Joe Gebbia.Photo: Courtesy of Joe Gebbia
Airbnb.org has announced the launch ofa $25 million fundto benefit refugees and asylum seekers ahead ofWorld Refugee Daythis month.
The new initiative, which the company says will help people in need around the world, will kick off with a $5 million personal donation from co-founder Joe Gebbia. The 39-year-old recently contributed $25 million totwo San Francisco charitiesworking to end homelessness.
The Refugee Fund is part ofAirbnb.org, an independent nonprofit, which launched in December and of which Gebbia is the chairman. The organization allows hosts on Airbnb to temporarily volunteer their homes to people in times of crisis, according toa news release.
“We’d been doing this for some time after natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods that suddenly displace people,” Gebbia explains to PEOPLE. “Then seeing the incredible flow of refugees into Europe of course sparked a lot of questions. Could we help? Turns out we could.”
“It’s the moment when someone is granted asylum to a new country. They land, they’re at the airport — where do they sleep that night? We could answer that question being experts in short-term accommodations,” he adds. “We can provide that buffer and that welcome for a family getting resettled in a country, which gives them some time to find long term housing.”
Joe Gebbia visits children in Africa.Courtesy of Joe Gebbia
To educate himself further, Gebbia traveled to Kenya and Rwanda alongside Malala Yousafzai and her Malala Fund as they worked on girls' education in refugee camps, an experience he calls “very eye-opening.”
Joe Gebbia (L) and Malala Yousafzai (R).Courtesy of Joe Gebbia
A trip to Jordan two years later to meet with the UNHCR gave Gebbia “a stronger conviction that everyone deserves the right to fall asleep safe at night,” he says.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is going to be a problem of mine and my company’s lifetime,'” he recalls. “How could we make a difference? How could we help? That’s how we got into the refugee relief space.”
Gebbia also shed light on the issue at the Met Gala in 2017, when he brought human rights activist and North Korean refugee Yeonmi Park as his guest.
Joe Gebbia and Yeonmi Park.Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com
Previously, Airbnb contributed $4 million to the International Rescue Committee after former President Donald Trump enactedmeasures to slash the number of refugeesadmitted into the country and temporarily denied entry topeople from several Muslim-majority countries, the companysaid.
RELATED VIDEO: Mark Zuckerberg Shows Off Invention He Created to Help His Wife Sleep Better: ‘Being a Mom Is Hard’
Gebbia has alsosupported the Kevin Durant Foundationas they redevelop basketball and tennis courts in his hometown.
“We establishedAirbnb.orgwith the steadfast, distilled goal of connecting people to places in times of crisis,” he says. “We have a proven model that works, so it’s time to scale to help more people. The [$25 million] Refugee Fund will do exactly that.”
According to Airbnb, hosts using their service have provided temporary accommodations to more than 20,000 refugees.
source: people.com
