There have been more than 3.4 million refugees flee Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, according to the United Nations.
Thinking of a way to help the Ukrainian refugees any way they can, two Harvard University students created a website to help them find shelter all over the world.
Avi Schiffmann, 19, and Marco Burstein, 18, developed Ukraine Take Shelter over three days on nonstop work and launched the website on March 3.
Schiffmann tweeted on March 17 that Ukraine Take Shelter already had 1 million users.
He's currently taking a semester off from college and came up with the idea after attending a pro-Ukraine demonstration while visiting San Diego.
"I couldn't stop thinking about what I could do to help," Schiffmann told The Washington Post. "I wanted to do something that would have an instant impact."
"I know how to make all these websites and apps and, you know, I felt that nobody was going to do it," Schiffmann told NBC Boston. "So why don't I just do it? So, I made this website."
Building a website may sound like a crazy, complicated idea for most people, but Schiffmann had done it before. He created ncov2019.live to track COVID-19 data early on in the pandemic, and knew he had to do something again to help the people of Ukraine.
After a night of coding of putting together the beginning stages of the website, he knew the right person to call for assistance.
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"That night, I started working on designing the user interface and the basic site structure, went to sleep, woke up in the morning, and called my friend Marco from college, who's an amazing web developer," Schiffmann told NBC Boston.
Burstein may have been still on campus and busy with schoolwork, but he knew he needed to join in and help.
"When Avi texted me about doing something for people in Ukraine, I had a sense that we could really make a difference with this," Burstein told the Washington Post.
To find a shelter or host family, all a person has to do is enter their location and any available hosts nearby will appear. The person looking for shelter can then select the place they'd like to stay and get contact information from the host. The website has been translated to 12 different languages, making it accessible for as many people as needed.
"This puts power back into the hands of refugees by allowing them to take the initiative, go straight to the website, enter their city and immediately find listings," Schiffmann told CNN. "They don't need to rely on anyone else to help them find a safe place. There's millions of refugees, and it's going to be millions more, so balancing efficiency and security as well as safety is critical."
The residences can be anything from an open bedroom, unused dorm rooms, to even a couch. Schiffman even compared the website to a more popular online rental company.
"If someone has a couch available, they can support a refugee," Schiffmann told the Washington Post. "And if somebody has an entire house, they can put it on the site and support a whole family."
"What we’ve done is put out a super fast, stripped-down version of Airbnb," he added.
The two teens can't believe the amount of hosts that have signed up already, and are proud their project is actually helping the people of Ukraine.
"The number of new hosts we’re getting every day is mind-blowing, and we’re seeing immediate results in how the website is making a difference," Burstein told the Washington Post. "It's literally saving lives for people in a terrifying situation."
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