Ukraine Response: IOM Romania`s partnerships with the private sector

In order to respond promptly to the needs of people fleeing Ukraine, IOM Romania has scaled up partnerships developed over time with private economic partners, and has developed new ones.
We currently offer a wide range of support in collaboration with the following private sector partners:

Based on previous cooperation, IOM in Romania initiated the negotiation of a regional partnership with Airbnb to connect people fleeing from Ukraine to free, short-term housing in Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. This partnership provides temporary housing adapted to their accommodation needs over the coming weeks and months for all those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. These stays are free and are funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund, and the generosity of hosts through Airbnb.org. All Airbnb fees are waived for Airbnb.org refugee stays. IOM, Airbnb and Airbnb.org have a history of partnering to support the refugee community around the world and have worked together to offer housing to Syrian and Afghan refugees in Romania.

IOM Romania has partnered with Edenred Romania to provide social vouchers to Ukrainians fleeing the conflict. The social vouchers will be used to cover the basic needs and will complement the assistance provided by the central and local authorities. Edenred Romania is one of the largest companies that distributes vouchers to employees, as part of the system of benefits associated with salary. In the context of the refugee crisis in Ukraine, the company has partnered with two major international organizations, the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration, in order to provide assistance to people leaving the territory of Ukraine. Specifically, employees who receive benefits in the form of vouchers can redirect some of them to refugees. The two organizations will distribute vouchers to migrants who can buy food and other basic necessities from stores such as Auchan, Kaufland, Cora, Lidl, Carrefour, Penny, Mega Image.

IOM Romania has partnered with Synevo Romania to provide a series of free laboratory tests as well as testing for the identification of Sars-CoV2 virus (by rapid antigenic tests and RT-PCR) to all refugees from Ukraine as well as third country nationals fleeing the conflict. Synevo Romania is part of Medicover AB, an international medical and diagnostic services company, headquartered in Sweden, listed on the NASDAQ Stockholm Stock Exchange. At the same time is the largest provider of laboratory diagnostic services in Romania, offering over 2,000 types of common and advanced analysis in all areas of clinical laboratory diagnosis. The company manages a national network of 19 laboratories and 126 testing centers.