As more than one million refugees flee Ukraine and tensions with Russia deepen, people around the world have come up with innovative ways to help those impacted online. 

People have found ways to use the accommodation provider, Airbnb in creative ways. While some have helped by paying for accommodation for those fleeing the country, others are booking but not staying in Ukrainian venues as a means to donate funds to Ukrainians.

Airbnb is calling on everyone to pay for and host free shelter via its non-profit’s website, Airbnb.org. Partnering with resettlement agencies across the world, Airbnb plans to house Ukrainian refugees, not inside the country but anywhere they need accommodation. 

Accommodation, Help & Shelter for Ukraine, a Facebook group established earlier in February 2022, is a dedicated forum where people can provide support for Ukrainians in need of urgent shelter and accommodation. People living in nearby countries like Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are using this page to offer shelter. The group also assists with enquiries regarding visas and transport.

A group of Yemeni and international volunteers have employed a hashtag to start a group, #YemenisinUkraine, to get people to donate and to support Yemeni students in Ukraine, helping them flee and assisting them once they reach a safe place. So far, the group has raised over 5,000 euros.

“We are receiving calls from Yemeni people with families in Ukraine who are desperately looking for help and are expecting to receive more requests for support in the coming days,” #YemenisinUkraine states on their Paypal description.

So far, over 80 people have been helped and 44 are in contact with the organisation out of a total of 400 Yemeni students in Ukraine.

Photo: by Tracy Le Blanc available HERE and used under a Creative Commons licence. The photo has not been modified.