In first months of 2022, Dasha Shareyko Dagayeva and and her mother Vita Dagayeva escaped the chaos that was unfolding in their home town of Kyiv, Ukraine in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion. Over two years later of arriving to the U.S., the pair have made South Florida their home, in part thanks to a local lawyer who offered his home to them.

In the early days of the war, the Dagayevas fled from Kyiv to Istanbul and made plans to fly into South Florida where an online acquaintance promised to find them a home to stay in. But after buying plane tickets to Miami, the acquaintance stopped responding and they scrambled to find a plan B. That’s when they met Meland Budwick partner James Moon and his husband Robert Moon, who offered their Wilton Manors home to the Dagayevas.