Today, 29 October, is the International Day of Care and Support
Caring means being there. Helping an elderly person with daily activities, supporting a child in their learning journey, helping a family cope with a difficult situation, enabling a healthcare professional to do their job better. These are actions, skills and responsibilities that span generations and hold communities together. On 29 October, to mark the International Day of Care and Support (International Day of Care and Support), established by the United Nations, the focus is on the social and economic value of care work – both paid and unpaid – on recognising the rights of those who provide care and those who receive it, and on the need to build more equitable, accessible and inclusive support systems. In an ageing society, where the need for care is increasing and technology is rapidly transforming services and professions, digital innovation also plays an important role. It can promote independence, facilitate access to services, ease the burden of certain daily tasks and offer new tools to support people. Provided, that is, that it is designed with people, their needs and their capabilities at the heart of the process. This perspective has underpinned the work of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale for 25 years; the Foundation is committed to building alliances between generations, schools, universities, businesses, institutions and social organisations to make knowledge a shared resource.
Independence is a form of care
Through the Noi. Oltre Nonni su Internet project, the Foundation promotes the digital inclusion of older people, whilst also involving carers, students and local networks. From accessing online healthcare services to digital security, from communicating with family and friends to using domestic technologies, these skills become practical tools for tackling everyday life with greater independence. The programme also pays particular attention to those who care for older people, who are often isolated or have limited digital skills. In this context, innovation can help to simplify certain tasks and strengthen supportive relationships. Among the planned trials is the use of Meta smart glasses to explore new possibilities for care and communication, for example through language translation in interactions between older people and family carers of foreign origin. One key issue remains: whilst technology can expand opportunities for connection, it must be used with care to avoid the risk of replacing human closeness with a purely digital presence.
Care requires new skills
Through The Future of Care, the programme promoted in partnership with Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft, the Fondazione Mondo Digitale supports healthcare professionals in the digital transformation of healthcare. Artificial intelligence, data analysis and new technologies can improve processes and services, but they require technical skills, critical thinking, ethical responsibility and a renewed focus on the relationship with the patient. It is a challenge that also concerns what we might call the human software of healthcare: listening, empathy, collaboration, the ability to tackle complex problems and make informed decisions. Training activities, the Health Challenges and the collaboration with the Provincial Order of Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists of Rome help to foster a dialogue between technological innovation and the quality of care, highlighting the active role of professionals.
To accompany means recognising differences
Care also extends into educational settings, where it takes the form of attention to individual needs, support for learning and the creation of inclusive environments.
With Pathway Companion, developed with the support of Google.org and in collaboration with scientific and technological partners, the Foundation is piloting an AI-based tutoring system to support children and young people aged between 8 and 16 with special educational needs and specific learning difficulties. The aim is to offer personalised support that helps to nurture individual abilities and strengthen independence, whilst complementing the work of teachers, families and specialists. Here too, technology demonstrates its value when it helps to make educational opportunities more accessible and to foster the relationships of trust that are essential for growth and learning.
Designing technologies that care
A culture of care is also built by involving the younger generation in finding solutions to people’s needs. This is the aim of HealthBot, the educational competition at RomeCup 2026 that saw secondary school pupils design prototypes using artificial intelligence, robotics and sensor technology to improve health, independence and wellbeing. Fourteen projects demonstrated how young people’s creativity can help to envision forms of care that are more accessible, personalised and focused on quality of life. The same approach inspires Digital4Human, the competition organised as part of Job Digital Lab, the programme developed with ING Italia, in collaboration with Ausilioteca Roma and the Leonarda Vaccari Institute. The challenge is to promote innovative technological solutions capable of improving accessibility, independence and social inclusion for people with disabilities. These two initiatives share a common conviction: designing for care means starting from people’s real needs and drawing on diverse expertise to transform technology into concrete opportunities for participation and wellbeing.
A culture of care for all
The experiences of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale demonstrate just how wide-ranging the theme of care is: it concerns health, education, ageing, work, the accessibility of services and participation in social life. The International Day of Care and Support calls on us to recognise the often-unseen contribution of millions of people who care for others every day. It also highlights our collective responsibility to create conditions that make this commitment sustainable. From this perspective, social and digital innovation can help build a genuine care infrastructure, comprising accessible skills, inclusive services, local networks and intergenerational collaboration. Because a community capable of caring is also a community capable of learning, recognising vulnerabilities and transforming them into opportunities for shared responsibility.
