570,000 people in Austria feel lonely “more than half of the time”, Caritas said on Sunday. According to their research in collaboration with the SORA Institute, one in four people would feel lonelier than before as a result of the corona pandemic.
17 percent said they now had to limit social contact because of rising prices. One in three people with a household income of up to 1,500 euros are affected.
“Many people have no one to confide their concerns to, many people cannot afford to go to a coffee house to get out of their isolation,” said Klaus Schwertner, Caritas director of the Archdiocese of Vienna.
Caritas counters this with a chat network
Caritas wants to counter this with initiatives such as the chat network that was launched during the first Covid lockdown: people who have no one to talk to call volunteers who are happy to listen on 05-1776-100.
Since the start of the project in April 2020, more than 41,000 calls have been made, which corresponds to a total call duration of more than one million minutes or 720 days. The telephone conversations last an average of half an hour.
About 4,000 people volunteer for the chat network and more than 6,000 people have called the number so far, the broadcast said.
Source: Krone
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