While most teens catch up with friends or play sport, 15-year-old Perth student April Narustrang has been busy raising thousands of dollars for airfares and navigating immigration to help a Ukrainian family to come to Western Australia.
More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of the conflict, according to the UNHCR. One month after Russia invaded, the total number of people who have died in the conflict can only be estimated.
The UN estimates close to 1,000 civilians have been killed in the war so far, though the real figure is likely to be much higher, with documented instances of civilians being gunned down in the street.
Despite the 13,000 kilometres of physical distance to the war, April is just one of many people across Perth touched by the human suffering who have joined forces to show their support for refugees fleeing their homeland for safety.
'Where would they go?'
At the start of the year, the only worry in April Narustrang's mind was getting through year 11.
Now, her focus is helping Ukrainian refugees.
The 15-year-old was inspired to help after finding out her mum was donating to various charities. Now she uses any spare minute she has to research information about visas, immigration, passports, G2G passes and vaccination requirements to enter Western Australia.
"With millions of people flooding into neighbouring countries, what's going to happen after the week of food those donations can give them is up?" she said.
"So, I searched up if we could get them here [and] I found that there are ways … so I started finding out how we could contact a family, how they could contact us, how we could get all the documents done, flights, money etc."
She soon got in contact with a Ukrainian woman, Ilyana, who was forced to evacuate to Bucharest with her eight-year-old daughter, Zlata, after their home in Irpin, a small city around 20km north-west of Kyiv, was destroyed.
"Ilyana had been working for 15 years to save for an apartment … they lived in it for six months, and then they had to leave it all behind," April said.
"She has just left everything. The car had to be abandoned, the dad is still over there, and they had a little cat and they had to leave him behind as well."
April successfully secured tourist visas for Ilyana and Zlata, arranged free accommodation and raised nearly $7,000 to purchase flight tickets to bring them to Perth.
But April has remained humble about her work, and instead praised her community as the real heroes.
"There has been so many people reaching out to volunteer their time translating, offering schools that could work for the languages, asking if they need beds, people dropping off bikes, scooters and helmets.
Once Iliana and Zlata have settled in Perth next month, April aims to continue helping others in need.
'They feel for the people'
Roma Popadynec's parents came to Australia as displaced persons in 1949, after World War II.
She grew up hearing about the hardships and challenges they faced while trying to rebuild their lives in a new country.
Now she's the one leading the operation to make sure the new wave of Ukrainian refugees don't have to suffer the same fate.
"We get daily numbers of displaced persons that will be coming through in the next couple of weeks or months, and we assign hosts to them and organise accommodation," she said.
"We have had probably about 140 families throughout WA, from Port Hedland to Mandurah, asking if they can help by being a host."
While waiting for the refugees to arrive, Ms Popadynec decided to put a post out for donations in her community in Perth's western suburbs.
"We've had toys, we've had nappies, we've had bags of children's clothing, we've had toiletries, hair accessories, shampoo … everything that you'd need if you've just come from a war-torn country with just a bag.
Speaking about her amazing community, Ms Popadynec was fighting back tears.
"I had a lovely lady come past and say, 'I can't give you anything, but here's $100, please buy something for them.'
"They don't know me … [but] they feel for Ukraine, and they feel for the people of Ukraine, and they can see the injustice that's being done there and they want to support us in any way they can."
'I can't not do anything'
With a spare room and spare time on her hands, Perth resident Irina Bradley has made it her mission to make a difference to the lives of families desperate to escape the crisis.
Born in Latvia, Ms Bradley has lived in the city's southern suburbs for around nine years with her husband and two sons.
But her small family of four is expected to grow next month with the arrival of Vera and her two children from Odesa.
After realising there was a lack of resources available for Ukrainian refugees intending to come to Australia, Ms Bradley took it on herself to provide them with the necessary information.
"A lot of them are asking, 'Can we come to Australia? Is Australia really taking any refugees? Is there any help?'" she said.
Ms Bradley spends around eight hours a day doing what she calls "pro bono work" with the aim of "helping some people survive or escape."
"So I provide them what they need to do, what visa they need to apply for, how much the tickets are, what the accommodation situation is like."
After hearing that Vera could not afford to apply for visas for her children, Oleg and Ksenia, Ms Bradley turned to her trusting community.
"Immediately we got the money donated, and I paid for the kids' visas," she said.
Ms Bradley hopes the community will continue to help in any way they can.
"I would say for us, $5 is one coffee, but for them, $5 is a meal for a large family, so if we could spare something, it's going to make a massive difference to them."
'We need to feel connected as individuals'
Coming from a family of dancers, the head of the Perth Ukrainian Cossack dance group Simone Litwin has been passionate about helping children, including her three sons, embrace their culture and traditions.
"We want to be able to help the new children and families that are arriving as displaced people and we want to involve them in our community and make them feel like a home away from home," she said.
"We're really feeling it for our children, because it's another generation that has just been wiped out because of the aggression of Russia."
Ms Litwin has been rallying for the community hall to offer English classes for the new arrivals, and her hard work has paid off.
"It's really important for us to feel connected as individuals … and in order for families and children to thrive and strive, they really need this avenue that we're offering at the hall," she said.
"They need this to be able to connect with other people, to connect with services and build their self-esteem and a feeling of belonging … that's the most important thing."
She's also part of a team of medical providers, counsellors, psychologists and schoolteachers, that are prepared to provide necessary services.
Ms Litwin said the best way for the Perth community to support refugees from Ukraine was to be "accepting and welcoming".
"For the sake of the children and the families, it is really, really important that we embrace all of our people that are coming over here," she said.
