Newsroom

Save the Children Sweden partners with Airbnb.org to provide free housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine

By ·
·
A belo on rausch background
  • A Safe Start brings together several non-profit organizations and members of the Swedish business community to provide faster assistance to people fleeing from Ukraine to Sweden, including facilitating temporary accommodation through Airbnb.org.
  • With estimates suggesting that over 200,000 Ukrainian refugees could arrive in Sweden from now until June, there is an urgent need for short-term housing.
  • Anyone who wants to offer accommodation to refugees for free or at a discount can register at Airbnb.org/ASafeStart.

Today, Save the Children Sweden and Airbnb.org have announced a new partnership to provide free, short-term accommodations in Sweden for refugees fleeing Ukraine as part of the A Safe Start initiative. 

A Safe Start brings together several non-profit organizations, including Save the Children, and members of the Swedish business community to provide faster assistance to people fleeing from Ukraine to Sweden. These partnerships complement the work carried out by the Swedish Migration Agency, municipalities and MSB, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. 

Airbnb.org will work with Save the Children Sweden – who are responsible for booking and coordinating stays for refugee guests, regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, or how they identify – to connect refugees to available temporary housing in Sweden. 

Three weeks ago, Airbnb.org committed to offering free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine, and since then, more than 16,700 people across Europe have signed up through Airbnb.org to offer their homes to refugees for free or at a discount. 

Collaboration is a key factor in being able to provide quick help to as many refugees as possible. In an emergency like this, there is a huge risk that families on the run will be forced into less safe forms of housing in sports facilities, or even tents. There are also risks associated with initiatives that lack security systems or support structures for families who host displaced people. A Safe Start in Sweden can make a big difference by bringing together everyone who wants to help and those who really need assistance. At the same time, we can create the safest possible hosting solutions

Helena Thybell, Secretary General and CEO of Save the Children in Sweden

Amanda Cupples, General Manager for Northern Europe at Airbnb, said: “Airbnb.org is proud to be partnering with Save the Children in Sweden, as part of A Safe Start, to help refugees escaping the war in Ukraine with free, temporary accommodation through its generous community of Hosts. We are so grateful to all the Hosts who have signed up to welcome refugees into their Homes , and encourage anyone with space to register at Airbnb.org/ASafeStart.”

Oscar Stege Unger, Initiator of A Safe Start in Sweden, said: “The armed conflict in Ukraine is creating a situation in which millions of people are being hit terribly hard. At the same time, there is a tremendous desire to help. We are using our networks and leveraging our existing competence and tools to contribute to a safer start in Sweden for more refugees. We have already come far thanks to the efforts of private individuals, volunteers, aid organizations, the public sector, and the business community.”

Airbnb.org is working with partners across Europe to begin connecting refugees fleeing Ukraine to housing, including the International Organization for Migration, as well as the government of Germany. In addition, the Utah Jazz Foundation is donating to Airbnb.org to provide more than 32,200 nights of temporary housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine. 

To further support AIrbnb.org’s important work, last week Airbnb’s co-founders – Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk and his wife Elizabeth — personally committed to match up to USD $10 million in donations to Airbnb.org from 15 March, 2022 through March 31, 2022. 

In the past three weeks, Airbnb.org has also received more than $6.3 million in small-dollar, direct donations from a total of more than 69,000 individual donors across 95 countries.  
Read more about: Ukraine

About A Safe Start

The A Safe Start initiative brings together several non-profit organizations and members of the Swedish business community and coordinates the efforts of the various participants to aid a larger number of refugees. It also channels the engagement of the Swedish business community to offer housing and provide volunteer assistance. In the initial stage, the participating organizations include Save the Children (Rädda Barnen), Stockholm City Mission (Stadmissionen), the Skill Shift Initiative (Beredskapslyftet), and Airbnb.org. Dialogues are also being conducted with several other organizations such as UNHCR and UNICEF who have warmly welcomed this initiative. Additional collaboration will be sought to contribute even more to meeting the current huge need for support. 

About Save the Children

Save the Children is the world’s largest independent child rights organization. Save the Children has been by the children’s side for over a hundred years and focuses on sustainable initiatives – urgent and long-term. With the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a basis, Save the Children works to make children’s rights a reality, in Sweden and around the world. Because when the children become safe, the world becomes safe.

About Airbnb 

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over
4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

About Airbnb.org

Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc.’s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org’s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform.

Download logo assets