2020-12-31-accounts

All Our Children (Reg. Charity No: 1100231) 10 Green Avenue

London W13 9RW

Trustees’ Annual Report 2020

List of trustees during the period covered by the report

Liz Walton (Chair of Trustees), Tony Ward (Treasurer), Suweyda Abdula, Zena Bentley (appointed on 26.11.2020), Matthew Jenkins, Thomas Kelly, Grigorios Papazafiriou and Richard Vokes. Helen Mooney and Raj Bains resigned in 2020.

Public Benefit Statement

We confirm that as trustees we have regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and that we ensure that the activities undertaken by All Our Children are in line with our charitable objects and aims.

Objectives and Activities

All Our Children has three objectives:

1. To advance the education and student support in a range of schools in SW Uganda through school partnerships.

2. To relieve poverty through the support of individuals and community welfare projects.

3. To advance the education of UK students through work placements in these schools and projects.

We fulfil these objectives each year in two main ways:

1. By sending money at the start of each term and each school holiday from our UK donors to Atukunda Gertrude, our Kampala based coordinator, to pay in full or in part the school and university fees of our sponsored students, food for their families in the school holidays and essential medical care they may need.

2. By making an annual visit to Kabale in South-West Uganda to visit all the sponsored students to monitor their progress and to meet with Atukunda Gertrude and Tushabomwe Patrick (our partner in Kabale).

3. By supporting teachers in several Kabale schools to develop their teaching skills and behaviour management strategies to benefit students.

Achievements and Performance of All Our Children in 2020

By lucky chance we made our annual visit in February 2020 rather than our usual Easter holiday visit, and returned to the UK just before the lockdowns began in

both Uganda and the UK. I was accompanied by four All Our Children supporters who, like me, are retired teachers: Zena Bentley, Lindsey Blake, Annie Griffiths and Eddie Stanbrook. All four have been to Kabale several times before and are very committed to our sponsored young people and our other projects there. Zena’s son, Peter (25 years old), came too. Like all young people who have accompanied us on our visits over the years, he found the experience uplifting and life-enhancing as he engaged with our sponsored children and young people, witnessing their passion for education and their resilience in the face of poverty.

During our visit we focused on four main areas:

• monitoring and supporting our sponsored children and young people

• working with our adviser from Kampala, Atukunda Gertrude, and our local partner in Kabale, Tushabomwe Patrick, on the support they provide for our sponsored students and planning for the rest of this year

• contributing our expertise in education to a project funded by the Feilden Foundation with the aim of improving teaching, learning, behaviour management and school environments in 11 local schools (nursery, primary and secondary)

• Yorkits, a project based in York with the aim of helping girls and women worldwide produce kits of reusable, washable sanitary protection.

Progress and wellbeing of AOC sponsored children and young people

Nearly all our 45 sponsored children and young people are now boarders rather than day students in primary and secondary schools or higher education institutions. This is important because meals and facilities for supervised homework and study are provided. The children we sponsor come from very poor homes where there is often not enough food for everyone in the family and no electricity for light for study in the evenings. Although boarding facilities are very basic with dormitories often overcrowded and sanitary facilities primitive, Ugandan parents generally want their children to board, and a lot of schools insist that children board in the last year of primary school (P7, when they sit the national Primary Leaving Examination) so that they have more time for their learning.

Despite cases of illness and some tragic home situations (e.g. evictions, death of parents), most of our students looked well and happy. Patrick is always available to them if they have problems at school and Mutesasira Mark, a young doctor in training, had volunteered to care for any of the children who become ill. Schools are beginning to move away from using corporal punishment as a main form of discipline and this has made a real difference to students’ confidence and happiness at school. We met our 45 students all together on two occasions and went to all the nursery, primary and secondary schools our students attend to visit them at school and to get progress information.

We had some real successes to celebrate. Byamukama Joshua, whom we first met at a street children centre about ten years ago, had been appointed Head Boy at Kigezi High School, one of the traditional government schools set up by

the British which has a good reputation nationally. His brother, Taremwa Derrick, had been given a responsibility at his secondary school as Assistant Games Prefect. Atwebembeire Amon and his brother Taremwa Francis did very well at A level and are now enthusiastic university students. Francis has always been a great support for our younger sponsored students and we think his choice of studying education in order to become a secondary school teacher very appropriate. Several primary school students were high up in the rankings of their year and the spoken and written English of the New Foundation Primary School students had improved significantly. Two very needy nursery age children, sponsored since 2018, showed remarkable progress and increase in confidence. They were unrecognisable from the sad, nervous, hungry children they were when we first met them.

Our projects with the Feilden Foundation and Yorkits

Supporting the work of these two charities enables us to share our professional expertise and deepen our involvement in Kabale schools and the local community. In 2020 we saw substantial progress in teachers using active teaching methods and moving away from corporal punishment. Members of our team worked hard to support the Yorkits project and to ensure the kits of washable sanitary protection being made by a group of local Kabale women are of the top quality crucial to its success.

During the pandemic

Schools closed on March 20[th] when the first lockdown in Uganda started. Despite a very low number of reported infections, they remained closed for the rest of the year with only students in examination years (P7, S4 and S6) and university students returning in the autumn in order to prepare for the rescheduled examinations in spring 2021.

It was not long before hunger became a problem for poor families. As we had no schools or university fees to pay, we used the money from our donors to provide food throughout the year. We also covered rent arrears and substantial repairs to one house as lack of work led to several of the families of our students facing homelessness. We kept our donors informed of how we were supporting students.

When Covid regulations permitted, we engaged teachers to run small group and individual tuition programmes, particularly to prevent students losing their English skills. We were aware that most of our students were not able to get on with their school work at home because of lack of resources.

Financial statement

This is a brief summary of the figures as a detailed statement is provided separately.

Total Income £28, 042

Expenditure £24,531 Balance at bank £18,861

Liz Walton OBE (Chair of Trustees)

All Our Children for 2020

Financial Report

Income

Total Donations

£ ~~23,5372~~ 2,937

These donations comprise

1. Direct donations channelled through the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) on most of which Gift aid is claimed. Total £21,181

2. Payroll giving donations also channelled through CAF Total £1,300

3. Donations directly to the charity.Total £1, 056

4. Reduced by donation returned to Liz Walton £600 Gift Aid claimed by CAF on the direct donations

£5,105.04 CAF charged total fees of £597.87 for their services so the total money available to the charity for their purposes was £28,042.04 ~~4.17~~

The returned donation arose because a donation Liz (our chair) made through CAF did not originally attract gift aid. We discussed things with CAF and it was decided that the simplest way to correct the problem was for us to return the £600 to Liz and for her to make a second donation to CAF who would then claim the gift aid on it. In efect, viewed another way, both our income and our expenditure could be decreased by £600.

(Note – These figures can be seen in the files ‘Bank Account Records’ and ‘CAF 2020 Records’ as well as in the Bank Statements from which the bank records are drawn which I have sent on)

Spending

Total Spending £24, ~~533.26~~ 531.13

This spending comprises three parts

1. Spending in Uganda. Total £23,700 2. Website development costs Total £233.26

2. CAF charged total fees Total £597.87 ~~s of~~ ~~£597.87 for their services Money to Liz Walton Total £600~~

~~This last expenditure arose because a donation Liz (our chair) made through CAF did not originally attract gift aid. We discussed things with CAF and it was decided that the simplest way to correct the problem was for us to return the £600 to Liz and for her to make a second donation to CAF who would then claim the gift aid on it. In efect, viewed another way, both our income and our expenditure could be decreased by £600.~~

Almost all of our spending then goes directly to Uganda, mostly via a money transfer company TORFX, in order to get competitive rates

(again these are detailed in the bank records). I have attached, and sent copies of the file ‘Tax Charity Commission Records’ comprising two sheets summarising the returns to the Charity Commission and HMRC for the last six years to provide context.

Uganda Spending and the effect of covid

Our spending in Uganda is divided between spending in Kampala (distribution of school fees and administrative costs overseen by Gertrude Atukunda) and, by far the largest part of our spending, school fees and other help for needy children in Kabale in Western Uganda (Distributed by a team from The Shepherd Centre, a charity which helps street children, overseen by Patrick who runs the centre). We also began to work with another school Source of Light (SoL) also in Western Uganda but we did not begin to transfer money to them during the period covered by this report. The distribution of monies is summarised in the file ‘Ugandan Financial Records’.

In a normal year money would go towards school fees and requirements for school together with support, basically help with food, for the most vulnerable. Around Easter of the following year Liz Walton and other supporters of the charity would visit Kabale together with Gertrude who would come from Kampala and the expenditure would be monitored.

2020 was not a normal year because Covid caused tremendous disruption to Ugandan schools with a complex series of lockdowns and school closures causing serious hardship to students and their families. Although it does not give financial data a quick glance at some of the cases reported by Patrick in the file ‘8. All Our children General Report Oct 2020’ will give a flavour of the situation. During this year we have increased our support for many children and families while obviously saving other amounts of money that would normally be spent on school fees.

The system we have operated is that spending is discussed with Patrick through a series of email exchanges and when this is agreed Gertrude transfers the money we have sent from Kabale to the Shepherd Centre in Kabale. We have records of the details of Patrick’s spending, see as an example the file ‘4. Spending June 2020’, and plan to monitor this in more detail when travel to and within Uganda becomes easier.

I hope this report makes our income and expenditure clear and, obviously, please contact me with any queries.

Tony Ward

Treasurer All Our Children

3/10/21

Registered Charity Number: 1100231

All our Children

Trustee Report and Financial Statements for year ended 31st December 2020

Independent Examiner's Report Report to the Trustess of All our Children Registered Charity Number: 1100231

Respective responsibilities of the trustees and examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act")

The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Act and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act

to follow the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Act) and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention

Basis of independent examiner's statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with 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 intems or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and 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 examiners statement

In connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or

the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair' view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be

12th October 2021

Elaine Ward

13 Howard Road, Westbury Park, Bristol BS6 7US

All our Children

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31st December 2020

31st December 2020
	Unrestricted		Restricted		Total
Income
Donations	£	28,042	£	-	£	28,042
Total Income	£	28,042	£	-	£	28,042
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities	£	24,531	£	-	£	24,531
Total Expenditure	£	24,531	£	-	£	24,531
Net income / (expenditure)	£	3,511	£	-	£	3,511
Total funds brought forward	£	15,350	£	-	£	15,350
Total funds carried forward	£	18,861	£	-	£	18,861

All our Children
Balance Sheet as at
31st December 2020
		2020		2019
Current Assets
Cash at bank	£	18,861	£	15,350
Net Assets	£	18,861	£	15,350
Funds
Unrestricted funds	£	18,861	£	15,350
Total charity funds	£	18,861	£	15,350