IKEA announced that the company will donate one euro to help refugees for every LED product that the company sells. The money will be donated to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The company hopes that the money will be spent on providing lighting and energy needs to refugees living in camps. The energy will be provided through renewable resources.
The Swedish furniture maker is the biggest contributor to UNHCR. As the biggest corporate partner of the agency, IKEA has donated more than $166 million since 2010. The company has also been proactive in its help to develop a flat-pack family shelter that refugee families are currently using. The shelter has been a major success, and has been given to thousands of families spread throughout Greece, Iraq and Chad.
IKEA’s pledge is not new. The company also ran the “Brighter Lives for Refugees” in 2014. Last year, the company raised more than $11.6 million. The campaign will last for three weeks and will be active in over 40 countries around the world.
There been over 850,000 refugees that have escaped the violence, poverty and persecution that have now entered into Europe. Europe is struggling greatly with the refugee crisis, which is the biggest since World War II.
Millions of dollars have been donated by several organizations around the world to help with the refugee crisis.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced on September 15 that the company was raising money to assist with the refugee crisis in Europe. In just 48 hours, Google raised $5.5 million through donations from individuals. The company decided that they will match the donation and has announced that $11 million will go to help the refugee crisis.
Google announced that they used the funds to create a Crisis Info Hub that assists refugees with finding vital information, such as services and shelters in their new country. Money was also spent on providing Internet access to refugee camps so that in emergency situations, the refugees have a way to contact the authorities and their family.
Google invests approximately $100 million in humanitarian projects every year.
IKEA and Google are just some of the companies that are helping with the refugee crisis. IKEA is even finding a way to profit off of helping people, recently selling 10,000 shelters to the United Nations refugee agency. The shelters are equipped with solar panels, ventilation, mosquito nets and lighting. The doors can be locked, and the structures are 6 feet tall with 57 ft.² of interior space.
