Building connection while learning new skills

Feelings of loneliness can affect people at all stages of life. But across Australia, older people are experiencing loneliness at particularly high rates – one in five say they feel lonely, with those over 75 the most affected¹. It’s these people the Australian Red Cross Aged Care Visiting Scheme reaches, carefully pairing them with volunteer visitors who bring brightness and companionship to their days.

Kim is an 87-year-old woman from South Australia who joined the scheme in early 2025. When Kim moved from Saigon to South Australia, she didn’t just leave family and friends behind – she became disconnected from her Vietnamese culture. Living alone in a suburb of Adelaide, her days would pass without a great deal of social interaction. Despite being a relatively private person, she wanted to connect with others. But just as importantly, she wanted to be able to use her iPad.

Taking into consideration her interests and requests – Kim was looking for someone to talk to, learn IT skills from and simply spend time with – Australian Red Cross was able to pair her with Leonardo, a 21-year-old nurse and medical student who is tech savvy. Just like Kim, Leonardo is also Vietnamese. The first time they visited together, they conversed entirely in Vietnamese.

“Because we have that shared understanding of our culture, we can discuss things together, like what food we ate on Vietnamese New Year,” says Leonardo with a smile. “It’s like a topic of discussion for us. It helps her to understand me and share more information about herself.”

Leonardo says that although initially, he was there to show Kim how to use IT, his “second purpose was trying to help her connect with more people around her, as she had been quite isolated from others”. While sharing a language helped, Leonardo recalls their first meeting starting off like an audition. “I was showing her all the talents that I have. I can play guitar, I can play piano, I can draw. I work as a tutor, a nurse, and I’m studying medicine. I was explaining myself to her so that she could trust me.”

It didn’t take long for Kim to warm up, as she became engaged in what Leonardo was showing her on the iPad. “I taught her how to use YouTube and how to connect her iPad to a bigger screen,” he says. “On the next visit, I showed her how to play a song and use Facebook at the same time – she was very interested in that one. Every single time, if she's very interested in something, she will ask me to write down instructions on how to do it. That shows that she's keen to remember.” Kim loves listening to old Vietnamese songs, as they remind her of home. Leonardo was able to show her how to use NhacCuaTui, or NCT, a Vietnamese music platform that’s free, which she now regularly tunes into.

A few months ago, when Leonardo had to travel to New South Wales for a few weeks, Kim requested he show her how to use FaceTime, so that they could stay in touch while he was away. “I would just call her, ask her how everything’s been going,” he says. “It was nice that we could continue to stay in touch.”

Leonardo recalls one recent visit where Kim was so happy, she gave him a bag of mandarins from a tree in her garden as thanks. “That really warmed my heart because it meant I'm actually doing something that's beneficial to her,” he reflects. “It made my day.”

For Leonardo, signing up as an Australian Red Cross volunteer visitor was about getting to know the older generation better. “I work as a nurse, and the majority of my patients are older people,” he says. “I wanted to better understand their social cues, the reasons why they might be upset. Another reason is that I realised a lot of elderly people are isolated these days, and because of that I wanted to be a part of a program that’s bigger than myself. I want to reach out to those in need, and I want to help heal their isolation."

He says the reason why being a volunteer visitor feels meaningful is “it allows us to understand those who came before us”. “They are our elders, and I believe they have more experience than us. And by listening to their stories, by understanding them, we learn things for ourselves as well. A lot of times when I talk to Miss Kim, I learn things that I didn’t know. And that is why it’s so impactful.”

Australian Red Cross’ visiting program also extends to meal delivery, transport to and from appointments and social commitments, a phone-based social check-in service that helps the elderly start their days with human connection and more.

¹ The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2024), Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.