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Changing Hawaii
ON Tuesday night, less than a week after Cherry Ann Cachola Domingo was fatally shot by her ex-boyfriend in the parking lot of Ala Moana Center, a significant dinner was held at the Plaza Club. The honoree was Microsoft's regional office, the primary host was Paradise Canyon Systems and the grateful beneficiary was the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline (DVCLH). In memory of Cherry Ann
In a benevolent business gesture, a handful of local companies were thanked by DVCLH head Nanci Kreidman for voluntarily upgrading the agency's technological capabilities, thus enabling it to more efficiently help island victims escape threats and acts of domestic violence.
In the past, when a DVCLH worker received a phone inquiry for help from a repeat caller, the staff person would not know anything about the caller's previous contacts. Furthermore, conflict checks (to make sure that the agency isn't already working with either party in a legal case) had to be done by hand for every call .
Now, thanks to Paradise Canyon's Randy Martin, some newly donated software and a database engine means DVCLH workers can speedily keep track of large amounts of data, serve victims more effectively, avoid potentially risky circumstances and perform conflict checks on computer.
The software was written entirely in Microsoft Visual Studio, and the DVCLH network is now powered by Microsoft Back Office, thanks to Jim Takatsuka, Microsoft's manager in Hawaii.
Furthermore, PortaBox Storage Hawaii, led by president and CEO Chris Eldridge, pledged a combination of free storage space for DVCLH files. Earl E. Ford of SystemMetrics, a biggie in systems integration and consulting in the islands, contributed increased systems bandwidth support.
DVCLH has been catapulted into the high-technology era of 2001, compliments of these supportive firms. Their efforts will help to ensure that fewer women will follow the suffering of Cherry Ann Cachola Domingo, may she rest in peace, and her still grieving family.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.