The Peter Trust Annual Report to the Charities Commission, Year-end 2021
The principal purpose of the Trust is to make Provision for East Timorese Education and Relief (P.E.T.E.R).
For historical and geographical reasons East Timor is one of the four poorest countries in the world, in great need of economic and social development.
Now in its twenty third year of political independence the country still lacks an adequate infrastructure and only a minority of native people have the necessary technical, professional and managerial skills that are needed for the nation building. Health care and educational provision are very limited, and unemployment is high. The population of one and a quarter million is young with a median age of eighteen years. Each year there are twenty thousand school leavers. There were seven thousand applicants for ten available jobs with the Timor Leste Government.
Although the East Timorese homeland and its surrounding seas have valuable mineral and other natural resources these have yet to be fully exploited to the benefit of the population at large. Most analysts think it will take at least a generation for the people of East Timor to be able to provide for themselves in any way adequately. Meanwhile the majority of the people remain ‘dirt poor’.
The Peter Trust prioritises health care, education/training for the young people who comprise the majority of the population, supports income generation projects, and assists families with the development of local agriculture and the rearing of livestock. Most children are malnourished and many are stunted in their growth so within its means the Trust funds a variety of nutrition enhancement projects.
The Peter Trust was formally registered with the Charities Commission for England and Wales in March 2000, and given the Number: 1080159.
The current Trustees are: Simon Myers (Chairman); John Barnes (Treasurer), Laura Lumley (Secretary); Norah Small; Kevin Grundey; Eddie Lumley; and Germano Gomes. The Trustees have had regard to the Charities Commission’s guidance on Public Benefit.
The Peter Trust has several Agents in full time residence in East Timor who facilitate applications for funding of and disbursals to projects according to the decisions of the Trustees. These agents also help to provide information to the Trustees on the prevailing situation in the territory. They are: Rev Sr Dolores Dorol SPC and Sr Clara Irma SPC (Sisters of St Paul of Chartres – an international RC Religious Congregation); and David Odling Smee – an Englishman from Yorkshire who lived long-term in East Timor and engaged in educational and social work there. During 2018 David removed to Darwin, Australia, but he is still active in supporting/ enabling the Trust projects in East Timor.
The Trustees are kept abreast of developments in East Timor by the dissemination of information accessible through the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) emailing List; through East Timorese expatriates resident in the UK; by email correspondence and other digital media conducted by Trustees with the Trust Agents and Beneficiaries in East Timor; and via Reports presented to the Trustees by the visits of their Members to the territory. Trustees have visited projects supported by the Trust in 2002, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019. A planned visit for 2020 was curtailed due to travel restrictions consequent upon the Covid19 pandemic; again in 2021 a hoped for visit was not possible for the same reasons.
The Trustees engage in the dissemination of information about the impoverished circumstances of the people of East Timor, and in a variety of fund-raising enterprises.
During 2021 it was not possible to make public appeals in person due to the social distancing prescriptions following upon the Covid19 pandemic. Funds were generated through on-line Appeals, and from Standing Orders already in place, and from occasional Donations and Bequests. The Trust website > thepetertrust.org.uk < is updated whenever necessary to include the wide ranging and on-going work which is currently being supported for the benefit of the people of East Timor in their home country and abroad.
Activities undertaken by the Peter Trust during the past year to further the Charity’s purposes for the Public Benefit
The Peter Trust has continued to fund projects in education and health care. These have included the following:
Continuing the sponsorship of 20 students from particularly impoverished backgrounds for Secondary Education. The current cohort is the third being enabled to complete their schooling, of whom a significant number have been able to progress to Tertiary Education in East Timor. This sponsorship continues with beneficiaries to replace those who have left the High School, many of whom move into Tertiary education. In addition funds have been provided for the purchase of medicines for a Clinic to meet the needs of the students of the families of those who lives in the vicinity of the School.
Continuing the sponsorship of 10 students at a Technical College in the Capital Dili. This includes their tuition and residential accommodation.
Funding for nutritional supplements for the pupils in a recently established Primary School at Hera on the North coast. Its capacity of 150 pupils was reached in 2018. The children are all malnourished, some severely, and this supplement is necessary for their healthy development and in order to benefit from the educational provision. Funds have also been provided for the building, equipping and maintenance of a Canteen to supply luncheon for the children; to accommodate tuition classes on nutrition for their parents; and as a source of income generation by sales of foodstuffs grown on the adjoining Kitchen Garden (see below) to local residents. Funding for nutritional supplements is also provided for a newly established (2018) Primary School at Turiscai in the central mountains which also had an increase in pupils on roll.
Funding for an extensive Kitchen Garden at Hera maintained by (20) orphaned teenage boys. This has included the improvement of the provision of water supply/irrigation; seeds/seedlings; feed for domestic livestock; the development/improvement of a kitchen and dormitories and the installation of better sanitation for those in residence on the Garden site. Sales of produce from the Garden are undertaken regularly from newly built shelters near to the main road and these help to pay for school activities and equipment. The Trust funded the construction of these shelters during 2020 and their further equipping in 2021.
Continued funding for the 'Ahisaun' [Light of Friendship] Residential Hostel in Dili for 30 young people with physical disabilities: sanitation facilities have been monitored and well maintained; the provision/upgrade of IT resources has continued; scholarships have been provided for several of the residents to attend Further Education institutions in Dili. Funds were also again sent during 2021 in support of an outreach programme of visits to a number of remote villages. Tuition fees for trainee teachers/instructors drawn from the 'Ahisaun' community have continued as far as has been possible with the financial means of the Trust.
Funding for a Hostel in Dili for 60 children with severe disability and for their families was limited during 2021 and comprised only the costs of repairs to the Hostel roof. However, there are now other sources of significant financial support for this Hostel, including the National Government of Timor Leste. The Trust provision will be restored - if possible - if these sources are withdrawn or become spasmodic.
The continuation of the provision of all the medicines for a Mobile Clinic which now regularly visits 8 rural villages offering diagnosis and sustained treatment of several hundred persons of all ages in each location; nutritional supplements offered on these occasions to children and elderly people and instruction for mothers on preparing a balanced diet from local produce; remuneration for a doctor in residence at the hospital where the mobile clinic is based, and for two nurses, a laboratory technician and a driver; for the continuation of the diagnosis and treatment of patients in the locality with TB; and for the maintenance of a mother and baby clinic within the hospital. The wages of maintenance staff are also funded by the Peter Trust.
The Peter Trust achieves these outcomes by collaboration with a variety of competent local agencies or international religious congregations/NGOs. The Trust activities have enabled impoverished people of both sexes and all ages in East Timor to access education from Primary to Tertiary level, specialist training, and receive wide-ranging health care which would otherwise not have been available to them.
Despite the continuing impact of the Corona Virus upon communications and the generation of funds, the Peter Trust was able to raise the significant sum of £13,385 in response to urgent needs consequent upon a devastating cyclone over the Easter weekend of 2021. These funds were distributed to the regular Trust beneficiaries and enabled them to provide emergency accommodation to many homeless people, and contribute to the assistance given to many families of basic provisions of food, clothing, sanitation, and medicines.
Signed:
John Barnes (Treasurer), DATE 19.09.2022.
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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examineff s Report Report to the trusteesl members ol PcfEL fotA s r On accounts for the year ended 3111112oZ) Charity no (rfany) 1080 Isq Set out on pages I report to the trustees cn my examination of the accounts of the above chanty ("the Trusf) for the year ended S I Iz ioz i Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trus( you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requir8ments of the Charities Act 2011 (°the Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in Carrying out my examinatson, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 1495}(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attention leth• ') in connection with the examination whth gives me ¢ause to believa that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in ac¢(KdanGe with section 130 of the Act or the Unts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examiner's statement I havè no ncernS and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper underslanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the woffts in tts I)ketS If thpy 110 not apy. Signed: Date: Name: Curtris L£o&ÉK Fcp Relevant professional qualiflcation($) or body (if any): Fch, IchÉw nEm6C¢L 8£+izoS Address: 4+ AS f ef*J MQblfvJ I UEE05 IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight matters of conrn (see CC32, Independent examinats.on of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. Ji IER October 2018
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