"'Airbnb for refugees' group overwhelmed by offers of help"

"More than 780 Germans have signed up to the Refugees Welcome website and 26 people have been placed in private homes so far. Two of the site’s founders, Jonas Kakoschke, 31, and Mareike Geiling, 28, live with 39-year-old Bakari, a refugee from Mali, whom they are helping with German classes while he waits for a work permit.

A spokesman said the project’s growing success has now led to offers of help to set up similar schemes in other EU countries, including Greece, Portugal and the UK, with a comparable project in Austria already up and running since January.

Over the weekend, thousands of Icelanders offered to accommodate Syrian refugees in their own homes in an open letter to the government about the migration crisis."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/berlin-group-behind-airbnb-for-refugees-overwhelmed-by-offers-of-help?CMP=share_btn_fb

This is amazing. Genuinely - it's not feeling like a one-off project born of positive intentions and a vague desire to show that a maligned techie trend can be used to help with some of our world's biggest crises. This feels like a general trend, like it's tapping into something, organizing, growing. There is a constructive reaction outside of the despair.