A website that matches refugees in need of a home with willing hosts has housed more than 100 people in the last six months.
Refugees Welcome is already running in Austria and Germany and is now looking to expand into other European countries, including the UK. The service, which launched in November last year, has been "overwhelmed" with offers for help in recent weeks.
The Berlin-based organisation has to date housed 80 people in Germany and 44 in Austria.
According to the Refugees Welcome Facebook page, Yusuf, a Syrian refugee, found an apartment and a job in Munich after being housed through the site. Christoph, who offered a room in his apartment, also helped Yusuf move once he found a new place to stay. "It was an absolutely enriching experience," Christoph wrote on Facebook.
The site matches refugees with spare rooms in much the same way as Airbnb and Spare Room. The big difference being those offering rooms are providing a humanitarian service in the midst of the worst refugee crisis since World War Two.
The team running Refugees Welcome comes from a mix of professions, including a graphic designer, language assistant and management consultant. The idea for the service came when Jonas Kakoschke and Mareike Geiling, two of the founders, let one of their rooms to a Malian refugee while Geiling was travelling in Egypt.
Within months of launching, over 780 people had signed up and offered housing to refugees from Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq and Syria, among others. Those who have opened their homes to refugees include carpenters, PR consultants, and students ranging between 21 and 65-years-old.
The system means that the people renting rooms still receive monthly rent, while micro-donations and social welfare assist the new lodgers. "We are overwhelmed by people's readiness to help," the team at Refugees Welcome wrote in April. "It's time for a new culture of welcome."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
