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2020-12-31-accounts

The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

Trustees Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31[st] December 2020

1. Introduction

Full Name of Charity: The Conroy-Rendon Charitable Trust

Registered Address: 6 Walnut Way, Brightlingsea Essex, CO7 0LJ

Website www.conroyrendoncharity.co.uk

Registered with the U.K. Charity Commission under charity No: 1114903

Governing Document: The Charity was established by a Trust Deed dated 30[th] March 2006

Trustees: Joanna Conroy (Chair of Trustees) Andrew Conroy (Secretary) Christine Debenham

The trustees are responsible for the day-to-day running of the charity and implementing activities in pursuit of its aims and objectives.

Staff The Charity has no paid employees but has one member of staff engaged as a local representative in the Philippines on a voluntary basis.

2. Aims

The aims of the charity are set out in the trust deed and are summarised as follows:

To relieve poverty among the young, the aged, the homeless and the needy in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world.

To promote and provide for the education of children in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world.

To advance the Christian Faith.

3 Benefit Assessment

In planning activities the trustees have regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidelines on public benefit and in particular with reference to advancing education, relieving poverty and promoting religion for the public benefit. The trustees ensure that all activities are undertaken in line with our charitable objectives and aims.

By enabling people to access education and training we help them to increase their capacity to find better paid employment and break the cycle of poverty. Our philosophy is to empower people to take control of their own future rather than being dependent on ongoing aid. Our child sponsorship scheme makes it possible for children from very poor families to attend school when they would not otherwise be able to do so because of their financial situation. Education improves their prospects of finding suitable employment when they leave school so that they can be self-reliant citizens who are able to make a positive contribution to society.

Providing a home for orphaned, neglected, abused and abandoned children gives them a place of safety and security, away from the abject poverty, and gang culture that prevails

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

amongst street children and gives them the opportunity to obtain a proper education either in the state school system or via a government backed “Alternative Learning Scheme” for those who do not have the correct paperwork or previous grades to enrol in regular school.

However, the Trustees firmly believe that there is a lot more to life than just financial security. A society based solely on material values will be morally and spiritually bankrupt. We are all both physical and spiritual beings and need to understand our purpose in creation. We believe that the teachings of the Christian Faith have much to offer in helping men, women, and children to understand who they are and how they are called to relate to God, the universe and their fellow human beings. The benefit of this is very difficult to demonstrate in purely objective, quantifiable, terms but it is widely acknowledged that the moral foundations of Christian teaching frequently result in a higher level of acts of generosity and service to mankind as an expression and out-working of faith, which benefits public life. This is particularly relevant for the House of Joshua children, many of whom have either experienced life in dysfunctional families or have grown up with little rule or regulation, living rough on city streets where crime, violence, and substance abuse are commonplace, and who are now beginning to learn how to function effectively as members of society and to provide good role models for their younger housemates.

4 Area of Operation and Partnership Arrangements

At the present time the Charity's main sphere of operation is in Cagayan De Oro City and the surrounding area of Misamis Oriental in Northern Mindanao, Philippines.

Under the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement signed in September 2009 we are committed to supporting the work of Lifenet Children’s Foundation with orphaned and abandoned children and impoverished communities, and in particular to help fund the operational costs of the House of Joshua Children’s Home.

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From time to time we also partner with other local community groups, welfare organisations, and faith groups to support initiatives in poorer communities, providing tools, training, equipment, teaching and resources according to their needs.

5 Principle Activities and Achievements

2020 has been a very difficult and challenging year for everybody and many of our plans have had to be put on hold for the time being or abandoned completely as Corona Virus has brought disruption and uncertainty to all our lives. Nevertheless we have continued to get on with the everyday business of making a difference for our beneficiaries as best we can.

The activities carried out by the charity for the public benefit broadly fall into three categories as detailed below:

a) Relieving Poverty

The House of Joshua home for orphaned, neglected, and abandoned children opened in January 2013, operated by our mission partner, Lifenet Children’s Foundation, a Philippines registered not-for-profit Non-Governmental Organisation. At the present time a total of 18 children are being accommodated. This is slightly down on last year as three children have been successfully reunited with their families and others have moved on.

We contribute towards the costs of running the home by facilitating a child sponsorship scheme in conjunction with Lifenet, by running occasional fundraising events and funding from general donations. This is our primary mission project. Without the House of Joshua many of these children would be living rough on the city streets, begging for a living. New children will be admitted as funding permits and needs arise but new admissions (apart from emergency cases) are currently on hold due to Corona Virus Pandemic restrictions in force at the present time. During the past 9 months no children under the age of 18 have been allowed to leave the house compound except for medical reasons. This has proved really difficult for all the

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children to cope with and credit must be given to the House of Joshua staff who have had to go above and beyond to support the children in these difficult times. Normally we would have two of our trustees visiting the home at some point during the year to encourage the staff and children and monitor activities but this has not been possible due to travel restrictions. Occasional video reports from the House of Joshua have helped keep our supporters informed.

b) Advancing Education

All the children who live at the House of Joshua Children’s home are either enrolled in the state school system or an “Alternative Learning Scheme” (ALS) for those who cannot attend regular school for various reasons, including not having the correct paperwork, lack of prior attendance or not having completed the appropriate grades from previous years schooling.

However, the Philippines has been in “lockdown” for all of the past academic year, meaning that all the House of Joshua children, from the youngest in kindergarten right up to second year university degree have had to be “home-schooled” with no face to face classes taking place at all. House of Joshua staff have had to take on extra responsibilities to facilitate tutoring the children. We have supported them by providing additional funding to purchase three laptop computers for the children to use but the quality of online teaching facilitated by the state is not particularly good and the internet service to the house is very poor due to its location. The Philippines Government has recently announced that schools will not open for face to face learning until 2022 so keeping the children’s learning on track will be a significant challenge for some time to come.

“Growing Hope” is an holistic outreach program intended to enable children from poor families in the wider local community to attend school (which would otherwise be beyond the financial means of their families) and provide additional practical, pastoral and spiritual support to the whole family. Due to the pandemic situation this program has had to be put on hold until schools are allowed to reopen and children are permitted to be outside their homes once more.

Promoting the Christian Faith

Regular devotional times are held at the House of Joshua with some of the older children helping to take the lead in organising and running these activities. On Sundays House of Joshua would normally host a church service, as an outreach planting from RFC Church Cagayan De Oro, to minister to the local village community as well as house residents and staff but, with the whole community in lockdown, services have had to be limited to just the House of Joshua children and staff. House of Joshua RFC church is pastored by Ramil Rendon who, along with the senior pastor of RFC Church, is a member of the board of Trustees of Lifenet Children’s Foundation. We were due to take a small mission team out to Cagayan De Oro in March/ April of 2020 to support this and other work in the area but were prevented from doing so by travel restrictions imposed due to the Corona Virus pandemic.

6 Risk Assessment

1) Financial

Foreign currency exchange rates have fluctuated quite a lot in the past 12 months with all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the economic disruption caused by the global pandemic. During the past year we have seen the Pound to Philippine Peso exchange rate fall from an average of 67 pesos to the pound to as low as 59; although it has recovered a bit in the last few weeks of the year. However we still have an ongoing commitment to fund the operating costs of the House of Joshua and all the children must continue to be fed and cared for, come what may, and staff wages must still be paid.

Like many other charities we have been unable to hold any public events to raise both funds and our profile during the past 9 months but we are very fortunate to have a loyal band of regular supporters and sponsors, many of whom have continued to donate funds even when the sponsorship programs they are enrolled in have been suspended due to the pandemic.

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

We know that this has been a real sacrifice for some people, who are themselves on a reduced income at the present time, and we are so grateful to them all for continuing to stand with us. Keeping the work going and the House of Joshua open will continue to be a challenge for the foreseeable future. However, we do have about 11 months running costs in the bank at the present time and, again thanks to our regular supporters, we remain confident that we can come through this period of difficulty.

Funds for child sponsorship and the operating costs of the House of Joshua are held in separate bank accounts for clarity and because they will need to be paid over to our partner organisation in due course. The charity has no significant operational costs or other obligations and, with the exception of the child sponsorship schemes, grants made and other payments are entirely at the discretion of the trustees. Other small projects are undertaken only as funds and opportunities allow so these do not present any additional financial risk. It is therefore considered unnecessary to maintain a general financial reserve.

2) Reputational

We continue to provide advice and support to the House of Joshua on Child Protection arrangements, Health and Safety, and procedural policies as needed. We are satisfied that their policies are robust and go well beyond the requirements of Philippine law. The home is subject to regulation by the Philippines Department for Welfare and Social Development.

As a charity we depend heavily on maintaining the confidence of our partners, donors and supporters. We therefore focus on always giving good quality and timely feedback to maintain a high level of transparency in all our operations. Our success in this area is demonstrated by the number of people who continue to support us on a regular basis year after year. However we cannot take this for granted and we must, therefore, continue to work hard at maintaining good donor relations, especially as we endeavour to recruit new donors and sponsors.

3) Operational

We are quite a small charity and rely heavily on a small number of key people. At the present time we only have three trustees and need to recruit at least one more, preferably two, to provide a greater spread of experience and succession planning.

We also rely on maintaining good communications with our partner organisations in the Philippines to ensure the effectiveness of our support. We are grateful to our local agent, Mary Rendon, for facilitating this.

We are also very grateful to our small network of “ambassadors” who continue to represent us in a number of churches across the U.K. and keep their local congregations informed about our work and plans.

Our accounting records and important documents are fully backed up using secure ‘cloud’ storage.

7 Finances

Examined copies of the financial accounts for the year ended 31[st] December 2020 are attached. In view of the small size of the charity these are prepared as a simple income and expenditure statement under the historic cost convention, having due regard to the recommendations of Charities SORP 2005 and the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008.

Overall income for the year is down about £3000 on 2019.. However regular monthly sponsorship income for the House of Joshua and the Growing Hope program has grown by around 12%, on 2019 as additional sponsors have joined the program.

Other donations for the House of Joshua are down by £6607 (38%). In the previous year we received a couple of larger one-off donations that have not been repeated in 2020 and we have also not been able to hold any public fund-raising events this year.

Expenditure for the year is also down, from £44820 in 2019 to £39500 in 2020, but the previous year included £5450 of extra expenditure in completing the construction and furnishing of the “Shallam” girl’s house at House of Joshua so the underlying expenditure remains flat.

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

The net result for the year is a very small shortfall of income against expenditure of £302, which we consider a very good result give the unprecedented difficulties of this past year. With funds currently in hand approximating to 11 months regular expenditure we feel that the financial position of the charity is generally satisfactory; but we do not yet know what impact the current economic downturn may have in the longer term, both in terms of currency exchange rates and the ability of our donors and sponsors to continue their support. In the longer term we will need to recruit more sponsors if the work is to grow.

The Charity continues to benefit from the free use of office and Internet facilities courtesy of its supporters.

8 Future Plans:

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In the midst of a global pandemic and the consequent difficult economic situation any detailed planning is almost impossible.

We will continue to support the House of Joshua for as long as we are able to do so and, with this in mind, we continue to hope that we will be able to start holding some public fund raising activities in the later part of 2021.

When circumstances permit we want to resume our work of setting up community workshops and micro-enterprise businesses to improve the livelihoods of people living in poverty. It is our desire to identify one or two suitable projects to support in the future, ideally with the additional benefit of leveraging environmental improvements such as recycling, reducing or repurposing waste, as well as adding value to the local economy, but we are unable to set any time frame for doing so at this point.

Plans to provide a keynote speaker for a training and encouragement conference for pastors and church leaders in Cagayan De Oro City in April 2020 had to be abandoned as international flights were cancelled. Although we would still like to support such an event when possible there seems little likelihood of restrictions being lifted to any great extent in 2021. We will continue to monitor the situation.

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Income & Expenditure Account

Period ending 31st December
Income
note
House of Joshua receipts
Friends of Lifenet
4
Other Donations
Gift Aid Rebates
1
Fund Raising Schemes
Bank Interest received
Other Income
Total Income
Expenditure - Grants Made
House of Joshua
3
Training
Other Grants
sub total
Other Expenditure
Bank transaction charges
Postages & Stationery
Fund raising costs
2
Other expenditure
sub total
Total Expenditure
Surplus of income over expenditure
Balance Sheet
as at 31 December
Assets
Bank General account
Bank House of Joshua Fund
Bank Friends of HOJ/ Lifenet
4
Paypal Account
Debtors, cash & cheques in hand
total assets
Liabilities
Total liabilities
Net Assets
Balance brought forward
Current year surplus / (deficit)
Balance Carried Forward		 2020
2019
£
£
10759.56
17367.20
23892.97
21346.30
1123.50
205.00
3351.36
3266.27
59.90
16.52
32.52
70.83
0.00
0.00
£39,219.81
£42,272.12
39500.00
44800.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
20.00
£39,500.00
£44,820.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
21.78
50.78
0.00
0.00
£21.78
£50.78
£39,521.78
£44,870.78
-£301.97
-£2,598.66
2020
2019
1676.98
3011.80
31332.73
26981.83
4817.71
5369.98
715.95
3451.73
0.00
30.00
£38,543.37
£38,845.34
0.00
0.00
£0.00
£0.00
£38,543.37
£38,845.34
38845.34
41444.00
-301.97
-2598.66
£38,543.37
£38,845.34

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

Notes to the Accounts

These accounts are prepared under the historic cost convention. As the gross income of the charity is below £100,000 the trustees are of the opinion that the charity meets the Charity Commission requirements for exemption from audit.

Gift Aid tax rebates received during the year relate to donations received in the previous accounting year. A further £3232 is due on donations received in the period covered by these account, which will be claimed after the end of the next tax year.

Fundraising costs include account charges deducted from donations received via Paypal and other donation handling agencies

The House of Joshua is a joint project with the Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc, a Philippines registered charity. Mary Conroy-Rendon (daughter of TCRCT Trustees Andrew & Joanna Conroy) and her husband Ramil are full time, unpaid, missionary workers. Mary Rendon is a trustee of Lifenet Foundationand and a voluntary member of staff of TCRCT. Ramil Rendon is also a trustee of Lifenet Foundation. The Rendons receive no remuneration from either charity but rely on gifts from personal supporters for their living costs in order to remain in the mission field.

Friends of The House of Joshua is a separate fund established to receive regular donations and subscriptions to help with the running costs of the House of Joshua Children's home and sponsorship of children living in the house and "Growing Hope", a community outreach and child education initiative operated by the House of Joshua. These funds are held on behalf of Lifenet Children's Foundation and are paid over to them periodically as part of our ongoing support of that project.

Signed on behalf of the Trustees

A P Conroy

……………………………………….

J L Conroy 3[rd] September 2021

………………………………………

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The Conroy- Rendon Chantable Trust

The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

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Report to the trustees/ The Conroy Rendon Charitable Trust members of

On accounts for the year 31[st] December 2020 Charity no 1114903 ended Set out on pages 6 and 7

Respective responsibilities The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of of trustees and examiner the accounts.

The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Charities Act”) and that an independent examination is needed.

Basis of independent My examination was carried out in accordance with general examiner’s statement 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 the 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 statement below.

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

Independent In connection with my examination, no matter has come to examiner's my attention (other than that disclosed below *) 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in, any statement material respect, the requirements:

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material problems.(E.g. accounting records have not been kept in accordance with s132 of the Charities’ Act 2011 and those accounts do not comply with the requirements of the 2008 Regulations setting out the form and content of charity accounts; any material expenditure or action which appears not to be in accordance with the trusts of the charity; any failure to be provided with information and explanations by any past or present trustee, officer or employee; and any material consistency between the accounts and the trustees’ annual report.)

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

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