An online service that works similarly to Airbnb has been created, where German and Austrian residents are able to share their flats and apartments with refugees.
This is yet another example of the good that the refugee crisis has brought out in people, the world over. From Finnish the Prime Minister opening up his home, to 60,000 of Icelandlic nationals volunteering to take in migrants.
So far, Refugees Welcome has been responsible for uniting over 138 asylum-seekers with empathetic European housemates who are willing to share their homes.
The website currently boasts 800 Europeans who’ve signed up for the service. An external organization then brings the two parties together, arranging meetings to ensure they are compatible.
Founders of Refugees Welcome, Mareike Geiling and her boyfriend Jonas Kakoshke came up with the idea as they were horrified by how asylum seekers were being treated in their country.
With refugees not allowed to work, or even take German classes sometimes their situation was grim. Not only do they have a roof over their head, they have theopportunity to converse in German on a daily basis so that they will be able to assimilate better if and when they are granted residency.
After that, the refugee can either be funded by micro-donations, federal funding, or crowdfunding.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from housemates since the service’s inception, bat a couple of incidences.
Would you host a refugee in your home?
