2023-12-31-accounts

Friends of the Centre (also known as REEP) registered charity 1000998

TRUSTEES REPORT 2023

2023 was a successful year for REEP as the Trust continued to develop existing environmental projects in Morocco, including its gardening project at Le Foyer de Jeune Filles in Marrakech, developing new connections with gardening and environment experts in the Marrakech vicinity, and working together with professors at Cadi Ayyad University to hold an environment conference in direct response to the devastating earthquake in the Atlas Mountains. REEP also had positive results in its continued efforts to grow its audience around the world through marketing many of its English Through Gardening lessons, games and craft tutorials on TES and Pinterest

Le Foyer de Jeune Filles Garden Project

In May 2023, REEP took a small team of gardeners from Hever Castle Gardens to Marrakech to continue its gardening project at Le Foyer de Jeune Filles , a boarding house providing access to education for girls from the rural communities surrounding Marrakech. During REEP’s previous intervention at Le Foyer , the raised planting beds had been stocked with a variety of droughtresistant, low-maintenance perennial herbs including rosemary, mint, thyme and roses. These had been excellently cared for by the girls of the REEP gardening club over the past several months. This year’s focus was on more general garden maintenance skills. On REEP’s last day at Le Foyer, the gardening club harvested some of the herbs from the garden to brew a delicious farewell tisane.

Collaboration with Nectarôme

A new horticultural connection with the Jardin Bio-Aromatique d’Ourika ( Nectarôme ) was established via Professor Fatima Bouabdelli, long-term ambassador for REEP. Nectarôme was the first commercial aromatic and medicial herb garden in Morocco. REEP met Dr. Jalil Belkamel, its Director, to discuss a future collaboration with the Foyer project. As the vast majority of girls at the Foyer grew up in rural communities where the medicinal properties of plants are still understood and used in day to day life, a collaboration with Nectarôme has great potential in extending their skill as well as enabling REEP’s British garden volunteers to gain detained experience of medicinal plant use that is now rarer in Britian.

In June, REEP returned to Marrakech to attend the Aromaplant Expo at the Museum of the Water Civilization”, with an invitation from Dr Belkamel, This was a great source of both gardening information and contacts for the future.

A Conference and a response to an earthquake: Environment: Spaces and Visions

Whilst in Marrakech, REEP was introduced to two professors from the Faculty of Languages Arab Marrakech (FLAM) at Cadi Ayyad University. One had taken part in REEP’s gardening projects at the Faculty of Letters a decade earlier and had a project proposal for REEP. This

involved collaboration to stage an environment conference at the faculty in autumn 2023. Over the coming months this was developed via Zoom and email to develop a diverse and interesting programme of activities. During the preparatory phase, Marrakech suffered a devastating earthquake, making the proposed environment conference all the more poignant and it necessarily altered the focus of the event.

Entitled ‘ Environments: Spaces and Visions ,’ the one-day event took place at the Faculty on Thursday 9[th] November with the aim of exploring sustainability and environment through languages, cultures and the Arts. It featured presentations, workshops and interactive activities on sustainable development, water issues, gardening, recycling, and Shakespeare & the Environment – the latter being a nod to REEP’s ongoing Anglo-Moroccan Shakespeare Gardening project. Students heard Professors from the faculty and Dr. Belkamel from Nectarôme give presentations on sustainable development and water issues in Morocco, while one student group worked with REEP gardeners from National Trust Blickling Hall Gardens and Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens to develop a small garden in the Faculty which reflected these issues. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the students chose to design a garden which referenced the recent earthquake. They used rocks and gravel to create shapes that reflected the rise and fall of the Atlas Mountain peaks where the epicentre of the earthquake had occurred and chose plants which grew naturally in the mountain range to complete their design.

Another group of students took part in a drama workshop led by the Faculty’s drama professor and a professional actor from the REEP team. Like the gardening group, the drama students chose to use the recent earthquake as the focus for the drama workshop. A variety of techniques helped the students work through some of the emotional trauma of the event, before the group worked together re-enacting their collective experience of the effects on the community, which they later presented to a wider group of students.

‘ Environments: Spaces and Visions’ was a resounding success and REEP has since been in collaboration with the Faculty of Languages Arab Marrakech to discuss options for a second collaborative event in autumn 2024.

English Through Gardening

Continuing on from the marketing work conducted the previous year, REEP continued to find ways to increase its audience using its many English Through Gardening (ETG) resources. In the first half of 2023, ETG lessons on Sowing Seeds , How to Plant , Growing Plants, Colour in the Garden , The Buzz about Bees and Shakespeare Plants were posted on the TES and Pinterest platforms. These have been very well received with the resources receiving nearly 400 downloads on TES and over 200 impressions on Pinterest. REEP also posted its series of Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 Gardening Games to the two platforms, again with positive results with the resources receiving over 100 downloads on TES and close to 100 impressions on Pinterest. Following on from this success, 28 of its extensive library of ETG craft tutorials and worksheets

were uploaded. In previous years these resources have been very popular on REEP’s YouTube channel. On Pinterest in particular, the tutorials have made over 2,000 impressions. However, the audience is undoubtedly larger than REEP has already been able to access, as it has not had the resources to do much promotion to support the postings and a plan for further marketing this extensive and very rich resource will be developed.

As this work shows, REEP is indebted to the wonderful professionals who continue to volunteer their time so willingly to facilitate its gardening and environment projects. In particular, Professor Fatima Bouabdelli , our Moroccan ambassador, works tirelessly in helping to develop new and existing projects in Marrakech and was paramount to REEP’s successes in 2023. REEP is also deeply grateful to Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens, Hever Castle Gardens and National Trust Blickling Hall Gardens for so generously allowing their gardeners to join REEP in Morocco for its gardening and environment projects there.

Finance & Futures

This year REEP closed its account with COIF, which had been dormant for several years. The balance of £66.15 (including interest) was paid to REEP.

It is also the last year that REEP will receive funding from the Metanoia Trust as this Trust has now been closed. It is therefore the time to pay tribute to all those at Metanoia who founded REEP and continued to support it for several decades. The original vision has, we hope, been kept up and had evolved over time, providing insights and opportunities to young people to be involved with and reflect on the environment in all its contexts, together with the recognising the importance of physical, artistic and spiritual engagement with the world around them and with their own and other people’s beliefs. A massive thank you is due to all those who have encouraged this work over the past 30 years.

The other trust that has supported REEP substantially is about to undergo a transformation. The Martin McLaren Trust, funder of the McLaren Scholarship and REEP garden education work, has been merged with another small trust. As the Martin McLaren Foundation it will be continuing to support REEP in the coming year and we shall be working with it to look at future projects. Meanwhile, the extremely large educational resource that REEP has built up over the years can be accessed at www.reepinfo.org We hope you will use and enjoy it

Signed Paul Willcox

Date:

Chair, Friends of the Centre

Registered Charity No. 1000998

FRIENDS OF THE CENTRE (also known as REEP)

Summary Accounts for the year ended 31[st] December 2023

INCOME EXPENDITURE REEP McLaren Scholarship 3319 English Through Gardening Project 6007 Moroccan Gardens Project 22152 Website 6500 Social Media 5209 Fundraising, Administration & Office Expenses 720 TOTAL EXPENDITURE Surplus (-deficit) Cash Position Opening cash position Surplus (-deficit) for the year Closing cash position Cash & Deposits Bank COIF Charity Funds	2023 £ 44802 2168 9308 11799 12333 1920 720 43907 895 4374 895 5269 5269 0 5269	2022 £ 15000 38248
		(23248)
		27622 (23248)
		4374
		4324 50
		4374

NOTES

1. The charity was registered with the Charity Commission with effect from 30[th] April 1993.

2. The accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis.

3. The charity holds no assets other than a bank account with Natwest. The balance on the CCLA managed COIF account was transferrerd to the account with Natwest.

4. The charity continues to rely greatly on the time effort, office space and equipment given freely by its supporters, including the Director. This cannot be quantified easily so is not represented here.

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Rèport to tho trusteos FRIENDS OF THE CENTRE also known as REEP On accounts for tho year ended 31ST DECEMBER 2023 Charlty no (If any) 1000998 Sot out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of th8 accounts of the above charityllhe Trust") for the year ended R•sponslbllltl•s and ba$ls of report As the charitys trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance wilh the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Act.). I report In respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under seclion 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by Ihe Charily Commlsslon under section 145{5)Ibl of the Act. Independent trhe charity's gross incomè exceeded £250.000 and l am qualifi6d lo examlnerfs statement und8rlake the èxamination by being a qualified member of linsert name of applicable listed bodyl]. Delele I l rfnol applicable. I have completed my examinati￿. I confimi thal no material matters have come lo my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below ') vthich gives me cause lo beli8ve thal in. any material resp8cI'. the accounling records were not kept in accordance with sectlon 130 of the Chanlies Act; or the accounts dKI not ac￿rd wilh the accounting records., or the accounts dKI not comply with the applicable requirem8nls Concerning the fomi and conlent of accounts sèt out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'lrue and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no con￿M$ and have come across no other matters in connection y￿th the examination lo Ythich altenlion shoukl be drawn in this report in order lo enable a proper underslanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delele Ihe worrls in the brackets rfthey do nol apply. 281h October 2024 Signed: Dale: Namo: JOY ANGELA HOYLE Rolovant professional quallfl¢ation(sl or body FCA, CTA. IER Oct 2018

Irf any): Address". WOOTTON FARM. PENCOMBE. BROMYARD HEREFORDSHIRE, HR7 4RR Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight malerial matters of concern (see CC32. Independent examinats'on of chanty accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Glve here brlef detalls of any Items that the oxamlner wlshes to dlsclose. IER Oct 2018