How to help lonely elderly people: 7 real ways

In Ukraine hundreds of thousands of elderly people live alone: their children are abroad or there are none, neighbours have moved away, the nearest shop is kilometres away. A minimum pension covers utilities and bread, but the problem goes deeper than money: it is isolation. For weeks a person does not hear a human voice.

So real help for an elderly person is always two things at once: basic needs (food, medicine) and human presence. The best programmes combine both.

1. Knock on a neighbour's door. The simplest and most underrated step: ask a lonely person nearby whether they need anything from the shop or pharmacy. It costs 15 minutes.

2. Buy a “double basket”. Once a month, when you buy groceries for yourself, put together the same basic pack: cereals, oil, tinned food, tea, and pass it to someone who is struggling.

3. Donate to a fund. If there is no one near you to help, funds know who needs it. Your gift becomes a share of the monthly sponsorship of the person you chose, and buying in bulk lets us buy more with the same budget.

4. Set up regular giving. A one-off gift saves a day, regular help changes a life: the person knows they will not be forgotten next month either.

5. Become a volunteer driver. Funds always lack people with a car for 2–3 hours a month.

6. Help with medicine. Many elderly people “save” on blood pressure medicine, with predictable consequences. Paying for a prescription is very targeted help.

7. Tell the fund about a person. Do you know a lonely grandmother or grandfather in hardship? Submit a request. A coordinator will check and take the person into the programme.

Do not give cash to unknown “volunteers”; transfer to a fund with open reporting. Do not publish a person's photo without their consent, even with good intentions. And do not promise what you cannot do regularly: for a lonely person a promise that vanished hurts more than its absence.