Grattis!

Even though in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese the word “Gratis” means “Free” (that is, gratuitous or without cost), in Sweden the word “Grattis” is used to express good feelings about some achievement or notable deed. In this sense, congrats have been well earned by the non-profit Ikea Foundation for their “Better Shelter” initiative. It all began in 2010 when Swedish industrial designer Johan Karlsson, after volunteering to work abroad with his country’s refugee services, observed the crude reality of the makeshift shelters where thousands of displaced persons live. Back home, he conceived a cheap and simple design to solve this world-wide predicament. Executives at Ikea –where he first took his project– passed him along to their humanitarian branch, which in turn contacted the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Today the Better Shelter office in Stockholm is swamped with requests for their prefabricated houses. When the project began five years ago, Karlsson and his team had no way of knowing that the refugee crisis would turn into a serious problem for Europe, where almost half a million refugees have entered in 2015. In March this year the BS prototype was tested by 40 refugee families in Iraq and Ethiopia. After subsequent improvements were made, Better Shelters are now also used in refugee camps in Lebanon, Chad, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia and Serbia. The light-weight structure can be assembled in 4 hours and is fitted with a solar panel and lamp to provide light during the dark hours. The average stay in a UNHCR refugee camp is 17 years, so this new type of shelter will provide refugees with safety, dignity and a place to call their temporary home. Hopefully other multinational giants like Zara –the world’s largest clothing retail chain– will put together similar projects with their first-necessity products.