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2021-03-31-accounts

LWO CULTURAL GROUP

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Annual Review April 2020 – March 2021
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St Luke’s Community Centre Unit 11, 86 Tarling Road Canning Town London E16 1HN Email: lwoculturalgroup@hotmail.com Website: www.lwoculturalgroup.org

Registered Charity No: 1109870

Supported by

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Lwo Cultural Group Annual Review 2020-2021

Contents

Contents
An Overview of Lwo Cultural Group 3
1. Chairman’s Report 4
2. LCG Management Committee Members - 2020-2021 6
3. Language Class and Interaction 7
4. Artist from Uganda 8
5. Community Seminars and Discussion Group 8
6. Trip to Seaside 8 – 9
7. Performance at Uganda Independence Celebration 9
8. Lwo Ladies Empowerment Group 9 - 10
9. Transforming to a new way of working 10
10. Conclusion 10
11. Financial Report of the Trustees to the year ended 31stMarch 2021 11 - 13
12. Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of LCG 14

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Registered Office: St Luke’s Community Centre, Unit 11, 86 Tarling Road Canning Town London E16 1HN Bankers: Lloyds Banks 60 Broadway Stratford London E15

Independent Examiner: James Otim-Obaya

Governing document: Constitution

Governing body: Management Committee, elected every two years.

Registered Charity No: 1109870

Aims and Objectives

Lwo Cultural Group (LCG) is established for the:

  1. The provision of facilities for recreation and leisure time occupation in the interest of social and economic welfare, with the object of improving the conditions of life for the inhabitants of Greater London.

  2. To advance the education of the public by providing training, information, and advice.

Statement of Management Committee’s Responsibility

The Management Committee of LCG presents its annual report for the year ended 31st March 2021 under the Companies Act 1985 and the Charities Act 1993, together with the audited financial statements for the year. In doing this, the Management Committee have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to guidance published by the Charity Commission.

Principal Funding Sources

The principal funding sources are: Self-funded through membership, staging of performances & donations from well-wishers; Trust for London, Big Lottery and Newham Borough Council.

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1. Chairman’s Report

Dear Members,

You are most welcome to our Annual General Meeting for the year ending 31[st] March 2021. I am delighted to see you all and happy that we are meeting face to face, in the Community Centre in the company of each other again.

Today our main aim is to report about our activities in the last financial year

Olowang John Obalim |

and to elect new office bearers for LCG. The current Management Committee (MC) have had an extended stay in office to March 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is therefore right and imperative that we should see change today in line with the expectation of our Constitution to hold elections every two years. We count on all our members to support us in realising this important transformation through participating in the electoral process.

The first period of Covid-19 lockdown was very challenging. There was no easy way of connecting with community members. Most of our activities initially came to a complete standstill, but we adjusted and embraced a new Digital way of connecting with one another including mobilising for events online using various technologies like Virtually Zoom meetings, WhatsApp Groups and Internet. This was made easy with the support of some Covid-19 emergency response grants that we received from Arts Council, Big Lottery Fund, Community Fund, London Funders and East End Community Foundation. We are grateful to all the funding bodies that supported our organisation and the community with grants which meant that we meet the need to connect with people in the community and support them in various different ways.

I am also grateful to the Volunteers who supported LCG during the pandemic to link with isolated and vulnerable members of our community, to participate in the distribution of food and other household items that support their needs. It meant a lot for isolated members to get a knock at the door and see a friendly face when the streets had gone quiet.

Thanks to members of the MC who were able to organise activities through Zoom and other applications that allowed our young people and children to interact on a weekly basis, a project that is continuing currently. LCG organised TV Studio interviews with Romeo Odong and Easter Festival 2021 on Zoom with artists from Uganda Liama, Young Man, OJ Murugut and City Boy, all of whom are Lwo artists from Northern Uganda.

LCG also held seminars and workshops with community members, on Zoom, discussing about Cultural and Traditional topics, concerns Covid vaccines and other Health related issues. We hope to build on these Digital Technologies expertise and get better with time. LCG were also able to mobilise people for a community trip to Margate, Kent during the summer 2021. The Group is slowly and surely resuming operations. We also had the opportunity to perform at the Uganda Independence Day event organised by the Uganda High Commission, London, UK in October 2021.

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LCG has now resumed our activities at St Luke’s Community Centre by meeting once a month initially, in order to give time to people to adjust and come back to the Centre. We expect previous main activities to continue taking place as before and hope to start cross-cultural activities with other organisations, including staged face to face performances. We look forward to organising live Easter Festival 2022 and other staged performances in the community.

Despite the challenges faced, we accept the transformation in communication experienced during the Covid-19 period and will embrace these going forward. We currently ran Lwo Language Classes, Health Information Seminars, Cultural Seminars, and MC meetings taking place regularly on Zoom.

Thank you very much to all our volunteers and members for your continuous support. And thank you to the MC that I have worked with for over four years. It has been wonderful to work with you and share your company. We have danced together, laughed together and shared company over many events that we participated in. That is what LCG is about. The memory will not go away easily. It has not always been easy to find time to do all that we planned together, but we did whatever we could to keep the Group viable and visible in the eyes of the community through the various activities that we organised. As we meet now, LCG has the opportunity and potential to progress and run better projects for the benefit of the community.

I urged members to continue to support our ambitious Community Centre Project. I urged the MC, including all those who have pledged support towards this project, to honour their pledges. Let’s make this project happen at the earliest opportunity to support our community.

And to our young members, I say that the future is yours. No longer can you sit on the fences. Come forward to serve your community through involvement in LCG.

Thank you very much to you all, once again.

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2. LCG Management Committee Members - 2020-2021

LCG Management Committee meets every month to plan activities, manage projects, mobilise the community, and to discuss other issues related to the development of the Group. Most of our meetings now take place on the online virtual application Zoom. Below are the current office bearers:

Christine Adyera (Vice Chair) Linda Muyobo (Women’s Secretary)

Defron Awok (Asst. Women’s Secretary)

Jackline Kipwola (Asst. Secretary) Sam Olara (Secretary)

P Nono-Bwomono (Treasurer)

. Org. Sec)

Aaron Lumumba (Youth Leader)

Precious Odongkara (Asst.Youth Leader)

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3. Lwo Language Class and Children’s Interaction

LCG Lwo Language and children’s interaction meetings takes place every week, online on Zoom, on Sundays for one and a half hours. It’s well attended by both children and adults of all ages, who learn the language and the children are supported by their parents. After the language lessons the children are left to chat with one another for half an hour. They all interact with each other very well in the absence of physical meetings.

Rehearsals and Practice

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic brought face to face, centre-based rehearsals at St Luke’s Community Centre to an end for about two years. It is only recently that the Group has resumed face to face meetings and rehearsals. A few of our members are still reluctant to come out, but slowly things are beginning to get back to normal.

4. Artist from Uganda

Romeo Odong a Lwo artist from Northern Uganda was invited to the UK to perform at LCG Easter Festival 2020. Unfortunately, just before Easter 2020 the UK government implemented Covid-19 lockdown which led to the cancellation of the festival. Despite that, LCG adapted to the situation quickly and re-engaged Romeo through community TV shows, Zoom meetings, and radio interviews.

On 9[th] May 2020 Romeo was hosted by Linda on TV Show, then again on 14[th] August 2020, and then on 21[st] August 2020 Romeo performed in the open space in Burgess Park, South London before flying back to Uganda.

Thanks to all the community members who supported LCG in enabling Romeo to contribute and participate in all the events during his UK 2020 tour.

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Romeo Odong studio performance

At the studio with Romeo Odong

5. Community Seminars, Discussion Groups and Workshops

We have been holding seminars with community members through WhatsApp Groups and Zoom meetings on the subjects of Health, Social and Cultural activities. This included a Covid-19 seminar which discussed the reluctance of community members to take up Covid-19 vaccines, which enabled community members to make objective decisions about the vaccines; and training management committee members how to use online applications like Zoom, WhatsApp and Google.

6. Trip to the Seaside

LCG continues to mobilise community members for trips to various places, in order to promote community cohesion for example the seaside. After seventeen months of lockdown and isolation, LCG arranged a trip to Margate seaside on 21[st] August 2021. Approximately one hundred community members attended the one-day trip. The feedback was that it was an enjoyable face to face experience after a long period of isolation.

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Trip to Margate

7. Uganda Independence Day Celebration Performance October 2021

LCG was invited to perform Lwo Cultural Dances at the Uganda Independence Day Celebration, organised by the Uganda High Commission in the UK. LCG performed two traditional dances, Bwola and Larakaraka. The audience were exhilarated to see the exciting performances.

Uganda Independence Day Celebration

8. Lwo Women’s Empowerment Group

LCG women members reactivated their meeting during the summer 2021 to explore and discuss issues that affect women, children and families; and to bond together with one another in the

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community spirit. They meet weekly online using Zoom to explore issues around the welfare of families, children, women health and wellbeing, skills training, leisure, and social activities. During autumn 2021 they launched a weekly tailoring project which is well attended.

9. Transforming to New Ways of Working Online

Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown that accompanied it has transformed the way LCG is engaging with community members. LCG has embraced the new Digital experience of Virtual Zoom meetings, and other online application for example WhatsApp communications, YouTube music and dance training. While some aspects of our activities are better during face to face meetings, for example dance and music rehearsals, the new digital experience will remain part of our tool set of reaching out to and engaging community members and the public. We are acknowledge that of our some members lack the technological devices, knowledge and internet access, but hope to support them to acquire the necessary technologies in order to enable them to engage with each other in new the online virtual activities.

10. Conclusion

As outlined above, LCG has the potential to grow and transform in order to support the community into the future. We need embrace new leadership and encourage our young members to participate more in the organisation. LCG would like to thank everybody who participated in all the various projects and activities for their continued support during the last year. These activities included Lwo Language Classes; Children’s Interaction Meetings; Lwo Women’s Group workshops; Dance; Singing; Rehearsals; Performances; Trip; Meetings; Training Sessions and Workshops.

We should all endeavour to support each other with LCG and to do our best so that we can continue to grow by starting, continuing and promoting new projects together, that will support LCG and the wider community at large. By working together in harmony, we shall succeed.

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REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH 2021

Risk Management and Reserves Policy

The Management Committee have established a policy whereby:

Assessment of need and risk are undertaken and forecast of future income levels reinforce this policy. The level of reserves is monitored on a regular basis.

Management Committee Responsibilities in relation to the Financial Statements

The Management Committee are required to prepare financial statements that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity at the end of the financial year and of it’s surplus or deficit for the financial year.

In doing so the Management Committee are required to:

The Management Committee are responsible for maintaining proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity. The Management Committee are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

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NOTES TO LWO CULTURAL GROUP’S ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH 2021

ACCOUNTING POLICIES

  1. There has been a change in policy for preparing financial statements by Lwo Cultural Group. This change was adopted by the Management Committee on the 27[th] April 2014 following the recommendations of the Financial Review Committee constituted in October 2013 to review financial management within the group and ensure that the charity accounts was presented in a simple, clear and easily understandable format.

  2. The financial statements have been prepared based on Income and Expenditure Account. Prior to 27[th] April 2014, for Lwo Cultural Group financial statements were prepared under the historical cost convention.

3. Depreciation

The Management Committee have resolved that as the useful periods of items purchase are generally limited to about a year, the entire cost of an item would be recognised in the account during the year of purchase. Depreciation is no longer provided on items or assets of the charity.

4. Incoming Resources

Funds held by the charity are either:

(a) Restricted Funds

These are funds that can only be used for the restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. The restrictions arise when funds are raised for particular purposes or when specified by the donor and or the Committee.

(b) Unrestricted Funds

These are funds which can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the Management Committee.

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Lwo Cultural Group

Income and Expenditure Accounts For The Year Ended 31st March 2021

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2020/21 2019/20
Income
MembershipSubscriptions 110 230
Restricted Funds 37,106 9,680
Events and Fundraising 7,801 17,100
Donations 2,118 2,246
Total Income 47,135 29,256
Expenditure
Rent,Rates and Hall Hire 4,505 7,353
Meetings,Trainingand Rehearsals - 233
Trips and Transport 1,784 1,968
Volunteer expenses 3,534 1,335
Events and Fundrasingcosts 18,021 8,477
Audit Fee - 150
Equipment and Costumes 100 869
Miscellaneous Expenses - 72
Total Expenditue 27,944 20,457
Surplus/(deficit) for theyear 19,191 8,799
Balance Sheet as at 31st March 2021
31st March 2021 31st March 2020
£ £
Cash at Bank 29,593 11,691
Cash in hand 468 247
Net Assets 30,061 11,938
Reserves at the start of theyear 10,870 2,071
Surplus/(deficit) for theyear 19,191 8,799
Reserves at the end of theyear 30,061 10,870
Chairman Treasurer
Mr O J Obalim Mr P Nono-Bwomono
Date_16.12.2021_ Date 15.12.2021

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF LWO CULTURAL GROUP (LCG)

I report on the accounts of LCG for the year ended 31 March 2021, which are set out on pages 11 to 13.

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 for 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:

• examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act

• to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act

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 or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as 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 next statement.

Independent examiner’s statement

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

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Sign:

Date: 21/12/2021

Name. James Otim-Obaya

Address: 28 Bullbanks Road, DA17 6DT, Belvedere, KENT

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