homeward bound...

How to try and sum up 14 pretty incredible days in a single blog post...

I've met over 50 rather special individuals who have benefited directly from our innocent Foundation

Drunk about 20 cups of hot milk, straight from the yard

Been given one jack fruit

Had 2 delicious coconuts from the tree

 

Been lucky enough to sit in on 3 of the monthly meetings run at local village level by disabled people for disabled people, where the big decisions get made.

And almost been launched through the roof of 1 Indian bus (note to self: never, ever sit on the back row).

Trying to give a picture of all the people that I've met is a lot more difficult. I've been totally blown away by the sheer determination to drive change that I have witnessed this past fortnight- but one of the most striking examples I've seen is a man I met called Poundurai.

ADD met Poundurai at a Federation meeting for disabled people that they attended about 5 years ago. He wasn't in a leadership role at the time, but they noticed his potential and began working with him more closely over the years to support the work that he was doing.

5 years on, and he now represents over 2300 disabled people in a block of over 40 villages in his area. He's the elected President of the Disability Development Trust, a co-ordinator of the governement disability programme, and Leader of the National Federation for the Blind, fighting tirelessly to make sure that disabled people get a fair deal. He and his team have helped more disabled people get bank loans than any other group in the area, they've taught parents of severely disabled children how to teach their children to wash and dress, and they've ensured that when things aren't right, they're addressed.

When I was there, we spoke to a lady whose postman had been skimming 500 rupees for himself off the government benefits that he was supposed to be delivering her in full each month. Apparently this is rather common.

From the look on Poundurai's face, I suspect the postman might think twice about it next time.

www.add.org.uk

stuck between a rock and a mountain

Our Tansy normally spends her days keeping the innocent creative team running smoothly and collecting used coffee mugs on her desk. This week she's swapped her Sharpie and notebook for warm clothing and hiking boots as she takes on the Pyrenees, hiking for 10.5 hours a day all in aid of the Romilly Forshall Foundation.

Somehow she managed to get mobile reception and send these quick snaps of the Pyrenees and some rocks.   

hat of the week: all creatures great and boogley-eyed

In this week's edition, all creatures great and googley-eyed go eyeball to eyeball, as the triple-tag-team of a fish, snail and bee challenge a pair of alien-fish to a duel. Or does that make it a brawl? You can place your votes here by "liking" which hat you prefer.

 
A googley fish, snail and bee.

 
If you can tell us exactly what these are then you'll win an overriding sense of relief and relaxation from us.

Last week, the psychedellic squids took poll position over the rasta-bonanza, a big congratulations to Shirley Boyle.

 

power to the people

As some of you will know, I'm currently in India working with one our innocent foundation partners, disability charity ADD. I've been here for 10 days now, and it's been quite the adventure. 

We had our innocent foundation day yesterday so I sent across a little video across of some of the things I've seen and learnt this week, which we thought we'd share.

Pop the kettle on, stick the headphones in, and learn about some amazing people. What they are doing is truely remarkable.

the dude’s banana plane game now available for your iPhone or iPad

To celebrate our brand new alphabet magnets in packs now, we launched a brand new app for iPhone and iPad, meaning you can have fun with the innocent kids’ world wherever you go.



The app is an adaptation of the ‘The Dude’s Banana Plane’ game, a firm favourite on our innocent kids’ website. You'll need to navigate the Banana Plane through a series of targets, whilst picking up fruity bonuses along the way - with exclusive app only features such as a ‘night mode’, where the innocent kids world turns to darkness. Plus there's loads of other performance-based bonuses to unlock.







So why not download the app today and challenge your friends to get to the top of the leaderboard. It's completely free!

pattern of the week: mushroom mushaboom

This week's pattern of the week is that of the humble mushroom. Delicious fried with garlic in butter, complimenting beef in a stroganoff, or keeping things simple in an omelette. You can download the pattern here. Enjoy.

 

 

foundation day

We have declared today innocent foundation day, so there’s a hint of India in Fruit Towers. The foundation is funded the 10% of profits that the business gives to charity – the majority comes to the foundation. This year the foundation is funding 16 projects, mainly in developing countries where the fruit comes from.

The foundation works with 3 Non Governmental Organisations who have projects in India, so it seemed like a great opportunity to wear saris, have a curry and do some Bollywood dancing. Plus the lovely Emma is currently working with Action on Disability and Development one of the projects on the ground in Karnataka India, so we had a chance to hear more about some of the people she has met.

Some of the foundation guardians wore saris. The challenge is putting them on, but we had the expert Amisha to show us how...

 

It’s great to have a glam Monday.

 

We had auspicious lamps.

 

Rangoli at the entrance.

 

And everyone in Fruit Towers learnt a little bit of Bollywood dancing at our Monday Morning Meeting. 

 

Then we had curry for lunch and Georgie, Laura and Olivia from one of our partner organisations Find Your Feet came along to tell us more about makes their work on the ground so successful; the Self Help Groups they help women to set up. Our Emilie has been out to visit the work on the ground and she told us more about her trip too.

funny shaped veg

Behold Carrot Man. He's strong, but with a surprisingly sensitive side. He likes strolls in the park, and good food. Despite such great qualities, he's never managed to find that special someone to share his life with.

 

So if you know of another carrot* who might like to get to know him, we'd love it if you'd get in touch.

We'd equally love to see more crazy shaped veg, so if you have any lurking around at the bottom of your garden, take a photo and email it to us at [email protected].

A big thank you to Sally Hall for sending in this rather wonderful work of art.

 

* or any other veg for that matter

hat of the week: psychedellic squids take on rasta

 

The results are in from last week, drum roll please, and the anonymous shrimp and hermit Kermit took the lead, safely securing their stronghold over Mexican Pete and his compadres. If you know who knitted this shrimp, please let us know. He's totally anonymous, and and a bit of an anomaly. But a wonderful one.

In the most suprising hat of the week yet, an otherwise friendly group of psychedellic squids take on a rasta. Who wins? You decide, by placing your votes in our Facebook album by clicking "like" on your favourite.

 

a little help from some friends

 

The launch of our little project to do good with unwanted fruit is almost upon us, so we thought it only right to introduce some of the people who'll be helping out along the way.

This is Eloise

 

And this is Emily

 

They both work for the organisation A Taste of Freedom whose sole purpose is tackling the problem of food waste. Along with Tristram Stuart, author and campaigner, they run a fantastic outreach programme providing workshops and talks on food waste and sustainability at schools and other venues, and they also make a pretty mean smoothie.

Here they are in action at our pilot day back in July giving a lesson on the madness of food waste (check out the oversized pupil at the back)

  

Mixing the fruit for the smoothies

 

Acting like true professionals when overenthusiastic shaking of the tarpaulin causes it to rip (obviously no fruit was wasted and it was all lovingly washed before going into the final smoothie)

 

Putting the smooth into smoothie (sorry)

 

Supervising a shaky Rich

 

This Friday and every Friday for the next 8 weeks we'll all be heading down to East Sheen Primary School and helping the kids make smoothies with a bunch of fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste.

We'll let you know how it goes.