Cellnex Telecom supports the refugee aid programmes organised by the Spanish and Italian Red Cross organisations

Cellnex Telecom supports the refugee aid programmes organised by the Spanish and Italian Red Cross organisations

This is part of the Christmas cooperation programme which the company has joined for the fifth consecutive year with NGOs promoting various projects within the third sector

Barcelona, 14 December 2015. – This Christmas Cellnex Telecom is giving the corporate donation, which for the last few years has replaced its traditional gifts, to the Spanish Cruz Roja and Italian Croce Rossa organisations as a way to support their respective aid to refugee programmes.

For five years now, various NGOs and non-profit state and local organisations have received the support of Cellnex Telecom, which on this occasion has given priority to contributing to the work that the Spanish and Italian Red Cross organisations are doing to provide decent reception and care conditions to refugees coming to Europe from countries affected by armed conflicts.
Cellnex Telecom has a strong presence in Italy, where it has more than 7,800 telecommunications towers through its TowerCo and Galata companies. In Spain the company also has about 7,500 sites for the transport of radio and TV and mobile signals. Cellnex also manages communications networks for security and emergency bodies.
With this donation, the company is continuing its policy of providing aid to the most disadvantaged groups, which began in 2010 when it stopped spending money on Christmas gifts and started sending it to outstanding recognised non-profit organisations.

Spanish Red Cross aid to refugees
The Spanish Red Cross is responding to this situation with more than 50,000 volunteers in 28 countries and has assisted 370,000 people who are in transit. At the moment it is prioritising basic aid such as hot meals, shelter, clothing, blankets or sleeping bags. Likewise, it is increasing the number of mobile health units along the various transit routes.
The Spanish Red Cross has launched a humanitarian campaign to support the work of the Red Cross in the countries of the region and so far has sent more than 30 emergency delegates in various rotations to Greece and Croatia. Two Spanish Red Cross mobile health units are providing support to the healthcare being provided by the Greek Red Cross in the islands that have recorded the highest number of migrant arrivals (Samos and Chios). To date, the Spanish Red Cross has helped more than 8,000 people on both islands, also including psychosocial support work, mainly with children.

Other humanitarian shipments comprise 25,500 raincoats (Serbia), or providing computer equipment to support activities for restoring family contacts (Croatia); 1,000 hygiene kits have also been sent from Barcelona to Serbia for the Bogovadja asylum seekers centre near Belgrade.

Cellnex Telecom
Cellnex Telecom is Europe’s leading independent operator of wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures. It offers sites to rent for telecommunications operators and provides the most advanced audiovisual services to national, regional and local broadcasters.

Over the past four years, Cellnex Telecom has made a firm commitment to developing a network of over 15,000 sites and has enjoyed strong growth in the mobile phone towers area through agreements with operators like Telefónica and Yoigo in Spain, the purchase of the Italian company TowerCo in 2014, and the recent acquisition of 7,400 towers in Italy following the agreement with WIND to gain control of Galata.

It also develops solutions in the “smart city” projects field and has rolled out a smart communications network making it possible to connect objects and develop a strong ecosystem for the Internet of Things (IoT) in Spain. Cellnex Telecom also plays a key role in rolling out telecommunications networks for security and emergency forces.