To celebrate our wonderful, unique and diverse membership, IWAP is profiling one member each month. We’re asking members the same questions that will hopefully let us – and you – get to know them better. Each month we will profile a different member, selected at random, with the answers they provided along with their photo. Helen Noll is March’s selection.
Where are you from?
I am British, born in the seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset. I studied in London, moved to Portsmouth, followed by Vienna, Dubai, Zurich and Stuttgart before arriving in beautiful Prague.
What brought you to Prague?
I came to Prague as a ‘trailing spouse’ in July 2014 and have been here ever since and enjoying it.
What are your hobbies and interests?
Dog walking when in England, which is where my dogs are. I enjoy cooking and get great pleasure from having friends round for something to eat. In the last years, I have been involved in The Girl Effect and a project in India that puts toilets into schools so that girls get to stay at school and have a full education. I will be visiting the projects again in April, with Rotary International, we have 50 schools that we will be supplying with toilets, 150 million Indian school children have no toilet at home OR at school, that is a lot of poop out in the open.
What are your favorite things to do in Prague? What surprised you the most about Prague?
Walking the city is a lovely way to spend time in Prague. The number of restaurants is always growing, the list is endless of good places to visit from Galleries to concerts. The thing that surprised me the most about Prague is how much European history took place here. All manner of different things from Crusaders, Romans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Swedish war, so much more and the recent history of the last 100 years, it is hard to believe that one small country could have had so many invasions and ruled by different systems and monarchies. I am still learning!
What is your favorite aspect of being an IWAP member?
Having moved around I knew the importance of female friendship, especially when your friends and family are far away and in a different time zone. They became your new family and support network. My favourite thing about IWAP is the diversity of nationalities. Last week I went out for dinner with friends, we were a Mexican, an Iranian, a South African and me the Brit. You learn so much about the world from the people who have come from all over. I know that without IWAP I would have struggled to make friends and my whole Prague experience would be very different and not nearly as positive as it is.
What is your biggest goal for 2018?
It is the same every year, like New Year’s resolutions, eat healthier food, exercise more and every year I seem to go and do the opposite. This year I intend to explore more of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, I know that when we leave I will be very annoyed with myself if I don’t make the effort to discover more now. I am also President of Rotary Club Prague International, I would like to make a difference there and use the platform to make some gender equality happen.
