Lesia Miroshnichenko has been watching the invasion of Ukraine from her home in Derby in the UK.
As the invasion began, she felt powerless as she watched footage of missiles striking cities in the country of her birth.
"I just couldn't sleep, I couldn't go anywhere or see anybody," she told the ABC News Daily podcast.
"I just kept calling my friends and family, asking if they were OK.
"It was a nightmare."
When the UK government announced its Homes for Ukraine scheme in mid-March, Ms Miroshnichenko, who has lived in England for seven years, put out a call to her own contacts on social media offering to help them find homes in England.
She received messages from old classmates, and friends of friends in need of assistance, but when she began looking in online community groups she noticed a disconnect.
"I saw on Facebook English people looking for Ukrainian people, and Ukrainian people looking for English people.
"It was like there was a guard between them, they couldn't find each other."
So she quickly put her skills and contacts to use.
"If I saw a post saying 'I have a home for three people', I just contacted them and said, 'I can find you some people.'"
"Then it kept going and going and going."
Connecting families
Since the UK scheme began, Ms Miroshnichenko has spent most of her free time helping refugee families connect.
Last week, she organised a video call between the two Ukrainian families and two neighbours in Scotland, Sally Eady and Marie Hendry.
The WhatsApp ringtone sounded for just a few seconds before seven women's faces appeared one-by-one. The strangers greeted each other with warmth and excitement.
"[These people have] never met each other and they're like a family," Ms Miroshnichenko said.
"Maria and Sally, they say, 'we will prepare everything, what would you like to eat? What would you like to do? What is your favourite colour?' It's amazing."
The Ukrainian women on the call included sisters Anastasiia, 23, and Dasha Nitskevych, 17. They left their parents behind in Irpin, in the Kyiv region of Ukraine.
They are now in Germany, searching for long-term accommodation.
The other family on the call included Olha Rozdaibida and her daughter Valentyna, 17, who are still trying to leave Ukraine but have nowhere safe to go.
"They had the life they had, the education, they had their jobs and then they lost everything and they have to start again from zero," Ms Miroshnichenko said.
"[The hosts say] 'you don't need to stay here for six months, you can stay here [for as] many months as you need and then if the war is over, you can bring your family here, your parents, they can have a spare room.'
"This is just something unbelievable happening."
'Unworkable' visa system thwarting community efforts
These grassroots efforts to connect refugees with potential sponsors has come as criticism is levelled at the UK government over the roll out of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
The scheme, which opened on March 14, allows strangers to sponsor Ukrainian citizens to stay with them at their home for a minimum of six months, for a payment of 350 pounds ($614) per month.
More than 150,000 people in the UK have registered, but fears have been raised that the process of matching Ukrainians with UK residents is slow and unclear.
But Lisa Nandy, the UK's shadow communities secretary, told British press the rise of unofficial matching on social media groups has also sparked concern that vulnerable people were at risk of being exploited and becoming targets of crime.
"There is no formal central system of matching the people on the register to those in need, which is pretty extraordinary," she said.
"Unless urgent steps are taken to address this, we will see very small numbers of people taking up this offer and a lot of the public's generosity squandered."
A UK Home Office spokesperson told British media that recent changes to visa requirements for Ukrainians, which allow Ukrainians to receive a visa if they're accepted by a sponsor through the Homes for Ukrainians scheme, would help people fleeing the country.
"We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and the changes we've made to the visa process are making it quicker and simpler for Ukrainians to come here, as well as ensuring those already here can stay," they said.
"Staff are working seven days a week to process applications as quickly as possible."
The UK still requires Ukrainians to obtain a visa before entering the country, unlike most European countries, which are allowing visa-less Ukrainians to enter.
