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2021-12-31-accounts

The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

Trustees Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31[st] December 2021

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

2021 has been another difficult year when it has proved impossible to plan more than a few weeks ahead with any degree of certainty both here and in the Philippines due to the ongoing and continually changing pandemic control measures being implemented in both countries Nevertheless we have carried on trying to raise funds and maintain links with both donors and beneficiaries within the constraints imposed upon us.

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. 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, vulnerable to abuse, assault and people trafficking. In addition to supporting the House of Joshua directly we were also able to make a small grant to two former house parents whose home had been badly damaged by Typhoon Odette which hit the Philippines on 16[th] December, causing widespread damage in several areas.

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

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.

There has been no face to face education in Philippine schools for a second academic year and resumption of normal classes in 2022 continues to look very unlikely. Nevertheless all the House of Joshua children continue to pursue their education through a mix of printed work distributed by the local schools, online learning and face to face tutoring facilitated by House of Joshua staff. 3 older boys are currently engaged in University level degrees through online tutoring.

The Growing Hope” outreach and school sponsorship program intended to enable children from poor families in the wider local community to attend school has been on hold since early 2020 as NGOs are not currently able to hold public gatherings and all state schools are closed for face to face learning. We can only wait to see how things develop and hope that Growing Hope can be resumed at some point in the future.

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.

6 Risk Assessment

1) Financial

Despite the economic uncertainty associated with the Corona Virus Pandemic foreign currency exchange rates have been a little more stable over the last year than in 2020 with trading generally in the range of 65 – 67 Philippine Pesos to the Pound. Continuing uncertainty about public gatherings has made any sort of planning difficult and, consequently, we have not been unable to organise any public fundraising events in the past year. Instead we have had to rely solely on our loyal band of regular supporters and sponsors, to whom we are so very grateful. 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

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

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 2021 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 at £35637 is down roughly 9% on 2020 as some of our supporting organisations and individuals have had to trim their budgets to reflect their own reduced incomes. Sadly we have also lost a couple of long term supporters who died during the past year. However regular monthly sponsorship income for the House of Joshua has still held up quite well.- down by £961 on 2020 figures

Other donations for the House of Joshua are also down by £2477 (23%) compared to 2020 and we have also not been able to hold any public fund-raising events this year.

Expenditure for the year £36208 is also down about 8% compared to 2020, which included some additional payments to assist the House of Joshua set up additional educational facilities to deal with covid quarantine arrangements and school closures.

The net result for the year is a small shortfall of income against expenditure of £571. Although the shortfall is slightly greater than that seen in 2020 we still consider this a good result, given the challenging circumstances of these last two years. With funds currently in hand approximating to 12 months regular expenditure we feel that the financial position of the charity is still generally satisfactory and we can continue to support the House of Joshua in this way for the foreseeable future.

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 remains extremely difficult. We had hoped to organize a local entertainment event to raise funds in the first quarter of 2022 but this has been put back due to further quarantine restrictions brought in in December 2021 to combat the spread of the Omicron variant. We remain hopeful that we may be able to organize one or two things later in 2022 as restrictions are lifted and people feel more relaxed about attending public gatherings

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

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 in partnership with our local mission partners. 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, with travel to the Philippines severely restricted, we are unable to set any time frame for doing so at this point.

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

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		 2021
2020
£
£
8288.77
10759.56
22931.58
23892.97
342.50
1123.50
4022.60
3351.36
48.07
59.90
3.49
32.52
0.01
0.00
£35,637.02
£39,219.81
36000.00
39500.00
0.00
0.00
200.00
0.00
£36,200.00
£39,500.00
5.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.88
21.78
0.00
0.00
£7.88
£21.28
£36,207.88
£39,521.78
-£570.86
-£301.97
2021
2020
1603.97
1676.98
31944.48
31332.73
3671.19
4817.71
752.87
715.95
0.00
0.00
£37,972.51
£38,543.37
0.00
0.00
£0.00
£0.00
£37,972.51
£38,543.37
38543.37
38845.34
-570.86
-301.97
£37,972.51
£38,543.37

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust Notes to the Accounts

Note

Signed on behalf of the Trustees

A P Conroy……………………………………….

J L Conroy………………………………………

Date …5/7/22……………

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The Conroy - Rendon Charitable Trust

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
~~8~~
Report to the trustees/
members of
On accounts for the year
ended
Set out on pages		 9
The Conroy Rendon Charitable Trust
31stDecember 2021
Charity no
1114903
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.

It is my responsibility to:

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:

PN Hockett Date: 22/02/2 Signed: Name: Philip Neil Hockett Relevant professional Chartered Management Accountant qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 3 Turnberry Drive, Fornham St Martin Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 6TP 10

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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The Conmy- Rendon Charitable TrL 10