[okfn-discuss] On Being Gremlin Free and A Proper Hello

[Meg Foulkes]

Hi everyone: just a note to let you know that the evil cyber gremlins that
have been plaguing me lately have now officially gone, so I should be
receiving all mail OK. I thought I should say a little to introduce myself
properly, now I'm up and running!

I'm very pleased to be here at OKFN. After studying English at Cambridge, I
temped in quite a random fashion for some time (most random, definitely,was
my time as administrator for a warehouse which dispatched reconditioned
artificial limbs for the NHS. I will never forget the enormous piles of
arms and legs waiting to go out!).

In 2004, I started working an Immigration Detention Centre (basically a
prison) near Cambridge, initially in the admin. office of a legal NGO
(inside the centre compound), which provided advice and representation to
those seeking asylum in the UK. After studying for a legal accreditation in
my spare time, I then became a legal representative for the Refugee Legal
Centre. My job was to take my client's story, often including experiences
of torture, and my role necessitated a fair deal of ad-hoc counselling. I
then spoke as advocate at their on-site hearing with the Home Office,
before they were often bundled in the back of a van for deportation at
Heathrow.

On another note, this prison was where I met my would-be husband. I left
the RLC when government funding cuts led to redundancies. I now live in
Fulham, west London with our two children. I am a published poet and have
read at several conferences of contemporary poetry. I have a strong
interest in the work of the OKFN and hope to become a useful part of your
team. Bear with me whilst I get up to speed!

Meg  x

-- 
Meg Foulkes
Foundation Administrator
Open Knowledge Foundation
http://okfn.org/
Skype: megfoulkes
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/attachments/20120904/e3a101f7/attachment.html>