Belgian NGO launches a website to raise awareness on homeless people

“Live where nobody wants to live”. This is the motto of Notfairbnb.be, a website that invites either individuals or groups of people to spend one night sleeping on the streets. Solidarity in the Great Cold (Solidarité Grands Froids) is the non-profit organisation behind this campaign and at the moment the social project is working fairly well. As a goal, the platform aims to get funds for homeless people. To do so, it has cleverly imitated the look and feel of Airbnb so that it might raise awareness of society in regards of people living on the streets.

“We want to make people realise that by giving up a comfortable place for a night, we can easily help those who don’t have a roof”, stated Cynthia Simpson, president of the organisation. Notfairbnb.be gives the chance to any user to virtually book a place to stay. They are actual spots where homeless people sleep at night, complete with dark satirical write ups about the lodgings, too. When booking one of the spots, you’ll donate money to bring a warmer winter for more than 5000 people who sleep rough every night in Brussels.

Sleeping on a green mattress at Place Rogier or resting on a cardboard at Cantersteen are some of the options anybody can filter in the website. Ironically, Notfairbnb.be invites users to stay in a roomy Bed&Breakfast near La Bourse in Brussels, next to a café where they can also pick up rests of food may fall out from the windows.

Notfairbnb.be was first launched on the 21st December 2016. EFE Agency reports that it gained more than 10.000 clicks in just four days and collected over 5.200€. Cynthia Simpson also said that organisations from Canada and Holland have got in touch with them to show their interest in the platform.

Solidarity in the Great Cold is a non-profit organisation aiming to improve life conditions of homeless people in Brussels. Thanks to donations, they offer an aid kit including clothes, medical equipment, etc. Samusocial is currently offering psychological support to people living on the streets and they are also trying to provide them with structural solutions.