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2021-12-31-accounts

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

ASHA NEPAL (UK)

ANNUAL REPORT

For the year ended 31 December 2021

Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

CONTENTS

Page

Charity Overview

Trustees’ Report

Independent Examiner’s Report 13

Statement of Financial Activities 14

Balance Sheet 15

Notes to the Accounts 16

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

CHARITY INFORMATION

For the year ended 31 December 2021

Charity Overview

Registered Charity Name: Other Known Names: Charity Number: Principal Office Address:

Asha-Nepal Asha Nepal UK 1082581 22 Goodramgate York YO1 7LG

Trustees:

Peter Bashford Andrea Ubhi Kate Keating

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

TRUSTEES’ REPORT

For the year ended 31 December 2021

Introduction

We are really pleased to bring Asha Nepal’s Annual Report for 2021 among our stakeholders and supporters.

This report is a glimpse of the activities conducted during 2021, which have primarily focused on safeguarding children at risk, strengthening families, supporting families in crisis, empowering our members, and bringing around sustainable changes to their lives. We are happy to present our work to you and welcome all feedback and suggestions from our stakeholders and supporters that would help us to make Asha Nepal stronger moving forward.

If you need further information about Asha Nepal and its work, you can contact us via email at andrea@asha-nepal.org.

Asha Nepal is a care and support-based organisation, rather than an advocacy, lobbying and raising awareness. All the activities it carries out are driven from our experience of dealing with and supporting our beneficiaries and the desire to identify and meet the specific needs of any issues our beneficiaries are facing.

During the year Asha Nepal continued to focus on its three core project areas:

Alongside and in support of these three core projects, we have also conducted various workshops and training sessions, with an aim to empower each beneficiary. We are happy to write that all these activities went smoothly and were completed successfully.

This year Asha Nepal has also targeted its activities on ‘safeguarding’ children at risk, strengthening families, empowering our members, beneficiaries and team and supporting families in crisis to help bring about sustainable change in their lives.

We are happy to confirm that most of these activities were undertaken successfully and that during the period we were able to reach 367 people, in various levels of support, during the year.

We appreciate the support of all our sponsor organisations, and would like to express our thanks to the following sponsors for their immense support:

We would also like to express our gratitude to our government body, the Social Welfare Council, the National Child Right Council, the Tokha Municipality, all our partner organisations and executive committee members for their continuous support and guidance.

We would also like to thank all our friends, families, staff members and supporters who have directly or indirectly supported us for their dedication, which has enabled us to make these projects a success. And, finally, we would also thank our beneficiaries and their families, for believing and supporting us.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

The Trustees

The trustees who served the company during the year were as follows:

Trustees are appointed in accordance with the Trust Deed. Trustees meet once or twice annually, and all decisions are reached by agreement. The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.

Background

Asha Nepal is a small charitable organisation set up in the UK and working with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) in Nepal since 1997.

Aware of a lack of person-centred support, for the hundreds of thousands of women and children in Nepal who suffer daily from extreme human rights, sexual and physical abuse, child labour, gender discrimination, caste discrimination and HIV / AIDS, Asha Nepal started to run its own grassroots programmes in 2008. The Nepal programmes are run by a group of dedicated Nepali women working on the ground, fighting for the original organisational remit for the rights of women and girls in Nepal. Asha is the Nepali word for hope.

Asha Nepal became a registered Non-Governmental Organisation in Nepal in 2008. Since then, Asha Nepal (UK) and Asha Nepal (NGO in Nepal) have worked hand in hand, as sister organisations, for the same cause, working with women and children whose lives have been disrupted by the horrific act of gender-based violence in the form of trafficking, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery and severe domestic violence.

Our key focus is the victims of cross-border and international trafficking into the sex industries of India and Nepal, survivors of internal trafficking and girl survivors of severe violence and abuse. Through prevention, education, rehabilitation, healthcare and advocacy, Asha Nepal works to improve the lives of women and children, and now supports 97 families both through our residential service and in the community.

Asha Nepal began its transitional centre in 2009. Initially caring for nine children, we have now served two-hundred and twenty-two children, to date. In this year we served one-hundred and twenty-three children (ninety-four families) in the community and a further thirty-seven (thirty-two families) in residential services. We were also able to reintegrate six children with family members. Two were referred to another organisation for long-term care and seven families were closed at the end of the academic year as the children completed their grade 12. For new entry this year, thirty-six new cases were referred by various organisations and individuals for different services of Asha Nepal, of which twenty-five cases were accepted.

Currently, we are proud to offer our services as a holistic approach, with focus on individualised care, based on the unique needs of each individual and family. Asha Nepal is working hard to raise the social status of the women it serves and to help the children of survivors break free from the vicious cycle of abuse and violence, by sustainably integrating them back into the community.

Our strength is working in depth with the whole family to create sustainable change and keep the families thriving in community. Our success in achieving this aim would not have been possible without our partners and well-wishers.

Asha Nepal believes and operates in the value that every life is equally valuable; therefore, change is possible by changing one person at a time.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

Both Asha Nepal (UK) and Asha Nepal work hand in hand in delivering this change.

Objectives and Activities

Vision

Asha Nepal envisions a community where women and their families will be able to enjoy a life of dignity and independence.

Mission

The purpose of Asha Nepal is to assist the survivors of violence, women, children and families to rebuild their lives socially, emotionally and economically, enabling them to enjoy their lives of safety, independence and dignity as valued members of their community and society.

Organisational Strategy

Asha Nepal’s provision of support is focused on identified areas that help to facilitate the reintegration process. We provide support for the whole family to remain in the community, through the facilitation of child-care facilities, education, health, psychosocial counselling and wellbeing for the children and their immediate family members (i.e. mother and siblings under 18).

Facilitation of vocational training options, assistance in job seeking and in making informed career choices, alongside follow-up support for their transition into employment, or from sheltered care into their families or independent living also helps us to support our beneficiaries.

Target Group

The target demographic of Asha Nepal is women and children whose lives have been disrupted by the horrific act of gender-based violence, in the form of trafficking, living with HIV, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery, severe domestic violence and vulnerable families.

Current Projects

Asha Nepal is offering various services through three different projects, residentially and in community, through our offices located in Dhapasi Height-9, Tokha Road, Kathmandu.

These three projects are as follows:

Family Group Homes

Supported by Asha Nepal UK, Didi Project, Australia, TAI, Spain, and RHEST, Nepal.

Initiated in 2011 with the support of TDH, this service creates an opportunity for holistic development of children in alternative care. Asha Nepal is aware of the impact of institutionalisation in children and, in addition, looking after children who have been through traumatic experiences in their life can create further challenges. Therefore, we created this programme to foster holistic development, with individual attention to needy children. During this reporting period we served thirty-two children through four family group homes.

Implementation of this programme has taught us that even whilst being part of the family group homes, families are naturally assimilated into the wider community through children making friends outside and families receiving invitations to social occasions.

The process of taking children into our care is as follows:

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

Objectives:

Specific objectives / target:

Activities:

The following activities were carried out as part of this programme:

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

Total beneficiaries served: Thirty-two children (Three male and twenty-nine female).

Scholarship Service

Supported by Sanctuary4children, Canada, and RHEST, Nepal.

Asha Nepal strongly believes that “Education is a vehicle for change”. Thus, to invest on good quality education for the children of survivors with the vision that they will choose better livelihood options than their mothers and transform their lives and those of their families.

Education is also one of the main needs expressed by the survivors themselves and a lack of education is often one of the primarily reasons why they choose to leave their villages and their children behind in institutions.

As an organisation we have also learnt that if educational support remains available, even after reintegration, families are more likely to keep their children with them. As such, the scholarship scheme aims to open up further opportunities and help sustain our reintegration programmes.

Objectives:

Specific objective / target:

Activities:

Total beneficiaries served: One hundred and six children.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

----- Start of picture text -----
Case Study: Health Support during the COVID-19 pandemic
Mona is a trafficking survivor with two children. One son, who is studying for a diploma in computer
engineering and, with the support from Asha Nepal, a daughter who is in grade eight, and part of our family-
based care centre.
As a consequence of being trafficked, Mona had struggled with both emotional and social trauma, but
despite all this, she was managing life, living with her son, and working two part time jobs to support herself.
Then the pandemic hit, and both she and her son tested positive, leaving her without the means or funds to
continue supporting herself. As a result, she began to struggle both mentally and physically with the impact
of COVID-19, even to the point of contemplating suicide.
Our social workers, who remained in contact with Mona during the crisis, recognised the issues she was
facing and coordinated with Asha Nepal to ensure that she received psychiatric support she needed.
----- End of picture text -----

Keeping Family Safe in Community

Supported by Rosie May Foundation, UK

Asha Nepal’s Keeping Family Safe in the Community (KFSC) project seeks to support vulnerable individuals with a package of support for individuals in and around Kathmandu, who have either suffered from trafficking experiences or those who are deemed at high-risk of being trafficked in the first instance.

Our local partner, Asha Nepal (Nepal), have been operating the KFC project since 2014, with a special focus on supporting extremely vulnerable single parent mothers and their children. Single parents have included mothers who have previously been trafficked, as well as parents whose children have been trafficked or are at high-risk of being so. Given the extreme nature of the cases enrolled, Asha Nepal seeks to enrol families on the project until children conclude their education, at aged eighteen. This means that Asha Nepal expects cases to be enrolled for an average of four to six years, during which time individuals receive all three key stages of support offered by Asha Nepal.

Although we still worked to the original milestones and indicators, through this time we had to manage remote support to many of the individuals and families. We had to stop our workshops; life-skill based workshop for parents, youths, and young children, we also cancelled our workshop on child abuse and human trafficking for schoolteachers. Due to restricted mobility, home visits were reduced to a minimum and most contact was made through phone calls.

Objectives:

Activities:

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

In addition to the activities carried out to support families, Asha Nepal also supports the community through its extra-curricular activity centre. Before COVID-19 we were able to run a variety of extracurricular activity classes, however, once the pandemic hit these were paused. Pre-pandemic these activities were:

Total beneficiaries served:

Eighty-seven families One hundred and six children (Two hundred and fifty-one direct beneficiaries)

Case Study: Seed Money Support

Nancy is a mother of three, who fled from her home to save her life from the violence of her husband and his family, following his decision to bring home another wife. Her trauma left her in need of both psychiatric and physical support. As a result, her children became scattered, with her two daughters working as domestic workers and her son remaining in her husband’s home.

However, with Asha Nepal’s support, she has been able to reunite her family, learn to manage and medicate her anxiety and build her confidence. All three children received support to study and have now graduated their grade 10 and her son is now studying for his diploma in civil engineering.

After building up her confidence, she decided to rent some land and start a vegetable farm. She researched all the things required to run the farm as a commercial, sustainable, business entity and used her savings to rent the land for two years, building a shed and digging a well for water. She then came to Asha Nepal and requested Seed Money Support to buy seeds and manure and other items required to further the development of the farm. Impressed by her initiative, the support was granted, and she is eternally grateful for the support she has received.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

Volunteer and visitor visits

Volunteers have been one of the major sources of skill enhancement for the Asha Nepal team, with the organisation seeking volunteer support from highly qualified and professional individuals whose expertise enhance the capabilities of the established team. During the year Asha Nepal, the pandemic prevented any international volunteers from visit us. But we did receive visitors from local government, the Social Welfare Council, the National Child Right Council, the Tokha Municipality, and Woda.

Challenges

As an organisation, Asha Nepal has faced the following challenges over the past year:

Learning

Achievements

Structure, governance, and management

Asha-Nepal was established by a charitable trust deed on the twelfth day of June 2000. The charity’s objectives are:

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

The organisation structure of Asha Nepal is detailed below:

Objectives, activities, achievements, and performance

Under the terms of the Trust Deed, the Trustees have wide discretionary powers as to distributions of income and capital in pursuance of the objects of the Trust as stated above. The Trustees meet annually to identify projects worthy of support. The Asha-Nepal strategy is to provide support for projects in Nepal with local partner organisations, which directly meet the objectives for the Charity.

In the Trustees’ view, the reserves should provide the charity with adequate financial stability and the means for it to meet its charitable objectives for the foreseeable future.

The Trustees review the amount of reserves that are required to ensure that they are adequate to fulfil the charity’s continuing obligations on an annual basis at their Trustees meeting.


Dr Andrea Ubhi Trustee Dated:

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT

For the year ended 31 December 2021

I report on the accounts of Asha Nepal (UK) for the year ended 31 December 2021, which are set out on pages 14-18.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items of disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a “true and fair view” and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

Have not been met, or


Nicola Ainscough ACA BSc Chartered Accountant Equilibrium Accountants Ltd 48 Goodramgate, York, YO1 7LF

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

For the year ended 31 December 2021

Notes
INCOME
2
Incoming and endowments from:
Donations and legacies
Charitable activities
Other trading activities
Investments
Other income
Total incoming resources
EXPENDITURE
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
3
Charitable activities
4
Other
5
Total resources expended
Net income / (expenditure) for the year
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward as at 1 Jan 21
Total funds carried forward as at 31 Dec 21
Restricted
Funds
£
-
-
-
-
-
Unrestricted
Funds
£
58,055
-
-
-


Year to
31 Dec 21
Total
£
Year to
31 Dec 20
Total
£
58,055
19,561
-
-
-
15,216
-
-
17 17
5
-
-
970
-
58,072
216
27,417
837
58,072
34,782
216
9,687
28,387
29,800
837
1,514
970 28,470 29,440
41,002
(970)
15,199
29,602
14,148
28,632
(6,220)
29,347
35,567
14,229 43,750 57,979
29,347

The notes on pages 16-18 form a part of these financial statements

A Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses is not required as all gains and losses are included in the Statement of Financial Activities.

There is no difference between the net income / (expenditure) for the year above and the historical cost equivalent. All activities are continuing.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

BALANCE SHEET

For the year ended 31 December 2021

BALANCE SHEET
For the year ended 31 December 2021
Notes
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets
CURRENT ASSETS
Stocks
Debtors
Cash at bank and in hand
Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year
Net Current Assets / (Liabilities)
Total Assets less Current Liabilities
Creditors: Amounts falling due after more than one year
Net Assets
FUNDS
6
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Total Funds
£
-
-
57,979
As at
31 Dec 21
£
-
-



£
As at
31 Dec 20
£
-
-
-
29,347
-
57,979 29,347
57,979
-
29,347
-
57,979 29,347
43,750
14,229
14,148
15,199
57,979 29,347

The notes on pages 16-18 form a part of these financial statements

Trustee benefits: advances, credit and guarantees

During the year no benefits, in the form of advances, credit and guarantees, were conferred upon trustees of the charity.

Guarantees and other financial commitments

During the year no guarantees or other financial commitments were made.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011, with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

The financial statements on pages 14-18 were approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by:

____ Dr Andrea Ubhi Trustee Date: _____

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

For the year ended 31 December 2021

  1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

  2. a) Statutory Information

Asha-Nepal is a registered charity in the UK with the Charities Commission, registration number 1082581.

The principal accounting policies, which have been applied consistently in the year, are set out below.

Amounts shown as Restricted Funds, on the Statement of Financial Activities and the Balance Sheet, represent funds donated for specific projects in accordance with the Charities Act definition.

The fund comprised money raised from sales of photographs by the twenty-two girls from SOS Bahini, from sales of the book ‘My World, My View’ and from donations given expressly to the girls of SOS Bahini.

Each girl is entitled to an equal share in the Fund plus interest, at or after they reach age eighteen (or prior to this date, at Asha-Nepal’s discretion), for Tertiary studies, establishing their own business or household, or other needs providing its purpose is first approved by Asha-Nepal staff in Kathmandu, and then by Asha-Nepal UK.

In December 2019, the board of Trustees ratified a decision to transfer the funds from the Mr World My View fund to the newly created Education Support Fund. As part of this, the trustees agreed to honour any legitimate claim for funds previously held in the My World My View fund.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

Restricted
Funds
£
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Year to
31 Dec 21
Total
£
Year to
31 Dec 20
Total
£
Donations and legacies
General - 58,055 58,055 19,561
Other Trading Activities
Event Income - - - 15,216
Other Income
Bank Interest Received - - - 5
Misc Income - 17 17 -
- 58,072 58,072 34,782

3. RAISING FUNDS

3. RAISING FUNDS
Restricted
Funds
£
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Year to
31 Dec 21
Total
£
Year to
31 Dec 20
Total
£
Just GivingCharges - 216 216 216
Advertising - - - 99
Fundraisingevent costs - - - 9,373
- 216 216 9,688

4. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

Restricted
Funds
£
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Year to
31 Dec 21
Total
£
Year to
31 Dec 20
Total
£
Asha Office 970 27,417 28,387 29,800
970 27,417 28,387 29,800

5. OTHER

5. OTHER
Restricted
Funds
£
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Year to
31 Dec 20
Total
£
Year to
31 Dec 19
Total
£
Travel - - -
673
Bank Charges - 333 333
337
Accountancy - 504 504
504
- 837 837
1,514

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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Annual Report | Year ended 31 December 2021

6. FUNDS

6. FUNDS
Restricted
Funds
£
Unrestricted
Funds
£
Year to
31 Dec 21
Total
£
Year to
31 Dec 20
Total
£
Unrestricted Fund
General - 43,750 43,750 14,148
Ear-marked - - - -
Restricted Fund
Small GroupHomes - - - -
KeepingFamilies Safe - - - -
Education Support 14,229 - 14,229 15,199
14,229 43,750 59,979 29,347

Fund reallocations

In December 2019, it was resolved by the board of trustees of Asha Nepal UK to reallocate funds held within the restricted fund accounts. This included closing three historical funds (Foster Home, Kumundi and the Family Preservation Programme), which were no longer in use; creating three new restricted funds (Small Group Homes, Keeping Families Safe and the Education Support funds) to align with the three core projects within the organisation and transferring funds from the remaining active restricted funds to the new Education Support fund. As some historical funds (Children’s Reintegration Centre, Asha Nepal Scholarship Fund and Community Centre) were in credit, general funds were transferred to cover these balances.

It should be noted that the basis for the decision to close the earthquake appeal fund was that general funds were used to fund one hundred child through schools in an earthquake town, to rebuild a house in Bhaktapur that had been destroyed in the earthquake, to carry out maintenance following the earthquake and to give residential care to two children, following the death of their mother in the earthquake.

Registered Charity Number: 1082581

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