Lina has been a client of the Neil Squire Society’s Computer Comfort program in Burnaby, British Columbia (new window) since October of last year. She has arthritis (new window) in her knees which was made worse after a fall three years ago, resulting in the need for surgery to repair torn cartilage in her left knee.

Lina claims she has always been “the last one to get onboard with technology”, stating that she didn’t even have a stereo until she was fifty. She had taken an evening computer course once before, but she found she was not able to learn much in a classroom setting. “I find it really hard to learn without a one-on-one situation. If I’m working on something and it doesn’t go exactly as planned, I’m in a panic” The one-on-one tutoring offered by the Computer Comfort program is just what Lina needed to lose her aversion to technology. “It’s amazing how much I didn’t know. I’m really learning a lot,” says Lina after learning how to us programs such as Microsoft Excel (new window)and Microsoft Word (new window). “I’m pretty confident, I finally feel like I’m catching up with technology. It makes me hungry to go further, to know more”. No longer in a “panic” about using the computer, Lina’s next challenge will be learning how to use Skype (new window).

Keep it up, Lina!

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