Harvard student creates site for Ukrainian refugees to find homes

A Harvard University student has set up an international website that matches Ukrainian refugees with people willing to host them in their homes all over the world.

The ukrainetakeshelter.com site was built in just three days by 19-year-old neurophilosophy undergraduate Avi Schiffmann.

It is available in 12 languages and allows refugees fleeing the ongoing Russian bombardment of Ukraine to simply type in their current location and instantly find a list of available hosts.

Schiffmann said he was motivated to create the resources when he realised that the majority of official government websites are confusing.

“Many of these refugees are escaping on foot amid explosions and shelling. They are stressed and confused and scared and they are in new countries where they don’t understand the language,” he told The Independent.

“And then they are just expected to go onto a government website that is full of jargon and nonsense and wait to be matched with somewhere to stay.”

Within a week of its launch In the week thousands of people from “almost every country on the planet” posted listings offering entire homes, annexes, rooms and even couches in their houses for Ukrainian refugees to stay, The Independent reported.

“People are offering everything from a couch in their apartment for one person to an entire farm that can fit five families,” Schiffman said.

“If you have an extra couch in your home in a small village in Hungary, you can hop on the website and post a listing and then refugees can contact you.”