IKEA’s Innovative New Mobile Shelters Will Help Tens of Thousands of Refugees
I’ve always loved IKEA. Their stuff may not be the best, but I just love the designs. Now there’s another reason. They’ve come up with a way to put a stop to those awful tents in refugee camps.
By 2013, 51 million people across the world were displaced and forced to leave their homes, marking the first time that number has surpassed 50 million since World War II. Millions of people were left with nowhere to go and forced to live in improvised shelter in unsafe refugee camps.
In an effort to combat this growing problem, the IKEA Foundation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have teamed up to produce mobile homes for refugees. The easy-to-construct homes fit five people, and will be a safer, more durable and more comfortable alternative to the makeshift tarp shelter that is synonymous with refugee camps.
They’re not only safer, especially for women and girls, they come with electricity built in. The fact they were designed by actual refugees is just a bonus.