All Our Children (Reg. Charity No: 1100231)
10 Green Avenue
London W13 9RW
Trustees’ Annual Report 2024 (covering our financial year 1.1.24 to 31.12.24)
List of trustees during the period covered by the report
Liz Walton (Chair of Trustees), Tony Ward (Treasurer), Thomas Kelly, Zena Bentley and Richard Vokes.
Public Benefit Statement
We confirm that as trustees we have had regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and that we ensure the activities undertaken by All Our Children are in line with our charitable objects and aims.
There were no serious incidents in 2024.
Objectives and Activities
The main objective of All Our Children is the sponsorship of very poor children in Kabale, Uganda to attend school and to continue to further or higher education as appropriate. A visit is made each year to monitor progress. Led by Zena Bentley, we also support the development of a primary school in a remote location near Kygegwa. The funds raised for this project supplement the low school fees charged by the school, kept low to encourage school attendance by children from very poor families. A previously sponsored student, Turiohabwe Jack, now a university lecturer in IT who has just been awarded his PhD, is supporting the school to develop its administrative procedures. He regularly provides information on its progress to us.
Our sponsorship programme guarantees full support for students throughout their education until the point at which it is appropriate for them to leave formal education. This means that sponsorship for some students can last for 7 years at primary school, 6 years at secondary school, and then a further 4 years at a vocational college or 3 years at a university for a degree – a total of 16 or 17 years.
Achievements and Performance of All Our Children in 2024:
Sponsorships:
As in every year, AOC representatives visited Uganda in February/March. Liz Walton, Chair of Trustees, and Lindsey Blake, an active supporter of AOC and volunteer, visited Kabale for two weeks. Zena Bentley, Trustee, travelled first to Kygegwa to monitor progress at Source of Light School and then joined us in Kabale. In Kabale, we visited all our sponsored school students at their schools (primary and secondary) and met with teachers and school leaders to discuss their progress and identify any support
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needs. We distributed items of clothing, shoes and school equipment from donations brought from the UK. We also bought other items locally which are essential for the students’ progress at school or their wellbeing, e.g. we replaced worn out mattresses and bedding, missing school bags and scholastic materials, and torn or outgrown uniform items. Nearly all the students board at school where they receive three meals per day and have supervised study periods in the early morning and evening. If they were day students and living at home, food would often be in short supply and studying without electricity very difficult. The students are aware of how lucky they are to be sponsored and all of them accept their responsibility to work hard and behave well. There is generally positive feedback on their progress. Any issues which arise during the year are dealt with by our partner in Kabale, Tushabomwe Patrick, who is well known and trusted by the schools. He also ensures that any student who is ill receives medical treatment.
We also met sponsored students who have progressed from school to vocational college and university courses. They receive full tuition fees and an allowance to cover accommodation and living costs. We have provided each one with a smartphone bought locally so that they can access course materials and assessment marks. We had a truly joyful reunion with eleven of them where we also gave them clothes and shoes from donations in the UK. Post-school qualifications are essential if young people are to find a job offering prospects for the future, a major challenge in Uganda. Most of our students do a two-year certificate in a vocational area and many progress to a diploma for a further two years. A smaller number go straight to university after A levels to do a degree course.
With our partner and adviser in Kampala, Atukunda Gertrude, who joined us for several days, we did our usual thorough examination of the spending on fees, school equipment and holiday food. Patrick receives money from All Our Children each term from which he pays the fees into the relevant bank for each school, college or university. He also purchases and distributes the additional school requirements, and does the same for the food we provide for each holiday to ensure that the school students remain fed and in good health while not at school. Patrick produces detailed accounts each term and keeps all receipts for our inspection when we visit. Throughout the year we are in regular contact with him and never have any difficulty in keeping in touch. He responds promptly to any communications from us.
All of our sponsored students come from very poor families without the means to pay school and tuition fees and most were attending a centre for street children when we first met them, in some cases many years ago. We are impressed with the progress they have made and the resilience they show, despite the difficulties they and their families face. Because they are fully sponsored and their fees paid on time, they do not have the threat hanging over them, as so many Ugandan families do, of being “chased away” from school because of unpaid fees or being unable to complete post-school courses. This security clearly helps them do well in their education. We have an excellent record of progression from primary to secondary school and from secondary to further or higher education. Results at both primary and secondary schools are good and often better than we had dared to hope for. Post-16 students have chosen a wide range of courses with employment prospects in mind. Having been the beneficiaries of sponsorship makes students determined to support their siblings to attend school once they are earning and able to contribute to the family finances, one of the most impressive features of Ugandan culture.
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In 2024 the number of sponsored students dropped to 26 as several students completed their education. The trend of a declining number of sponsored students will continue as more students complete the last stage of their education, becoming independent of All Our Children, and as a result of our intention not to grant new sponsorships. The reason is that we are a very small charity with our most active trustees and volunteers not getting any younger! In addition, our operational model of relying totally on volunteers to do the work, to accept accountability for the sponsorship programme in Kabale, and to visit Kabale each year at their own expense is not an attraction for new volunteers. Fortunately, Atukunda Gertrude, our partner in Kampala, has been successful in registering a small NGO, Our Children Aid Uganda, which we hope will be able to take on AOC sponsored students who remain in education once we decide to close down AOC. This will be 2030 at the earliest.
Source of Light School (SoL)
In 2024, Zena was accompanied to Source of Light School by Gertrude. Her knowledge and wisdom proved invaluable in helping Zena to monitor the school’s development plan, including the building of new latrines, and to strengthen accountability. Zena was able to attend lessons in every class where she observed much good practice, and even teach P7 (final year) students to play the recorder, as she had done in 2023. In addition to scholastic materials for the school, she took with her 36 school dresses and 40 polo shirts to boost the provision of school uniforms.
Prior to her visit, Zena had kept up the fundraising for SoL in the UK. This is a challenging responsibility, particularly given the need to raise funds to ensure the retention of teachers. Salaries for teachers in Uganda are low and retention often depends on the school being able to offer incentives such as teacher accommodation, meals and small top-ups to salaries. With the help of Gertrude and Jack, improved systems were set up to ensure that teachers feel valued.
SoL’s very loyal group of regular monthly donors in the UK continued to provide the majority of the money needed to sustain the school. However, this is not enough on its own and further money was raised in 2024 through concerts given by Zena and fellow musicians in North Yorkshire.
School partnerships
The project we were involved in to help teachers develop teaching strategies for the new Ugandan curriculum finished in 2023, and therefore we did not run workshops or do formal observation of lessons in 2024. We did, however, contact schools and teachers with whom we had worked to see how they were getting on with the challenges of a new curriculum and methodologies. Unsurprisingly, we received mixed responses as the changes are very significant and resources to support them inadequate. Nevertheless, many teachers are convinced of the value of the new, more active approaches.
Financial statement
Submitted separately.
Liz Walton (Chair of Trustees) 4.9.2025
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| 2024 Accounts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Income | Expenditure | ||
| Bank Balance at start ofyear | £75,157.67 | £994.81 | CAF charges |
| Payroll Givingvia CAF | £1,200.00 | £297.02 | UK Website costs |
| Donations via CAF | £39,609.20 | ||
| Gift Aid collected via CAF | £8,893.87 | £66,850.00 | Sent to Uganda during |
| Other Donations | £9,424.13 | year. Details in | |
| (Ayton Church,Admiral Feteris, | Bank Account Records | ||
| Much Loved) | |||
| Total | £134,284.87 | £68,141.83 | |
| Balance in Bank atyear end | £66,143.04 | ||
Registered Charity Number: 1100231
All our Children Trustee Report and Financial Statements for year ended 31st December 2024
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
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
set out in Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts
attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be
14th September 2025
Elaine Ward
13 Howard Road, Westbury Park, Bristol BS6 7US
All our Children
| All our Children | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statement of Financial Activities | for the | year ended | ||||
| 31st December 2024 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | Total | ||
| Income | ||||||
| Voluntary Income | 1 | 59,127 | 0 | 59,127 | 54,226 | |
| Total Income | 59,127 | 0 | 59,127 | 54,226 | ||
| Expenditure on: | ||||||
| Charitable activities | 68,141 | 0 | 68,141 | 58,067 | ||
| Total Expenditure | 68,141 | 0 | 68,141 | 58,067 | ||
| Net income / (expenditure) | (9,014) | 0 | (9,014) | (3,842) | ||
| Total funds brought forward | 75,158 | 0 | 75,158 | 78,999 | ||
| Total funds carried forward | 66,143 | 0 | 66,143 | 75,158 |
All our Children
| All our Children | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance Sheet as at | ||||
| 31st December 2024 | ||||
| 2024 | 2023 | |||
| Current Assets | ||||
| Cash at bank | £ | 66,143 |
£ | 75,158 |
| Net Assets | £ | 66,143 |
£ | 75,158 |
| Funds | ||||
| Unrestricted funds | £ | 66,143 |
£ | 75,158 |
| Total charity funds | £ | 66,143 |
£ | 75,158 |
All our Children
Notes to the Financial Statements for year ended 31st December 2024
| 1 Voluntary income received during the year is made up of: Donations Gift aid on donations Legacies Total Voluntary Income |
2024 50,233 £ 8,894 £ - £ 59,127 £ |
2023 45,281 £ 8,945 £ - £ |
|---|---|---|
| 54,226 £ |