The staff at The Big Issue was extremely helpful throughout our project. They gave us much needed guidance, acted as translators, and gave us insight into how to best work with the vendors. We want to thank them for allowing us to take over their offices to run our activities and meetings with the vendors.

---

Trudy Vlok

Trudy is the Managing Director of The Big Issue South Africa (SA). She works hard to ensure that vendors are getting what they need out of The Big Issue and are working their hardest. She has helped to keep The Big Issue SA running and continues to keep it growing.

---

Nicky

Nicky is the Social Worker at The Big Issue SA. She works to give opportunities to the vendors that they would not have without The Big Issue. She is strict with the vendors and encourages them take charge of their own lives. She was an amazing help; she constantly reminded the vendors of their responsibilities and keep them on schedule. We would not have had such a successful project without her.

---

Andy

Andy is an intern at The Big Issue SA for journalism. He goes to Johannesburg for University. We worked with him on a few occasions and he was our primary translator for the first few meetings we had with the vendors. Our mentors then took over the translating roles. He is a very funny and interesting guy who likes to write and has expressed interest in what we are doing with the vendors.

---

Penny

Penny is the Secretary for The Big Issue SA. She helped as a translator the first time we met with the vendors. Without Penny, our first day we would have floundered. Even though we did not worked with her much, we know that she is a vital asset to The Big Issue team and works hard to have a strong relationship with the all vendors.

---

Tarryn

Tarryn is a part time writer at The Big Issue. She is the primary writer for the vendor of the month articles in the magazine. We used her articles for some background information to get to know the vendors we would be working with. She is also the person who will be continuing the program we created once we leave.

---

Continue to meet other characters we met along the way.