Tent Partnership for Refugees and Upwork, an online marketplace for freelance workers, have launched an initiative to connect displaced Ukrainian professionals to skilled remote work opportunities.

In partnership with Genpact, a professional services company, and Sutherland, a digital transformation firm, the Opportunity Unlimited initiative will work to match displaced Ukrainian professionals—with skills ranging from web, mobile, and software development to customer support and marketing—to projects and long-term engagements on the Upwork platform. Other partners include HIAS, Humans in the Loop, Na’amal, Payoneer, Techfugees, the United Nations International Organization for Migration, and Upwardly Global.

With an estimated five million Ukrainians having lost their jobs since the Russian invasion, the program will initially target tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainian professionals and later expand the initiative to include other refugee populations—including displaced people from Syria and Venezuela—and develop best practices for companies more broadly to integrate displaced independent professionals into their existing operations at scale.

“We’ve been in awe of the Ukrainian people’s resilience over the course of this crisis, having figured out how to take their work with them and continue earning a livelihood under the most impossible circumstances,” said Upwork CEO Hayden Brown. “[We] are thrilled to mobilize with our partners around the world to encourage companies to find and hire these incredible, skilled professionals from Ukraine, wherever they may be.”

(Photo credit: GettyImages/Geber86)