The website is matching Ukrainian refugees with people offering free accomodation in different countries.
Avi Schiffmann and Marco Burstein, two classmates from Harvard University, made a website for Ukrainianians who need places to stay in other countries after fleeing war.
The idea crossed Avi Schiffmann’s mind after attending a demonstration in San Diego protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I couldn’t stop thinking about what I could do to help,” said Schiffmann, 19, a Harvard University student who was visiting San Diego while taking a semester off. “I wanted to do something that would have an instant impact.”
He put out a tweet: “a cool idea would be to set up a website to match Ukrainian refugees to hosts in neighboring countries,”
He followed up asking for help from people who spoke other languages to translate the website into Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Czech and Romanian.
Then he texted his Harvard University freshman classmate Marco Burstein, an 18-year-old computer coding whiz, to ask if he could help him quickly develop a website. The pair worked almost nonstop texting and on FaceTime to create a website that would be easy to navigate for people offering help and those seeking it.
On March 3 — three days and only five hours of sleep later — they launched Ukraine Take Shelter, a site in 12 languages where Ukrainian refugees fleeing war can immediately find hosts with spare rooms, unused resort condos, apartments and school dormitories.
Hosts are required to provide only minimal information such as their city of location and contact information.
In the first week, more than 4,000 potential hosts around the world, including in the United States, have offered a place to stay through Ukraine Take Shelter.