2021-03-31-accounts

AFRICAN CHILDREN’S

FUND LTD.

ANNUAL DIRECTORS’ REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 2021

REGISTERED CHARITY NO

1114699

COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE NO 05708741

CONTENTS

• i. Administrative Information

• ii. Governing Documents

• iii. Aims and Objectives

• iv. Our Programme in Africa

• v. Education and Awareness Raising in the UK

• vi. Covid-19

• vii. Future Plans

• viii. Monitoring and Evaluation

• ix. Mitigating Risk

• x. Principal Sources of Funding

• xi. Reserves Policy

• xii. Financial Highlights

• xiii. Statement of Financial Activities xiv. Balance Sheet

i. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Charity Name African Children’s Fund Ltd. Charity Registration No 1114699 Company Registration No 0 5708741 Registered and Operational

Office Silver Birch House

Cow Lane

Longworth Nr Abingdon Oxfordshire OX13 5EJ

Tel [phone]

Web Site www.africanchildrensfund.org

Directors Debra Beazley

Derek Bird

Caroline Blacker

Henry Chitsenga Richard Kenyon Sandra North

Company Secretary Dee Tyrer Chief Executive Officer Dee Tyrer Bankers Lloyds Bank

Solicitor Crowdy and Rose, Faringdon

ii. GOVERNING DOCUMENTS

The African Children’s Fund Ltd. is a company limited by guarantee. The governance of the organisation is laid out in The Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association for Company number 05708741, incorporated on 14[th] February 2006

The directors of the company are together the trustee of the Charity. They therefore have a duty to comply with the rules of Companies House and the Charity Commission. Being a company limited by guarantee there is no dividend.

Policies and Procedures which govern the day to day management of the organisation are set out in the Policy and Procedures Manual which is reviewed and updated regularly.

iii. OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• a. The relief of poverty, sickness, hardship and distress in African children particularly orphans, street children, child mothers, widows, those with HIV/AIDS and their families - by providing culturally appropriate care and support services.

• b. To advance education and training of the public, both in the UK and overseas, on the issues facing people from Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa.

iv. OUR PROGRAMME IN AFRICA

We are currently working in four African countries, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. We support local projects run by local people and agree a Memorandum of Understanding with those groups who run the projects we fund.

During this financial year, our school based projects were severely disrupted by the closure of schools due to Covid 19. All our partners stepped up to the challenge however and found new ways to support the children and their families while they could not attend school.

Kenya

In Kenya we work with a local NGO, Watoto Kwanza which is based in Thika, Kiambu County and provides support to the poorest children aimed at increasing their attendance at primary school. Schools in Kenya closed for most of the year to reduce the spread of the virus, but the lockdown meant poor families lost their livelihoods and many children were forced onto the streets or into casual labour. Watoto Kwanza adapted the way they work to maintain contact and support families with essential food and sanitation supplies.

Work was also completed on the new toilet blocks in four schools (Mwitingiri, Thamburu, Ngate and Mukeo) that had been funded by Vado, a UK based bathroom company. This had come at a very appropriate time and helped the schools reopen in a more covid secure manner.

Our second partner is ACF Kenya which runs HAKI, a legal aid project that offers free legal advice to poor families and runs training and capacity development programmes for a variety of groups on children’s rights in Kenya. Members of HAKI also serve on the Boards of various legal committees and give a voice to children’s rights at these committees.

Tanzania

In Tanzania we work with Mfuku wa Watoto, a registered Tanzanian NGO. Covid 19 restrictions in Tanzanai have not been as severe as elsewhere in East Africa and schools remained open for most of the year.

In Dar es Salaam, Mfuko wa Watoto supports a nursery school which caters for young children who would otherwise be left alone at home during the day while their parents are at work, or they would accompany their parents to work, sometimes in dangerous places such as the local quarry or going from car to car on busy roads selling items.

They also run a programme in Mateves providing sanitary protection for girls, through schools. The programme includes a social and education awareness programme as well as the provision of packs of reusable sanitary towels, underwear and detergent to the girls.

Mfuko Wa Watoto has a legal specialist who runs workshops for schools, churches and community centres, on children’s rights and gives advice on legal issues to vulnerable children and families, supporting them through the legal system as appropriate.

Uganda

We are continuing to work with the Ugandan registered NGO, Strategic Action for the Eradication of Child Abuse (SAFE). SAFE works with street children, many of whom have fled from the fighting in the north and are now abandoned and vulnerable on Kampala’s streets. They run a rescue home outside of the city for 20 abused and neglected children. The home provides a temporary sanctuary for rescued children until they can safely go back to their families or to a new foster family. The home remained open throughout the Pandemic and lessons were provided in house for the children by qualified teachers, so they could continue their education while schools were closed.

Zimbabwe

Our partner in Zimbabwe is the Mwana Trust, which cares for the basic needs of orphaned children in the Mutare area. We fund their work with children effected by HIV/AIDS. They liaise with primary schools to find places for the children and support them both practically and emotionally to facilitate the best possible outcomes. They also support the most vulnerable child-headed households with food and practicalities. While schools were closed Mwana Trust continued to support the children with essential food and sanitation packs, as well as data bundles for some of the older children so they could access some online lessons.

v. EDUCATION AND AWARENESS IN THE UK

We have an active website and we continue to take advantage of the Google Ads in-kind grant to improve our placing on the google search engine, this amounted to $3236’s worth of free google ads. Attracting approximately 197 visitors each week, the website gives information about all aspects of our work, both here and overseas, and the news blog allows us to post news items regularly to ensure supporters are kept up to date. We produce a regular monthly e-newsletter for 244 subscribers which also ensures that volunteers, supporters, and those interested in our work are kept informed.

Our Social Network continues to grow and our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn sites are very active with 5498 Twitter followers, 945 Facebook followers and 239 LinkedIn followers. This is an area of growing importance in ensuring our message reaches a wider audience and we are pleased that it has resulted in new contacts and supporters.

We have three charity shops selling donated items, in Faringdon, Witney and Grove. Each of our shops has displays and leaflets about our work and the issues faced by those with whom we work in Africa. We are very pleased that the Juice Networking Group in Witney extended our charity membership with them for a third year. Membership of the group allows us to promote what we do to businesses in the area and to build positive relationships with several companies and individuals.

We are continuing to campaign about the importance of education for girls. UNESCO estimates that almost 500,000 school-age girls in Kenya do not attend school while only 63% of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa complete their primary education. One reason for this is the simple lack of sanitary protection that means girls miss a week of school each month and often fall so far behind they fall out of education altogether. Our work in this area with Watoto Kwanza in Kenya and Mfuko Wa Watoto in Tanzania provides evidence of the startling difference the provision of sanitary protection makes in the areas of school attendance, academic achievement, social awareness, self-esteem, confidence and health.

vi. COVID 19

This year has been dominated by the Coronavirus Pandemic. In UK, our shops were forced to close for seven out of the twelve months because of government restrictions to control the spread. As well as effecting our shops, restrictions also reduced our income from collecting boxes and events.

The expected drop in overall income however did not materialise. Many loyal supporters recognised the devastating effect the Pandemic was wreaking on our partners in Africa and gave generously, increasing our income from individual donors and direct mail. Various virtual events organised, both locally and nationally also helped to boost the income streams and we were successful in obtaining several grants from Trusts, some specifically to combat the Pandemic.

The shop closures were mitigated by government grants for retail premises and the £80,821 grant received by our three shops was used to cover their rents and utility bills for the year and to purchase equipment and materials to make them Covid safe for re-opening. The Job Retention Scheme allowed us to furlough our three shop managers while the shops were closed so we did not have to face making staff redundant. We also worked hard to build up online sales, particularly through Ebay which boosted our retail operations.

In Africa , the Pandemic has caused hardship amongst many casual workers, whose ability to find work amongst the various curfews and restrictions has been seriously curtailed. For the children the closure of schools has had an extremely detrimental effect. Many of the rural children supported by our partners had extremely limited access to online or at home learning and have effectively lost a whole year’s education. Furthermore, school is a safe place for many children and without it they are at risk and more likely to be drawn into gangs and unsafe working practises.

Our partners worked hard to adapt to the situation and maintain contact with the children they work with, providing appropriate support where possible. This included food and sanitation packs in Kenya and Zimbabwe, covid information sessions in Tanzania and Uganda and data bundles in Zimbabwe.

vii. FUTURE PLANS

We plan to continue to support all our current projects in the four African countries where we work. We recognise that one of the effects of the Pandemic was to seriously curtail educational opportunities and are working with our partners to mitigate this as far as possible. We plan to work closely with our project holders to refine our funding applications in order to facilitate this work.

We plan to continue to develop online trading through Ebay and Amazon, building on the general increase in online shopping. We are also prioritising funding from trusts and developing a legacy strategy as well as continuing with our other current income streams.

A grant of £5000 from Scurrah Wainwright Charitable Trust means our Zimbabwean partner, The Mwana Trust will supply solar lighting to 300 families, enabling children to do school homework in a safe and environmentally friendly way.

vii. MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Monitoring and evaluation is a constant process. Our projects each send a detailed annual report and accounts which have been signed off externally. They also provide quarterly updates on their activities and we have produced a Monitoring and Evaluation form to facilitate this. Monitoring visits are made approximately every two years by representatives of ACF and while Covid restrictions make this difficult we are employing virtual technology to maintain personal contact.

viii. MITIGATING RISK

We keep a Risk Register which identifies potential risks and records how they are mitigated. This register is reviewed and discussed at each Trustees meeting and anything of note reported to trustees between meetings by staff. While Covid-19 continues to pose a risk, this will remain as an item on the register.

ix. PRINCIPAL FUNDING SOURCES

Our principal sources of funding are direct mail, donations from individual members of the public (including direct debits and sponsored events), trusts, legacies, corporate partners, events, income from our three charity shops and proceeds from static collecting boxes. We also claim gift aid on eligible donations.

x. RESERVES POLICY

We have agreed a policy whereby the unrestricted funds not remitted or invested in tangible fixed assets held by the charity should not be less than three months of salary and basic office costs. We currently have reserves of £44,120.

xi. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Voluntary donations from individuals and from our Direct mail appeals were very well supported this year. We participated in the national 2.6 Challenge, organised to help mitigate the cancellation of the London Marathon and we also had supporters doing various sponsored virtual events during the year.

Our appeals to Charitable Trusts and bodies also did well this year and we are grateful to have been awarded grants from: Doris Field Charitable Trust, Ecclesiastical, Harbinson Charitable Trust, Oakdale Trust, RG Hills Charitable Trust, Scott Bader Commonwealth Ltd, Scurrah Wainwright Charity, St James Place Foundation, The Fore, The Pat Newman Memorial Trust, The SMB Trust, Webmart, and The Wescroft Trust.

AFRICAN CHILDREN'S FUND LTD.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR YR ENDING 31 MAR 2021

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

2020-21 2019-20

INCOME

OME
Direct mail Collecting boxes Individual donations Events Trusts/Legacies Shops Gift Aid TOTAL INCOME	35,259		23,266
	5,197		9,572
	72,320		65,808
	276		1,558
	22,889		8,561
	81,020		50,906
	14,027		20,585
	230,988		180,257

PROGRAMME EXPENDITURE

OGRAMME EXPENDITURE
Kenya Tanzania Uganda Zimbabwe Programme Development Education and Awareness TOTAL	80,734		42,597
	12,396		12,378
	13,639		12,995
	19,125		15,170
	12,665		12,665
	8,766		7,835
	147,325		103,639

COSTS

	Salaries and pension Tax and National Insurance Office expences, stationary etc Bank Charges Fundraising costs Insurance Travel and subsistence Collecting Box expenses Shop expenses Utilities TOTAL	52,024		50,190
		7,993		8,752
		564		543
		203		312
		3,842		3,891
		539		1,747
				21
		1,250		1,958
		800		378
		599		520
		67,814		68,312
	TOTAL EXPENDITURE/COSTS	215,139
	PROFIT/LOSS	15,849

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