebola crisis.