Five digital activists have created a website to help provide shelter to survivors of the earthquake in Syria and Turkiye that left millions homeless amid freezing winter temperatures.
Just 48 hours after the earthquake reduced cities to rubble, Avi Schiffmann built TakeShelter, a site that connects displaced people with hosts around the world offering their homes as shelter.
"Tens of thousands are currently freezing in the winter cold without shelter," Schiffmann, 20, told CNN. "TakeShelter puts the power back into the hands of those displaced by the earthquake, allowing them to find shelter now instead of waiting in the cold or at overcrowded relief centers."
About 50,000 people were killed after the Feb. 6 earthquake, and over five million people in Syria alone may be in need of shelter assistance, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Schiffmann worked with four other software engineers -- 19-year-olds Krish Shah, Adrian Gri and Will Depue, and Anant Sinha, 21 -- to launch TakeShelter. The website was released through InternetActivism, a non-profit they founded to develop digital humanitarian tools, like websites and apps, "to help those impacted by injustice, catastrophe, and displacement."
"Our generation often feels stuck between desperately wanting to help and feeling like there's nothing we can do," Depue told CNN. "I hope InternetActivism shows people how capable all of us are in creating real change in the world. It just requires you to think a bit differently. I'm so excited that we're seeing real people find the shelter they need on our platform."
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