Helplines and NGOs working with sensitive populations in at-risk areas require a robust, secure but also usable communication tooling. They need to have a system that lets anyone contact them in a secure and pseudonymous way, without revealing who manages the hotline; they also need to be able to organize their internal workflow securely and safely enroll new members.

We have conducted a user survey among grassroots helplines in Eastern Europe and identified several common traits: first, they rely on a patchwork of tools (messaging apps, cloud storage, task trackers) therefore multiplying potential vulnerabilities; second, they are critical towards popular secure messaging apps that either leak your phone numbers (e.g. Signal), or do not guarantee end-to-end encryption (e.g. Telegram) or may seem tricky to onboard for non-techies (e.g. Element).

What we propose is a chat-mail service using Delta Chat messaging suite, adapted specifically for hotlines and NGOs. Delta Chat is a federated, crossplatform, free and open source messaging app that works over email and offers state of the art end-to-end encryption using Autocrypt and SecureJoin with multiple audits.

During this presentation we will demonstrate how our chat-mail service can help high-risk user groups. We will specifically focus on instant onboarding, shared account management, account portability, guaranteed end-to-end encryption and embedded collaborative chat-apps ("webxdc") such as notepads, calendars, task trackers etc. We will also share user stories from the field, since all these features are tested with real hotlines.