" Just as you feel when you look on
the river and sky, so I felt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd,
I was one of a crowd, ... "

Walt Whitman

One of my greatest joys working in Information Technology is to act as a volunteer and consultant for the Perth office of Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, Australia. Part of my involvement is advising the staff on I.T. issues and solutions, as well as assisting the organization's technical support team in Melbourne by being one of the on-the-ground person in Perth. Adopting the true spirit of international co-operation and open development, support for all our state offices comes from all over the country, even as far away as Canada.

But like any other computing environment, there is always need for local support personnel. We always welcome additional involvement from people with expertise in computing to assist with our support work. We run a local area network in the Perth office made up of PCs running MS-Windows, connected to dedicated dial-up link and served by a linux e-smith server. If you live in the Perth area, and would like to put your computing skills to good use, we would love to hear from you. You can contact me at my addresses on my contacts page, or you can contact our Perth office directly.

Even if you are limited in your computing skills, we would love to have you join us in our melting-pot of multi-faceted, multi-cultural set of volunteers, members, and staff. There is no shortage of events, campaigns, development programs, local groups and other activities for you to get involved in. It'll all only a phone call or an e-mail away.

Hiew Hong Liang