Today, one in every 100 people on the planet is a refugee or displaced person, according to the United Nations. These are people from all walks of life. They are nurses, doctors, bakers, teachers, and fitness instructors. As refugees navigate their journey to safety, access to information can mean the difference between freedom and persecution.

How do I apply for asylum? Where is there a safehouse? How can I get access to food and healthcare on my journey? What immigration laws have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic? With answers to these questions, refugees and displaced people can decide for themselves the best path forward for their families.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the largest humanitarian organizations providing support to refugees. The agency is dedicated to helping refugees answer these questions, and IRC relies on Twilio to power its communications.

“We like to think of ourselves as a solutions-oriented NGO,” said David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee. “You’ll find plenty of organizations that talk about the suffering, but our partnership with Twilio is all about solutions because the people that we help haven’t got time to feel sorry for themselves. They actually teach us about resilience, courage, determination, survival and recovery.”

IRC sought to expand its technology programs beyond focusing on improving internal-facing operations, such as collaborating on projects remotely, to improving how they serve the refugee community directly.

“The hill we wanted to climb was not just using technology so that aid workers can do their work better but using technology so that the people we serve can lead their lives better,” said Miliband. “There’s no better example of this than the work we’ve been able to do together with Twilio.”

To better serve refugees in the Northern Triangle of Latin America, the humanitarian agency set out to build an information platform that connected refugees to resources immediately over chat. The organization faced three challenges in building its helpline: offering channels refugees use every day, reaching more people with limited staff, and integrating its helpline into existing systems. Here’s how IRC addressed these challenges to support thousands of refugees and displaced people in Central America.