Vision Peoples In Mission UK Trust Annual Report 2020
The Vision Peoples In Mission UK Trust is registered with the Charity Commission, Registered Number 1113819. It’s principal address is 61 Saxon Drive, Newport, Shropshire, TF10 7FN.
Structure
The charity is governed by a trust deed executed on 12[th] December 2005.
Charitable Purpose
The VPM UK Trust seeks to relieve poverty and suffering, to prevent disease and ill health, and to promote Christian education and evangelism, particularly in the Korogocho slum of Nairobi. During the year, charitable grants of £78,982.64 were made in pursuit of this.
Charitable Benefit
Vision Peoples In Mission (VPM) works amongst some of the world’s poorest people. The principal benefit is the relief of poverty of residents in the Korogocho slum. This is achieved through running an orphanage, a primary school with a feeding programme, a clinic and a vocational training programme in dressmaking. These programmes are open to all.
COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the world and has affected us all. As of March 2020, like many organisations around the world, income from some sources stopped. VPM was no exception where they instantly lost income from rent of Lucky summer as a result of tenants losing their jobs.
Following an appeal, we are very grateful to UK donors who stepped up and supported VPM, enabling VPM to continue paying salaries.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit all areas of VPM. The church was unable to hold services, the medical centre was hit with an increase in people needing treatment along with the fact that patients needed to remain in for longer if they contracted COVID-19. Of course, this also brought risk to the staff too.
As of October 2020, the reported cases in Kenya hits over 40,600 with 755 deaths. COVID cases continued to be on the rise heading into the 2020 winter.
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
1 Children washing their hands before class session
Haven Primary School
The October 2020 VPM newsletter reported that due to the pandemic, all schools closed. In May 2020, parents came to school to pick up work for their children and brought back books for marking. In October, the school reopened with some COVID-19 measures in place. All teachers and pupils wore masks, sanitised and kept socially distant.
The February 2021 newsletter goes into further detail about the school during 2020. At the start of the pandemic, there were 252 pupils. As the school reopened in October 2020, this number doubled as most other schools in the slum were unable to comply with the government regulations. It is unclear on the levels of staff numbers at the end of 2020. Mrs Dorine Obare is the headteacher of Haven Primary School.
Feeding Programme
The school feeding programme continues to be a lifeline for many pupils and this was able to continue during the pandemic for those that needed support. It really is a lifeline for many of the pupils who need the programme to survive.
VPM Medical Centre
Vision Peoples Medical Centre has had one of the busiest times in the COVID 19 pandemic period and still experiences high flow of patients seeking medical attention. This was brought about when government hospitals would test patients for COVID 19 as part of tests before treatment could be administered. When found to be COVID 19 positive, patients were forced into quarantine for 14 days without going back home for the fear of spreading the virus. This brought a lot of fear in the citizens by abrupt confinement from families testing positive for COVID 19. Therefore, most
patients chose to go for health treatments to private/mission health institutions. VPM medical centre has largely continued to offer both curative and preventative health services.
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
We still offer inpatient services in our small ward capacity of 8 beds, laboratory services and maternity including outpatient department. Most prevalent diseases VPM offers treatments to include; malaria, pneumonia, asthma, skin diseases, meningitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), wound cuts caused by mugging in Korogocho streets. The VPM clinic faces a shortage of supply of medicine. We invite our supporters to help VPM stabilize our minimal free medical service to the poor children who cannot afford our very small charges
Women Vocational Training
The is the arm of VPM that seeks to empower women of the Korogocho slums with skills for employments or self-employment. Courses offered include Tailoring/Dressmaking, Embroidery and Knitting.
Workaid UK donated 19 sewing machines (both manual and electric) to the centre along with other materials in August 2020. This is however, the last donation that Workaid will be sending to VPM.
The vocational centre was disrupted by COVID, and they hope to reopen this in January 2021.
This year, there was also a new project to help local girls and women. “The vulnerable women pads project” has been set up to allow girls in need of sanitary pads to seek help from VPM. COVID-19 once again has hit this area with many women unable to earn money and buy the necessities. Some women previously had to resort to sex working to purchase sanitary products. VPM started this projects and counsel them,
providing seminars and a few pads each month. The women and girls are invited to the church to learn about sex education, reproductive health, hygiene and family planning. This is taught by VPM staff. VPM donate over 200 pads every month in this project.
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
Orphanage
The orphanage closed and all residents had to stay in on 24[th] March 2020 with nobody allowed in or out without good reason. Children continued to do school work at the orphanage with the matron mediating between the children and the teachers.
Future plans
On 15[th] September 2020, the manager for the upgrade programme visited VPM site and brought the new lease, with an increased land size of 0.78Ha. The church has also been allocated it’s own land that was lost previously.
VPM has some plans for a new building costing $433,000USD to include the Havel school, childrens home moving from Lucky Summer, and medical centre. They anticipate this will take several years to build. There will be a library open to the school and the public, generating an income for VPM.
VPM Missionary Church
The church continues to be the backbone of the gospel evangelism to Korogocho residents. The main goal is to present Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of all human kind in all that is done.
The church remains alive and vibrant and Pastor Isasc Sikote has returned since October 2020.
The church is also blessed to have talented youth giften in playing musical instruments, who also have a vision for starting a band to take the Christian message out.
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
Vision Peoples In Mission: Governance and Financial Performance
During the year 2020, the board of trustees has changed slightly. Mr Robinson Mureithi, Mr Ali Okelo and Mrs Millicent Kwambaka have resigned from their posts.The following are on the board of trustees:
Rev Franklyn Otwama Mr Paul Gathiru Mr Simon Mihanda Mrs Violet Omollo Mrs Gladys Mmbone
As is customary, the 2020 audited accounts have been received by the UK trust. These show that the organisation continues to be in good health with Net Surplus of almost 6.3 million KSH (£41,321) (2019-£21,452). 2020 saw an income of 17.7 million KSH (£116,234) (2019£98,794) and operating expenditure of almost 11 million KSH (£72,330) (2019-£72,778). Following on from an encouraging year in 2019, largely due to COVID-19, donations from the VPM UK Trust accounts for 68%, compared to 55% last year. Income from rent collection decreased to 3.9 million KSH (£25,831) (2019-£42,873). However, clinic collections increased significantly and is now a noticeable income, standing at just over 2.5million KSH in 2020 (£16,827, up from £984 in 2019)
Total Assets of the Kenyan charity stand at 68.5 million KSH (£451,000) (2019-around £467,152 – mostly property assets).
Vision Peoples In Mission UK Trust accounts for almost 10 million KSH (£65,678)* of 10.5 million KSH that comes from other external income. Overall, just over 7 million KSH comes from internal income (Rent, School, Clinic, Church collections and investment income)
Nb. 2020 GBP exchange rate used as £1 = 152KSH
*Figure here is lower than VPM UK accounts due to exchange rates.
The Korogocho slum upgrading programme is on its final stages. The government of Kenya has provided VPM with the additional land that was promised and all squatters that were occupying this land have been evicted. Plans are in place for the new VPM permanent buildings which will be occupying this land.
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
Risk Management
The Future for Korogocho
There are significant plans that are already underway to improve the Korogocho slum area, which is at least in part funded by Italian Government money. Teams have been working to clean the streets and there is more tarmac on the roads than previously. The slum upgrading project has some major implications for building work but this upgrade programme is on it’s final stages:
• Initially that following the award of additional land, the plot now needs to be secured by building a perimeter fence. Following a further round of loan funding (which has now been repaid), this funding is in place and being held in reserves.
• Secondly there is a need for extensive rebuilding. As part of the slum rebuilding, there is a government requirement that only permanent buildings are in place, and the ’shanty’ style buildings will need to be demolished. This requires significant capital, (around £300,000 further capital is required).
• Attracting this additional capital requires confidence that demand would continue from local residents. This is exacerbated as there may be migration issues. The Government has stated an intention that residents of Korogocho would remain, as they have said that they don’t wish to just move the slum further out. All residents are being given plots of land linked to the size of their previous dwelling. However, the requirement to build permanent buildings is likely to lead many of the poorest residents to sell their plots to developers and move away. This may change the nature of the population in Korogocho, and it may lead to different demand on VPM’s services.
Financial Risk: Because the charity simply makes grants out of income received, there is no liability. Should the Trust embark on another round of loan funding to bring forwards expenditure in Korogocho, the lenders would be required to agree that in the event that there are insufficient donations coming into the trust to repay the loans, that they will convert to gifts. This avoids any financial risk to the UK Trust. This has worked well with two previous rounds of loan funding. Although this is a risk to the Kenyan organisation, rather than the UK Trust, there is a wider challenge of sustaining incoming funds from donors – which is nurtured by periodic fund raising visits from the Kenyan director. Most of our funds are regular direct debits routed through Stewardship which helps a more even cash flow than might otherwise be the case.
Reputational Risk / Monitoring: The trustees (or those known to them) have visited the work of Vision Peoples in Mission at intervals over time. Seeing the work on the ground is an important part of evaluating charitable impact. The trust receives copies of their audited report and accounts and have done so for fifteen years. The Trustees (and supporters) receive newsletters and other communication from Nairobi. This long term relationship with VPM gives us confidence in them. No trustee visited VPM in 2020. It is not expected that a trustee will be able to visit in the next year due to the ongoing pandemic.
Reserves Policy: Because the trust makes grants out of income received, and does so immediately, there is little need to hold reserves. As such our reserves are nominal.
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
Financial Report
During the year, the Trust received donations of £80,534. Whilst much of the ongoing donation stream is Gift Aided, it is given through Stewardship, who reclaim Gift Aid on our behalf. A gift aid reclaim was not completed in 2020.
£75,803 was paid out in charity grants to support the work of Vision Peoples In Mission in Kenya. £180 was paid in bank fees (Twelve monthly transfer fees of £15). One of the benefits of the Trust is it sends donations electronically, which is the safest means of transferring funds to Nairobi. It does this in a pooled way to avoid individual donors having to pay a significant part of the donation on transfer costs. £3,000 of ‘other’ was for repayment of a donation which was duplicated in error.
The accounts have been independently examined by Simon Hartridge, who has kindly performed this service to us without charge. See page 8 for the Independent Examiner’s Report.
Vision Peoples In Mission UK Trust: 2020 Financial Statements
| ACCOUNTS for 2020 | 2020 2019 |
|---|---|
| RECEIPTS Donations Gift Aid TOTAL RECEIPTS PAYMENTS Grants to VPM Loan Repayments Bank Charges Other TOTAL PAYMENTS RECEIPTS OVER PAYMENTS Bank Account 01/01 Bank Account 31/12 INCREASE IN FUNDS |
£ £ 80,534 53,911 - 1,550 |
| 80,534 55,461 |
|
| 75,803 55,691 - - 180 180 3,000 - |
|
| 78,983 55,871 |
|
| 1,551 (410) |
|
| 4,773 3,507 6,324 3,097 |
|
| 1,551 (410) |
|
| STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES | |
| Assets Cash in bank Liabilities |
6,324 3,097 - - |
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Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No: 1113819
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS Report to the Trustees of Vlston Peoples in Misson UK Trtt {Chanty No.. 1113819) on accounts for the year ended 31" 08mter 2020. Rgspg¢tlv• The ¢harrty's trustees are responsible for the pParatIOn of the aOuntS. vvspon8ibS1itle• of The ¢h8rrty's trustees consider that an athlrt is not required for this year tru#ts$ #nd •xamlnor under sedion 144 of the charib.es Act 2011 Ilhe Charitses Act) and Ihal an independènt examinion is needed. It is my rg$ponsibility to.. examine the account$ under section 145 of the Chanties AL, to follow the prOdureS laid down in the general Direction$ given by the Chanty Commission (under section 145(5){b) of thè Charities Ad. and to state whether particular matters have ¢ome to my attention. Basls of Independent My axomination was carried oul in ac¢ordance with general Direcions given •xamln•fs stat•m•nt by the Charity Commission. An examination indudes a review of the accounting records kept by the chanty and a Comparison of the accounts presented those records. It also indudes CorIderatIOn of any unusual items or dis¢lo$ufes in the a¢counts. and seeking explanations from the trustee$ ¢onceming any $Ltch matters. The proureS undertaken do not provide all the evidenc* that would be required Fn an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the a¢¢ounts present a and fairf wew and the report 1$ limited to those matters set out in the statemenl below. Indepondent In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention examinerfs statement 1. wthich gives me r•asonable cause to beliwe that in. any material resp¢t. the requirements: to keep accounting re¢ord$ in accordance th 8ection 130 of th¢ Charities A¢t', and to prepare a¢rA)unts which accord th the accounting records arKI comFdy wth the accountsng requirements of tho Charitw A have not been met.. or 2. to whith, in my OFxnion, attention should be drawn in order to ensble propor und&rst8nding of the a¢counts to te reathed. Slgned: Date: Name". Simon Hartridge Addr•ss: Vision Peoples in Mission UK Trust is a Charity registered with the UK Charity Commission, No.. 1113819