ANNUAL REPORT 2025 (financial year April 2024 - March 2025) Registered Charity no: 1099797 An unincorporated charity
Website : www.careforuganda.org
UK registered address: 23 Heatherslade Road, Swansea, SA3 2DD
WHO WE ARE
Trustees: Andy Pilcher (Chair), Rob Owen (Vice Chair), Niki Owen, Sue Pilcher, Jane Williams, Margaret Adams, Andy Pudduck, Hayley Bowen, Dan Evans, Fi Evans, Alison Page, Terry Emmanuel, Kathryn Stewart
Chief Executive Officer: Jennifer Fletcher Partner organisation in Uganda: Abaagala Uganda
Emails: Andy Pilcher - andy@careforuganda.org Jennifer Fletcher - jennifer.fletcher@careforuganda.org
WHAT WE DO
The objects of Care for Uganda are: To relieve poverty and advance the education of the people of Uganda, in particular children and young people
Delivered in partnership with: Luwero District Government & Buganda Kingdom
Areas of work:
Education - school and vocational education sponsorship Health - village health teams & motorbike ambulances Community support & livelihoods - assistance for disadvantaged families & income generation
ACHIEVEMENTS THIS YEAR
Sponsorship of disadvantaged children in Luwero District to complete up to secondary level education continues to be our central, core activity. The need for this is reinforced by awareness that many parents and families in Uganda are increasingly struggling to pay school fees for their children. Household incomes that dropped during COVID have not recovered well and living expenses continue to rise, so many children are missing long periods of school and do not manage to complete primary or secondary level education. Research shows that the longer a child remains in school the better their future life chances, including better health, better livelihoods, delayed marriage and child-bearing (especially important for girls), and greater contributions made to wider family and society. We therefore continue to focus on this critical and impactful work and hope to increase our sponsorship supporter base over the next couple of years.
This year we have also been implementing a women’s empowerment project (kindly funded by a Welsh Government Wales and Africa grant). We have seen how impressive rural women’s groups running small-scale business are - they are consistently diligent, hard-working, mutually supportive and cooperative. After providing a boost in equipment and some training we are seeing these groups grow, revitalise and expand their enterprise activities.
They are also increasing their own internal savings and loans schemes, which enable their members to access to financial support services in a way that works for them. The final evaluation of this project takes place after the end of financial year 2024-25, but we have already seen and heard that this project is making a big difference to these enterprise groups. More highlights of our work this year are:
Key achievements this year:
Education
During this year 234 children in Luwero District were sponsored to continue their education.
Around 40% of children in Uganda fail to finish primary level education because parents/families can’t afford to cover all the school-related costs. Our sponsorship support is therefore crucial to some of the most disadvantaged children and families. With the support of our sponsors we commit to helping children finish their education up to the end of secondary school, or vocational training. We assist with school fees and uniforms and scholastic materials.
This year we again also donated various items to the schools that our sponsored children attend, including pens, pencils, & notebooks.
a“ " attend, including pens, pencils, & notebooks. >
Health:
Our health committee, FLOW (Friends of Luwero), has continued to support 8 village health teams (around 240 volunteers in total) to promote healthy living within their communities. Village Health Teams (VHT) advise on measures to reduce disease, such as improvements to hygiene and sanitation and encouraging parents to immunise their children. Refresher training was provided to four VHT groups this year.
FLOW are now funding and overseeing the operation of 10 motorbike ambulances, with a further 2 motorbike ambulances given to the Luwero District Government Health Office to manage and run. These vehicles continue to transport people from very rural areas to health centres and hospitals in emergencies. This service (free to users) is particularly prioritised for pregnant mothers in labour and sick children.
This year we purchased (thanks to Y Gymdeithas Feddygol) a new, experimental style of tuk-tuk motorbike ambulance. It has been designed and manufactured in the Mbale region of Uganda by a fellow Welsh charity, PONT. The design allows a covered space for the patient, a care-giver and family member to travel together in the back.
Community and school support:
Alongside UK supporter team visits this year we donated a range of household and child support items to the most disadvantaged families in our partner communities. This included clothing, bedding, baby blankets, stationery and toys for children.
It came to our attention that one of the primary schools attended by several of our sponsored children was struggling with its water supply. During the school day children have to make a 45 minute round walk (minimum) to the nearest hand pump for reasonably clean drinking water. Water for cooking school food is drawn from a nearby unprotected pond in open marsh land, which is also used by animals. We therefore began a fundraising campaign to provide this school with its own on-site bore-hole and hand pump.
Livelihoods – women’s empowerment & rural enterprise groups:
Thanks to a women’s empowerment grant from the Welsh Government’s Wales and Africa programme, we began to work with 8 rural women’s livelihoods groups in Luwero. We supplied them with new, additional equipment for their enterprises, including sewing machines, farming tools, catering pans, and tents and chairs (for hiring out).
Training on women’s rights and health was delivered to the women’s groups by local District government trainers, then Care for Uganda trustees provided training on business practices and principles. This was all very well-received and together with the new equipment, the groups are progressing well with development of their small businesses.
Other:
Thanks to a legacy gift and some grant funds, we were able to undertake some needed renovations to our partner, Abaagala Uganda’s office building and meeting rooms. We also connected our on-site workshop building to mains electricity, and can now explore using this for further livelihood and training activities.
FINANCES
Reserves policy - Care for Uganda will hold a minimum of £2,500 as reserves.
Care for Uganda (UK) 1 April 2024-31 March 2025 Breakdown of Income and Expenditure
| Income | |
|---|---|
| Sponsorship | £42,204.00 |
| General | |
| Donations | £1,282.50 |
| Gift Aid(21-23) | £16,960.96 |
| Legacies | |
| Other | £195.00 |
| Grants | |
| FLOW | |
| Women | £5,950.00 |
| FLOW | |
| Donations | £16,476.55 |
| Sales and Events | £1,847.00 |
| Development Support Programmes | £14,382.00 |
| Buildings | £1,325.00 |
| LINK Donations | £250.00 |
| TOTAL INCOME | £100,873.01 |
| Cash Assets | |
| b/f 23-24 | £71,718.89 |
| Closingbalance c/f | £19,283.93 |
| Net movement | -£52,434.96 |
| Expenditure | |
|---|---|
| Sponsorship | |
| Uganda staffing | £7,098.00 |
| Sponsorshipcosts- fees and overheads Uganda | £21,140.00 |
| Other inc newsletters & software | £205.09 |
| Computer equipment | |
| TOTAL SPONSORSHIP | £28,443.09 |
| General | |
| UK Staff | |
| Salaries | £19,315.16 |
| Tax and NI | £2,981.08 |
| Pensions | £1,625.88 |
| Payroll fees | £309.60 |
| Uganda staff | £699.00 |
| Office costs | |
| Software | £360.36 |
| Website | £204.00 |
| Profesional fees | £2,092.19 |
| Bank charges | £128.74 |
| Insurance | £707.08 |
| Printing& stationery | £381.39 |
| Travel | £2,758.73 |
| Uganda activities | £975.70 |
| Equipment costs | £412.00 |
| Postage | £117.32 |
| BBOWA Maintenance | £3,111.00 |
| Activities | £6,666.76 |
| Filming | £800.00 |
| Minibus | £778.00 |
| TOTAL GENERAL | £44,423.99 |
| FLOW | |
| Activities | £33,459.08 |
| TOTAL FLOW | £33,459.08 |
| DSP | £23,557.49 |
| TOTAL DSP | £23,557.49 |
| WOMEN | |
| Activities | £17,008.00 |
| Travel | £1,851.70 |
| Visit costs | £1,062.49 |
| TOTAL WOMEN | £19,922.19 |
| Buildings | £875.00 |
| LINK donations | £400.00 |
| Savingspayment Uganda | £1,472.03 |
| TOTAL ALL | £152,552.87 |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the tru8tse8 Care For Uganda On accounts for the year ended 3110312025 Charlty no (If any) 1099797 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my 8xamination of the accounts of the above charity ('the Trust.) for the year ended 3110312025. R•8pon•lbllltl•$ and ba818 of rnport A8 the charfty's trustee8, you are responsiblg for the preparation of the account8 in accordance with the requlrements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe ACV). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust'8 a¢counts Carried out under s8Ction 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examinalion, I have followed all the applicabl8 Directions given by the Charity Commi$8ion under Section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Indopendent I have completed my examination. I confim that no material matters have •xamlnerf8 8tatement come to my attentlon in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting records vMr8 not kept in AcrdanCe wlth 8ectlon 130 of the Charities Act., or the accounts dld not accord wlth the accounting record8', or the accounts did not comply wilh the appli¢able requirements concemlng the fonn and content of accounts sel out in the Charitles (Accounts and Reports) Regulation8 2008 other than any requirement that th8 accounts give a 'true and fairf view which 18 not o matter consldered as part of an independent examinatlon. I have no concerns and have come a¢r088 no other matter8 in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawm in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. ' Please delete the words In the br8ckets if they do not apply. Slgnad: Data: iJ/ii Name: Adam Jones R•l•vant profe88lonal qua1th&lOn(s) or body Ilf any): ICAEW Address: VPA Chartered Accountants & Chartered Tax Agents 476a Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, CF5 18L IER Ckt 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concem (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions arKI guidan for examiners). Glv• h•rn brl•f detall$ of any Items that the oxamlner wlshes to dlsclose. IER Oct 2018