2025-03-31-accounts

AFRICAN CHILDREN’S

FUND LTD.

ANNUAL DIRECTORS’ REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR YEAR ENDING 31[st] MARCH 2025

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 wear along with social awareness forums 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 65 children and a school to a further 350. Kenya experienced severe flooding in April 2024 which damaged the dining room at the Joy Centre and destroyed the kitchens at two of Watoto Kwanza’s partner schools. Thanks to a special appeal and a generous grant from the EA Foundation we were able to fund the construction of two new kitchens, which has ensured the continued smooth running of the porridge programme.

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.

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. The Head teacher at the school ran the Kilimanjaro Half Marathon to raise funds to repair the kitchen which had been damaged by high winds and we were happy to match th Eamont he raised so the repairs could be finished.

We also work with School Girl Essentials who run a programme in Mateves providing sanitary protection for girls at secondary 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.

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 and at weekends they run a Safe Club with 52 children meeting for fun and mentorship.

Zimbabwe

Our partner in Zimbabwe was 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.

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 $2381 worth of free google ads. Attracting an average of 231 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 713 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, LinkedIn Instagram and Threads sites are very active with 5697 Twitter followers, 1407 Facebook followers, 627 LinkedIn followers, 490 Instagram followers and 83 followers on Threads. Our social media presence has successfully expanded our reach, resulting in new contacts and supporters. However, follower numbers don't always equate to engagement, so we plan to review our activities to ensure maximum effectiveness.

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 helps 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 states that only four in ten girls living in Sub-Sharan Africa complete their lower secondary 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 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. For the past two years we have been able to increase our support because of three generous legacies received three years ago. These funds have now been used, and next year we will need to revert to previous spending levels.

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 hope to build on our Trusts fundraising, although we are aware that competition for the total grant pot is growing. 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.

Our 20[th] Anniversary falls in February 2026 and we are planning a year of activities and events to celebrate 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.

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, 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 £23,066.

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 Give Christmas Challenge once more and were very pleased with the results. We also had good responses from our appeals to Charitable Trusts and we are very grateful for the grants awarded by: The Archer Trust, Brian Murtagh Charitable Trust, British Humane Society, Coles Medlock Foundation, Doris Field Charitable Trust, EA Foundation, Fulmer Trust, King Charles III Charitable Fund, Prince of Wales Charitable Fund, Souter Charitable Trust, St James Place Newbury Foundation Trust, Rathbone Charitable Trust and Rosie Pearson Foundation.

AFRICAN CHILDREN'S FUND LTD.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR YR ENDING 31 MAR 2025

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

2024-25 2023-24

INCOME

Direct mail Collecting boxes Individual donations Events Trusts Legacies Shops Gift Aid TOTAL INCOME	8,852		14,627
	7,999		8,106
	130,979		121,368
			171
	44,045		44,268
	2,644		12,949
	74,893		79,118
	13,608		13,893
	283,020		294,500

PROGRAMME EXPENDITURE

Kenya Tanzania Uganda Zimbabwe Programme Development Education and Awareness TOTAL	124,229		110,546
	20,148		26,698
	16,303		16,260
	30,955		48,078
	14,672		16,177
	10,590		10,201
	216,897		227,960

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	72,105		68,780
		13,652		10,637
		579		648
		274		257
		4,457		3,411
		505		895
		313		300
		1,100		1,239
		2,283		4,095
		2,160		2,160
		97,428		92,422
	TOTAL EXPENDITURE/COSTS	314,325
	PROFIT/LOSS	-31,305

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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGL4ND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Report to the trustees On accounts for the year ended ma £J£f Charity no (rfany) 1111+691 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity I'the Trusf) for the year ended 05 20x. Responsibilities and basis As the tharivs trustees. you are responsible for the preparation of the of report accounts in accor(lance wilh the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Wie Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination. I have followed all the applicable Directions gtven by the Charity Commission under sectron 14515}(b) of the Act. Independent examiner's charity's gross income exceeded £250.000 and l am qualified to statement undertake the examination by being a qualtfied member of [insert name of applicable listed bodyll. Delete [ l if not applicable. I have completed rny examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (oth8F disdos9dW which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: the accounting records were not kept in accordance wrth section 130 of the Charities Act" or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records" or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements conceming the fomi and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a Irue and fail wew which is not a matter onsidered as part ot an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drdwn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the words in the brackets rf they do not apply. Signed-. Date: £02f Name: aJl Relevant professional qualifi&*ion(s) or body (rf any): I LIH4 IER Oct 2018

Address: Ire Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concem (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018