2024-03-31-accounts

AFRICAN CHILDREN’S

FUND LTD.

ANNUAL DIRECTORS’ REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR YEAR ENDING 31[st] MARCH 2024

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. Future Plans

• vii. Monitoring and Evaluation

• viii. Mitigating Risk

• ix. Principal Sources of Funding

• x. Reserves Policy

• xi. Financial Highlights

• xii. Statement of Financial Activities

• xiii. 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 Farrington (nee Blacker)

Henry Chitsenga Richard Kenyon Sandra North Steve Brimley

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.

Kenya

In Kenya we work with a local NGO, Watoto Kwanza which is based in Thika, Kiambu County providing support to the poorest children to increase their attendance at primary school. They have identified two main reasons for children dropping out of school:

• i. Children from poor families need to scavenge or work during the day to obtain food. ii. Girls can’t afford sanitary protection and miss a week of schooling each month, often causing them to fall so far behind they drop out altogether.

Watoto Kwanza addresses these challenges by working closely with schools to provide school meals and sanitary towels to the poorest pupils. Their success rate is outstanding with both attendance and attainment rising steadily. Watoto Kwanza works with thirteen primary schools in Kiambu County, including four Special Needs units.

They also work with the Joy Children’s Centre which is home to 90 children and a school to a further 200. We also supported Joy with a new water pump, pit cover and assorted games.

Our second partner in Kenya 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.

We are continuing to work with a group of Massai from the Kajiado area of Kenya, making sure a water system we helped them install in 2011 is kept in good repair.

Tanzania

In Tanzania we work with Mfuku wa Watoto, a registered Tanzanian NGO. 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 trying to sell drinks or trinkets. In addition to our general support this year, we have helped with more tables and chairs, re-concreting the classroom floors and the construction of two new toilets.

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.

We also work with School Girl Essentials who run a programme in Mateves providing sanitary protection for girls at school. The programme includes a social and education awareness element as well as the provision of packs of re-usable sanitary towels, underwear and detergent to the girls.

Our Chief Executive visited Kenya and Tanzania in September and was extremely impressed to see the improvements made in the schools we have been working in for some time. In particular, she noted the improved morale amongst teachers and pupils who now believe they can achieve great results. The new schools Watoto Kwanza have begun working with have many needs but they have confidence these can be met.

Uganda

We are continuing to work with the Ugandan registered NGO, Strategic Action for the Eradication of Child Abuse (SAFE). SAFE works with abandoned and abused children. They run a rescue home on the outskirts of Kampala for 20 children which provides a temporary sanctuary for rescued children until they can safely go back to a family member or to a new foster family. They also run awareness campaigns on children’s rights aimed at promoting good practices amongst parents, teachers and community leaders.

Zimbabwe

Our partner in Zimbabwe is the Mwana Trust, which cares for the basic needs of orphaned children in the Mutare area. They liaise with primary schools to find places for 300 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.

Thanks to a grant from the EA Foundation a new library and computer hub was opened in February at Rowa Primary School, one of the schools where children supported by Mwana Trust attend.

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 year, this amounted to $8546’s worth of free google ads. Attracting an average of 238 visitors each week, the website gives information about all aspects of our work, both here and overseas. 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 665 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 5773 Twitter followers, 1.3K Facebook followers, 553 LinkedIn followers. We also have 384 Instagram followers and 67 followers on Threads. Our social media presence is important 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 have an online shop on Ebay which also help to raise awareness of our work.

The Juice Networking Group in Witney has once again, extended our charity membership with them for yet another 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 and we are extremely grateful for their continuing support.

We continue to campaign about the importance of education for girls. UNESCO estimates that over half of the 122 million girls living in Sub-Sharan Africa do not attend school. 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 School Girl Essentials 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. FUTURE PLANS

We plan to continue to support all our current projects in the four African countries where we work. It is clear from both qualitative and quantitative research that supporting children to attend school regularly has a major effect, giving them increased confidence, skills and qualifications, which significantly improves their life chances. Our partners have plans to expand and improve their work in this area and we will continue to support them in their efforts.

Our shops are benefitting from the increased recognition of the importance of re-use and re-cycling, and we plan to build on this as well as continuing to improve our online trading through Ebay. We are also prioritising funding from trusts and hope to build on relationships we have with them as well as with our increasing number of regular donors. We recognise that the decrease in the use of cash will continue to have a detrimental effect on static collection boxes and we continue to look for cashless alternatives. We are also looking to improve our fundraising from sponsored events and have signed up to two new platforms promoting this.

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 on a less formal basis we are in touch with all our partners on WhatsApp. Our CEO visited Kenya and Tanzania this year and a Trustee visited Zimbabwe.

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.

ix. PRINCIPAL FUNDING SOURCES

Our principal sources of funding are grants from trusts, legacies, donations from individual members of the public (including direct debits and sponsored events), direct mail, income from our three charity shops, including online sales from Ebay, proceeds from static collecting boxes and events. 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 £24,791.

xi. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Voluntary donations from individuals remained high this year and we are extremely grateful to everyone who supports us in this way. We took part in the Big Christmas Give for the second time and are very pleased to have raised our target and unlocked matched funding from both our own pledger and the Big Give champions. Trading was also good reflecting increased income from our charity shops and online sales. We also had good responses from our appeals to Charitable Trusts and we are very grateful for the grants awarded by: Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, Brian Murtagh Charitable Trust, Coles Medlock Foundation, Doris Field Charitable Trust, EA Foundation, Fulmer Trust, Mulberry Trust, Oakdale Trust, R G Hills Charitable Trust, Sir John Sumner Trust, Souter Charitable Trust and Rosie Pearson Foundation.

AFRICAN CHILDREN'S FUND LTD.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR YR ENDING 31 MAR 2024

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

2023-24 2022-23

INCOME

Direct mail Collecting boxes Individual donations Events Trusts Legacies Shops Gift Aid TOTAL INCOME	14,627		21,865
	8,106		8,267
	121,368		101,466
	171		16,848
	44,268		82,279
	12,949
	79,118		76,137
	13,893		19,333
	294,500		326,195

PROGRAMME EXPENDITURE

Kenya Tanzania Uganda Zimbabwe Programme Development Education and Awareness TOTAL	110,546		131,050
	26,698		24,611
	16,260		15,405
	48,078		40,677
	16,177		13,300
	10,201		8,676
	227,960		233,719

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	68,780		63,151
		10,637		8,384
		648		563
		257		251
		3,411		3,083
		895		743
		300		300
		1,239		1,200
		4,095		2,105
		2,160		2,160
		92,422		81,940
	TOTAL EXPENDITURE/COSTS	320,382
	PROFIT/LOSS	-25,882

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