Invercargill woman Tumara Hall decided she wanted to use her newly achieved information technology degree to help people struggling with computer technology.
"We can help anyone with a community services card and seniors over 65."
Ms Hall said there was a ‘big need’ for the services she had on offer.
The Guy Anson Waddell and Stewart Family Trusts had provided sufficient funding for Ms Hall to start her IT services for 20 hours a week.
Many people, especially older generations, were overwhelmed or apprehensive about technology because of the potential hazards it opened up to scammers.
She was open to having people coming to her for help, or making house calls.
Along with the one-to-one IT help, workshops were also on the list of things to deliver this year — workshops would include how to use technology safely, staying away from scammers and identifying a scam.
"We had developed an app for over-65s, but the problem was nobody knew how to install it ... we needed to do foundation sort of stuff — it is such a huge need."
She recognised some seniors needed help but it was not always available to them.
"My nana calls me almost every day... and that’s absolutely fine, but what about those people who are isolated, or they can’t make it to the device drop-ins — so it breaks down all those barriers."
Her journey began when she wanted to build a learning app for her autistic son.
"Then we noticed there were people getting scammed out there, especially over-65s, and said, ‘right, what can we do to help them?’"
Contact details for her service had been left with Grey Power, Citizen’s Advice, Healthy Families and Age Concern as a starting point.
Age Concern manager Janette Turner said she would welcome Ms Hall’s service with open arms.
The new free IT clinic initiative was an exciting move for the senior community as it was something many people would benefit from.
"We get a lot queries over IT and stuff like that."
Seniors often turned to younger family members when they were stuck.
While the problem was solved, they had not learned how to do it for themselves or what happened.
Mrs Turner planned to advertise the clinic and was looking forward to being able host Ms Hall’s service at the Age Concern rooms.
By Toni McDonald
