the innocent foundation scholarship

Back in April last year we ran our first innocent foundation scholarship for someone from innocent to go out and visit a foundation project. The deal is that person has to roll up their sleeves while they are there, help out with what needs doing and then come back and tell us all about it.

Our first scholar was Helen who visited the Irula Tribal Women's Welfare Society project and helped them to put together a new website. You may remember some of her updates live from the ground. She also made a little film (above) while she was there.

Now that we've added a conclusion to our first scholarship we can tell you about our second. It's going to be to the Microloan Foundation in Malawi. We've just decided who's going and will give you an update soon. You can be sure that there'll be lots of reports just like Helen's here on our blog later this year.

a fond farewell to India

Today was the last day of a second fantastic week working with ITWWS, and sadly the last day of my stay. I felt much more settled and part of the team this week.

Yesterday I went out to some of the villages that ITWWS are working with to help Irula people, indigenous Indians who belong to one of the most marginalised communities in the country. I’ve been helping ITWWS put together their website which means I’ve spent a lot of time learning and writing about the difficulties that they face on a day to day basis. Despite that, it was still a shock to see how they live, and how little they really have. I met a 6 year old boy who lives in one of the villages, who has had to drop out of school to look after his younger sisters as both his parents have to work to feed the family. One of the projects that ITWWS runs is providing learning centres in the Irula villages to allow children to continue their education in the evenings if they have to work or look after siblings
during the day. Having seen so many children who can’t go to school, I now realise how important the learning centres are, and also how important education really is, something that’s often taken for granted.

The villages that we visited are areas where ITWWS are helping to build the villagers solid homes. The villagers themselves, both men and women, work together to carry out the construction work, as it not only provides them with employment but it also gives them a sense of owning the houses as they helped to build them.

Also this week, there was a company meeting for ITWWS staff members. I went along for a few hours and although I’ve learnt a few words of Tamil most of it went over my head. However, there was definitely talk of strategies and tactics and plans for the coming year, so it was pretty much like an innocent company meeting only with better weather and fewer bad jokes.

So today it was with a tear in my eye that I had to say goodbye to the team that has looked after me so well for the last 2 weeks. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to live with such a lovely Indian community in rural India, away from the hassles and distractions of the towns and cities. I’ve learnt a lot about ITWWS and the great work that they do so I’m looking forward to sharing it with everyone when I get back. They’ve achieved so much already and they should be very proud of themselves.

Helen.

notes from India...

Well, it's one week into my trip to India to visit one of the NGOs that the innocent foundation supports, and what an incredible week it's been.

After 2 days in the noise and heat of Chennai (which used to be named Madras), on Monday morning I travelled south for about 2 hours into rural India, to the ITWWS campus, which is where I’m spending 2 weeks working with the team, learning all about what they do as well as sharing some of the things we've learnt at innocent.

ITWWS is the Irula Tribal Women’s Welfare Society, and is one of the NGOs that the innocent foundation supports through WOMANKIND Worldwide in the UK. ITWWS work with tribal women in the Tamilnadu region of India. The Irulas are a semi-nomadic tribe and until about 50 years ago they got all their food and medicines from the forest. However, a number of wildlife and forestry protection laws have been passed in recent years, which has forced the tribes out of their natural habitat. This means that many of them have lost their homes and their livelihoods, and as a result they have to move around for work and for food, with many of them suffering from extreme poverty.

ITWWS is working with Irula women to give them an income by teaching them to use their traditional skills. For instance, because the Irulas have traditionally lived of the land, they have a huge knowledge of plants and herbs which are known to have medicinal properties. ITWWS has set up a number of nurseries on the campus where hundreds of different plants and herbs are grown. These are then picked, dried, ground and packaged, and sold as herbal medicines to generate income for the Irula women.

As well as learning all about ITWWS, I’m also here to share some of innocent’s experiences with ITWWS in terms of business knowledge, as they are hoping to be able to sell their herbal medicines under the Irula brand throughout India and possibly internationally at some point in the future.

I’m staying on the ITWWS campus and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s in a forest area, 10km from the nearest town, so pretty remote. It’s on 10 acres and contains the plant nurseries, herbal production unit, a handicrafts centre, and arts library. It’s dry season at the moment so it’s scorching – somewhere around 35-40 degrees.

Yesterday I went on a field trip with the ecology team to a town called Tiruvannanalai which is famous for its Hindu temples. The ground is very dry so the team were there to test the soil in the temple grounds to try to work out which plants and herbal medicines they could grow there. It was a great experience for me, especially as they took me round the temple, explaining all the rituals and meanings.

The team that I'm working with are some of the loveliest people I've ever met. They've made me feel really welcome and I'm feeling quite sad that I've only got 5 days left with them.

Helen

a message from India

At the end of last week we waved goodbye to Helen who has gone to Chenglepet in India to visit and help out at a project that the innocent foundation helps to fund through WOMANKIND Worldwide. We've just had our first couple of very quick updates from Helen out in India that we thought we'd share with you...

Day 1.
Had my first day at ITWWS and really loving it. Krishnan (director) and everyone are lovely and the campus is in a beautiful location. Only downside is that it's hot hot hot.

Day 4.
Hey, just checking in. Day 4 and all going well, been helping ITWWS by reviewing their website.  Starting to feel a bit at home. Out tomorrow with ecology team to plant trees and find out more about what they do. Then off to the beach for the weekend.

Helen will be putting together a full report on her trip and stories of the Irula Tribal Women she's working with when she gets back in a couple of weeks. We'll keep you posted.