We have just bid our sad (temporary) good byes to the intrepid Lizzie, who accepted her Kindle and Advent Calendar with undisguised joy, and her bespoke card with some horror. Bon voyage, Miss Hirst!

What do you do at Spring?

Communications Executive

What’s been your favourite project so far?

It’s hard to say…I’ve worked on such a variety of things since I started in July. I’ve always enjoyed writing so putting together blog posts for things like The Suffolk Coast has been fun. Often it’s the quick turnaround and last minute jobs that I enjoy the most, it’s great to see a press release you wrote yesterday make it into today’s paper!

What do you like most about Spring?

The people, the pace and the atmosphere. I feel like I’m constantly learning from people who are incredibly good at what they do. Plus there’s always somebody making tea, which is nice.

Tell us a secret.

I was once “Miss Ipswich”… Only joking (see Nikki’s profile). I’m the world’s worst driver, not much of a secret I guess, anyone who’s been in a car with me will vouch for that!

Tell us a joke.

I’m terrible with jokes but here’s one I got first time round, unusual for me: ‘Why did the tomato blush? Because it saw the salad dressing’.

Give us your top tip for success

Always smile!

This week is Lizzie’s last week at Spring for a while – for a very exciting reason! We thought we’d let her tell you in her own words.

On Tuesday I shall be flying 5000 miles to a town called Arusha in Tanzania where I shall be working for the Faraja Young Women’s Development Unit, a women’s refuge for victims of trafficking, abuse and injustice.

I shall also be taking on another challenge of a lifetime – and living with my boyfriend Ben, the first time I have ever lived with a boy – eek! I do not know which bit of this new adventure I find more daunting!

Faraja, roughly translated from Swahili, means ‘Hope’. In a country where women are seen as second class citizens and where education, health care and social services are inaccessible to the majority of the population as a result of poverty, projects like Mama Siara’s are invaluable. Without her help, the girls who seek refuge at the centre would be on the streets, forced into prostitution, raped, abused or even dead.

The centre offers the girls and their children accommodation, childcare and a programme of training classes in disciplines such as dressmaking, hospitality and computing/typing and cookery over a 1 year period with the aim of providing them with the skills needed to find employment and the ability to support themselves once they leave Faraja. The centre is currently not a registered charity and relies solely upon the generosity of several NGO’s, individuals and the community.

My role as a volunteer will involve a number of duties. Firstly I want to help Mama Siara with re-vamping her website, up the anti with her marketing through Facebook etc and raise enough money for a new well. I aim to give some basic English lessons and help with the other classes where I am able. So, basically, I have my work cut out for me!

But Africa won’t be all work and no play. We will be living in the shadow of Mount Meru, Kilimanjaro’s not-so-tiny baby sister, which we plan to climb. We are also living a short drive from one of the biggest national parks in Tz where you can pitch your tent just yards from elephants, giraffes and the occasional lion! And my boyfriend and his family own a plot of land at the beach, where we shall be spending Christmas – looking out on the beautiful Indian ocean.

My time at Spring has taught me so much, both professionally and personally. I have made what I hope will be life-long friends here. I’m so excited to go forward, taking what I have learnt from Erika and the team here at Spring, and hopefully use it to help people. And I’ll be keeping my hand in and providing some off-site Springiness, as I’ll still be creating some of the content for websites like Bollinger and The Suffolk Coast.

If you would like to learn more about the Faraja Centre and support the work of Mama Siara either through a donation or volunteering then please do get in touch. Or to learn more about the project visit www.thefarajacentre.org/

Over the past few months we have been working closely with the Eastern Enterprise Hub to create a jewel-bright set of marketing collateral to educate and inspire their wide range of students, tutors, mentors and investors. We like the team enormously and are delighted with the results of this partnership.

Two different ways of sharing things. The social media police may arrest me for this because Pinterest launched way back in January (aeons ago in social-world) but it’s my blog post and I like ‘em…

Pinterest

Lets you create a virtual pinboard of things you like on the interweb. Other users can Like, Re-pin or Comment on your choices. You can make lots of different pinboards with themes (or just one, it’s up to you).

Checkthis

Lets you publish a single web page quickly and easily, without registration and all that time-consuming blah. Glen & George call it ‘kind of a bigger more picture-y tweet’. Which I think pretty much sums it up.