Susan was born in Perth & grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, followed by boarding school in the UK. After several years of international travel, including a teaching stint in Machakos, Kenya, she returned to Perth in 1982 and has been based in Fremantle for nearly 40 years.
Susan is now retired from her 20 years as an Admin Officer at Murdoch University as well as a period in ABC Radio. She enjoys being involved with the Fair Trade shop as a volunteer as well as spending time with friends and family. She loves walking the dogs, going to the beach, playing scrabble and generally enjoying life in sunny Fremantle!
Susan is still very interested in the progress of developing countries. She sees Fair Trade as an important opportunity for disadvantaged producers as well as providing capacity building for these groups of people.
Since arriving in Australia, Susan has been involved, initially with Community Aid Abroad and then Oxfam Australia, as a fund raiser and activist. Over the years this has included many years involvement with the Fremantle Walk Against Want, Taste of the Nation, Trailwalker, and for the past 15 years, as a supporter and retail assistant at the Oxfam Fair Trade Shop in Bayswater, WA. She strongly finds this is a positive way to be involved, supporting, sourcing and selling Fairtrade products from many countries, as well as being able to channel all profits back to Oxfam Australia.
The volunteers at the shop are a diverse group of people of all ages and backgrounds. They work very well together, covering all the shifts at the shop. They all take responsibility for sourcing and ordering products, dealing with Fair trade companies, finance and IT, as well as enjoying each other’s company at monthly meetings and markets.
Susan would highly recommend the shop as a fabulous place to volunteer with a very worthwhile purpose. We are always happy to welcome new members to join us.