Technology has far greater significance if you rely on a computer link to help keep you alive.

When your computer is your primary connection with civilisation and you know the only reliable way to get fresh supplies is to send an e-mail, then you tend to place a higher-than-average value on your PC.

For many missionaries and aid workers in underdeveloped countries, this situation is a normality.

But it never pays to forget that, for them, a crashed computer can mean the difference between getting news bulletins and localised combat reports.

Such news to an aid worker can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

I have just been to Albania.

It's not a huge journey in miles but culturally it could have been on the other side of the moon.

The Albanian people live with intermittent piped water, electricity that happens when it feels like it, a telephone system which is notoriously unreliable and roads that are extremely unsafe to travel at night.

Bandits stop unwary travellers and relieve them of valuables and, sometimes, even their lives.

Many aid workers in Albania live and work under conditions which most people would consider impossible.

The heat in summer is blistering while the cold in winter can be many degrees below freezing.

In the mountain city of Kruja, just north of the capital city of Tirana, there is little room for relaxation.

Every day brings new challenges, including earthquakes, extreme and quite unashamed cruelty and even death threats.

It was there I met Trevor and Kay Weavers.

Trevor is a Kiwi pastor, a New Zealander in his late 50s with a really cool sense of humour but a worrying heart condition.

His wife Kay is also from New Zealand. She shares Trevor's humour but has an edge to her voice which hints at stress levels stretched to the maximum.

In fact they are getting ready to leave Albania in the next couple of months for a long-overdue holiday.

They have been away from home for the past four years.

The first thing you notice is their appearance. Both are immaculately dressed.

Kay looks like she just stepped out of a magazine photo shoot in crisp white trousers and a beautiful, locally embroidered white blouse.

Trevor is dressed in spotless short-sleeved shirt and neatly pressed slacks with shined shoes.

It is hard to remember that for the past three weeks, there had been no piped water at all!

Trevor and Kay rely on a battered old 486Mhz laptop computer to provide a link with 'civilisation'.

They also have a couple of defunct older PCs which date back to 1987.

They were left behind by other missionaries and Trevor and Kay hope they can be used for spares when their ailing machine fails.

Kay said: "We use our computer to keep our spirits up.

"When the phone lines are working, it lets us stay in touch with our family in New Zealand and receive messages of encouragement from our friends around the world.

"We also use it to make greetings cards, write letters, play games and masses more.

"We even create certificates of achievement for our congregation on it. Every day we find another use for it!"

Trevor and Kay Weavers are not alone.

All around the world, more and more people, missionaries and their 'civilian' counterparts with NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations), are relying on computers.

This week, a new Sussex-based charity, Mission Critical, has been formed to help people like Trevor and Kay when their vital technology fails.

Mission Critical has been set up to provide recycled computer equipment and technological assistance to people in underdeveloped countries.

There is a strong emphasis placed on providing equipment to people who need computers to further humanitarian aid work.

Two projects have already been identified.

A brand new school for badly deprived children in Pogradecs, Albania, will benefit from the first consignment of reconditioned computers.

Also, a new community training project set up by Trevor and Kay in Kruja will receive help when the first consignment of kit is sent early in 2001.

If you would like to make a donation, or wish to offer usable computer equipment, then please contact evolution editor Ray Hatley on 01273 704432 for more information.