On a busy day at a small disability services office in Sydney’s west, 22-year-old Rita Nichola is answering phones. Rita is a volunteer who migrated from Syria and has a disability. “Tender Loving Care Disability Services is my second family because I feel safe here," she says. "They give me support, to feel like I'm improving myself.
“One day, I saw an elderly woman on the train crying and I asked her if everything was all right. And then she just opened up, talking and telling me her story and it was quite a sad story. “As we continued conversing, she reached her destination and she had a little bit of shopping and I just offered to carry her bags?” The woman’s name was Margaret and they formed a friendship that day that would last for many years.