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2020-12-31-accounts

La Vida FUNDA LA ASISTE EDUCATIV (JftNCIAS VIDh 2020

Table of Contents

About La Vida 2
Our mission 2
Why La Vida? 3
Our trustees 4
Summary of 2019 projects 5
Our projects 6
Covid Relief Appeal 6
Corcovado Foundation 7
Cuca Legal, Brazil 8
Fundesoc, Bolivia 9
Helping Hands, Bolivia 10
Maya Midwives 11
Poder Joven, Colombia 12
Viva a Vida, Brazil 13
Villa Maria, Peru 13
Financial statements and notes 15
Independent examiner’s report 17
Administrative details 19
Structure, Governance and Management 20
Objectives and Activities 20

1

About La Vida

La Vida was co-founded in 2006 by Katy Vatis and Helen Ilsley following a business trip to Brazil in February that year, when they met Dr. Monica Nogueira, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon trying to raise funds to train her peers in the non-surgical ‘Ponseti Technique‘ of treating children with clubfoot. La Vida raised the funds needed in the UK, and the project was a success; just in 2008, 556 doctors were trained who helped 5,000 children. Many more thousands have been successfully treated using this technique over the subsequent years.

La Vida has since supported highly effective grassroots projects in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, some of which we support on a continuing basis and some which are now complete. The grants were for projects in areas such as youth development, supporting primary and secondary education initiatives and school expansions, as well as community health and environmental programmes.

Although La Vida is a relatively small charity, so far we have raised over £850,000 through sponsorship, our annual La Vida fundraising events, direct donations and partnerships with other foundations. The funding we have deployed we estimate will have directly impacted the lives of over 60,000 disadvantaged children and their families in Latin America.

Our mission

~~pre e ee ee eeee eee eee eee eee eee e ee e eee e eee eee enn~~ ~~11~~ La Vida raises funds to support community health, education and 11 ~~1~~ 1 ~~1~~ 1 environment projects throughout Latin America. The charity is registered 11 11 11 1 in the UK and has been established to help disadvantaged people residing 1 11 11 permanently in Latin America, in particular, by preserving and protecting 11 11 11 health, relieving sickness, relieving poverty, advancing education and 11 11 1 raising environmental awareness. 1

2

Why La Vida?

Our Achievements

----- Start of picture text -----
Over £850K 26 Strong
Projects fundraising
distributed
supported at low cost
in grants in
15 years
Connecting
our projects
Our first across
community countries and
environmental
sharing best
project in
practices
2018
----- End of picture text -----

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Our trustees

4 ~~|~~ Katy ~~|~~ Helen ~~oY~~ Rosie ~~=SsSsSsSS5S5S==~~ J cam | ~~Vatis~~ Ilsley Bichard ; ? ~~enpenpenbebenienienieiens~~ - ~~Sessssssae|~~ wi = ~~SSSessesess4~~ wae ~~_--------!~~ d ~~----------!~~ Rosie has a ! -. ~~= Founder = Founder ee oe~~ y degree in I French and ~~SS =552222225]~~ lA Spanish from | ~~Katy has a Helen~~ St John’s i degree in Economics with sacccccccl I 1 spent 15 years secca as a 1 ! ! | ~~I~~ Spanish. She most recently I I stockbroker in the Latin I ! College, Cambridge and is a ! ~~I1I~~ worked at Fullerton Fund 1 1 American investment 1 ! Chartered Financial Analyst. She has worked in finance ! ~~1I~~ Management as a Senior I I community. Having left the I ! since 1990, and was ! ~~1I1~~ Analyst in the Emerging Markets team and has 11 11 City in 2012 and set up her own property asset 11 !! involved with Latin America !! ~~I~~ for 12 years. She currently spent most of her career as I I business, Helen is now an I ! ! ~~I~~ works as a Senior Analyst at ~~1~~ a Fund Manager covering 1 1 executive coach, heading up 1 ! ! ~~I I1~~ Latin markets. Her work has American equity I 1 I 1 Business Development for the Executive Coaching I 1 !! Lofoten Asset Management. Rosie has travelled !! ~~I1~~ involved a lot of travel to 1 1 Consultancy, specialising in 1 ! extensively in Latin America ! ~~I~~ and speaks Spanish and ~~1~~ the region where she has 1 1 helping businesses retain 1 ! ! ~~I~~ Portuguese. She became a ~~1~~ ~~I I1~~ experienced first hand the extreme levels of poverty and the need for 1 I 1 1I 1 and develop their talented women. Business Economics degree Helen has a 1 I 1 !! ! La Vida trustee in 2008 and is also a board member of Oxfam’s Enterprise !! ! I improvements in health I I and is an accredited I H H iI and education. iI 1I member of the Association iI ~~1~~ Development Programme. ~~heehee eee! : ec el~~ I I of Coaching. ~~re~~

~~—e—e——e —e—oe~~ . ~~a~~ Ivonne Ana 4 Zary ~~eeceecessssd~~ | ~~~~~!~~ ~~Cantu~~ Beatriz cS ~~~e~~ Feene ~~eee~~ y Alencar ~~oaeelenieenienieniienienianl | Sasssssssaay eaienlerieienlenienienienienienien Ivonne grew 1~~ | ~~Zary joined La~~ I ~~I~~ up in Mexico ~~I Ana Beatriz~~ 1 Vida in I ~~!~~ living in London since 1996. and has been 1 and has been living in is Brazilian I 2012. She began her career December I | f Currently she is head of London since 1997. Ana with Ernst & Young’s ~~ti~~ Investor Relations at ~~i|f~~ Beatriz has a background in Financial Advisory Team in Benchmark plc, a global digital development and Washington DC where she aquaculture business, and I project management. She focused on Latin America. ] I a Director of Creo Medical has a degree in Electrical She moved to London to join 1 ]i II II Ii i]H plc, a medical devices fo Engineering from PUC-Rio, if Dresdner Kleinwort technology company. Prior an MBA from Cass Business Wasserstein’s M&A team. ~~1~~ to joining Benchmark, School and an MSc in She has subsequently i Ivonne was a corporate ~~i|f~~ Management of Innovation. become involved in the nonfinance adviser for 20 years She works at the Ministry of profit sector and serves on at Merrill Lynch and at 1 Justice Digital & the boards of foundations Cenkos Securities. She has ~~]1I~~ Technology. She has I i that are having a significant H an MBA from the Wharton i I previously volunteered for I i social impact in the areas of H School of Business and a tot Cancer Research UK, Task t the arts, health, education ~~H~~ BSc Engineering. Since Brazil, CAFOD and London and the environment in Latin ~~1~~ 2016 she has been advising ~~iI~~ 2012. She joined La Vida in America. She has a MBA small UK charities as a 2013 as she strongly from George Washington member of Pilotlight, a ~~1~~ believes in fundraising for University. She is fluent in charity that connects good projects in Latin I English and Spanish, with H ]H II II ]i I1 I professionals with | I America. I | conversational Portuguese. | I i] ~~ee ee ee em eee ee Cs i cs~~ I charitable organisations to ~~I~~ II I provide strategic support. ~~I Aeeeee es es~~

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Summary of 2020 projects

In 2020, we had another very strong fundraising year, receiving £90,871 mostly through donations and our main fundraising event. In early February, we held our 14[th] Anniversary Fundraiser in London, raising over £15,000 through ticket sales, a live and silent auction and a raffle.

This year we had significant donations from the Royal Bank of Canada, Mercia Asset Management, Generation Asset Management, Genesis Asset Management and EM Funding. We also had a number of large donations from private individuals.

Due to Covid restrictions, we have not been able to visit the projects in person in 2020, but we have continued to keep in regular contact over video calls and we have provided additional help to our projects throughout the Covid crisis by granting extra funds for food, medical equipment etc. We funded this through a specific Covid appeal we launched in May 2020. This raised over £8,000 and combined with La Vida’s existing funds we were able to send over £12,000 to several Covid relief projects throughout Latin America. Many of our projects have had to adapt their activities to the current situation and we are working with them to see how they can best be supported going forward.

Summary of the year

During 2020, we granted £67,139 to causes throughout Latin America. We continued to support the following projects: Cuca Legal in Angra do Reis, Brazil; Helping Hands in La Paz, Bolivia; Poder Joven in Medellin, Colombia; Fundesoc in Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Viva a Vida in Camacari, Brazil and Villa Maria in Lima, Peru. More details can be found below.

In 2020, we funded a new environmental project, the Corcovado Foundation, in Costa Rica and Maya Midwifery, a project providing essential medical equipment to rural midwives in Guatemala.

In May we launched a direct appeal for Covid relief funds and we raised almost £9,000 which we sent in June to our existing projects Poder Joven in Colombia, Cuca Legal in Brazil and Villa Maria in Peru. In addition, we approved the change of use of existing funds for Fundesoc in Bolivia and Corcovado in Costa Rica both of whom had to adapt their projects to the change in circumstances due to Covid. We also sent Covid Relief to Children Change Colombia, Healing Venezuela, Fundación para la Asistencia Educativa (F.A.E.) in Mexico and the Rotary Club Sirari in Bolivia. More details on each of these are provided below.

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Our projects

Covid Relief Appeal

Emergency Relief

Grants in 2020 : £12,710

Locations: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela

Bolivia:

Fundesoc – provided essential PPE to over 200 health professionals and medical supplies serving 35,000 people in the Chiquitano region

Rotary Club Sirari Santa Cruz, Bolivia – provided essential PPE to 3 hospitals in Santa Cruz city and province

Brazil:

Nucleo de Referencia - Cuca Legal - We funded 180 basic baskets to the Frade community in Angra dos Reis. Each basket had 22 kg of food and cleaning products for a family of 4 to last 20 days on average.

Colombia:

Children Change Colombia – Provided food packages, toiletries, housing support and psychosocial support in Bogota and Quibdo.

Poder Joven - Community kitchens set up for 180 children to have 2 meals a day and 112 bags of food and hygiene supplies for 56 vulnerable families in Medellin.

Guatemala:

– Maya Midwifery provided 6 months supply of food for 71 midwives and 30 families, and raincoats to protect the midwives in the rainy season.

Mexico:

Fundación para la Asistencia Educativa I.A.P. (FAE), Mexico City – distributed 400 relief packs to the disadvantaged community of Escalerillas in the state of Mexico City.

Peru:

Quest Overseas/VillaMaria, Lima – distributed food relief packages to vulnerable families in Villa Maria, particularly affected by the lack of informal work.

Venezuela:

Healing Venezuela - funded 10 PPE kits, which included 500 pairs of gloves and 500 masks, 10 litres of antibacterial gel and 10 gallons of disinfectant.

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Corcovado Foundation

Environmental Education

Grant in 2020 : £9,806 Location: Costa Rica Partner since: 2020 Beneficiaries: 30 families

The Family Ecological Garden Workshop has been a training process in which local families from Drake Bay have developed basic knowledge of

regenerative agriculture. This practice will allow them to abandon the use of agrochemicals on their farms and restore the natural components of the soil by reincorporating organic waste as compost to create more fertile lands.

Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on: topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.

Practices include recycling as much farm waste as possible and adding composted material from sources outside the farm. As soil health improves, input requirements may decrease, and crop yields may increase as soils are more resilient against extreme weather and harbour fewer pests and pathogens.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, they started a process with the community in which they began creating awareness among 30 families. The workshop was carried out partly remotely, which consisted of both theory and practice. The theoretical part was carried out through workshops provided by video calls, in which the educators transmitted knowledge to the families through presentations and videos. The practical part was carried out through visits by the instructors to the participants’ farms, where they worked in groups and used their knowledge to learn, shared their successes and their limitations.

Additionally, participants that completed their process received US$200 in materials such as plastic to build plant nurseries, wood, tools and seeds.

The process was highly successful, and the timing was perfect, especially given that during the pandemic people not only had more time on their hands, but also because they struggled to bring food to the table, in particular, good, healthy food. The vegetables in Osa are brought from San Jose or Cartago, are expensive and also full of chemicals, so to start this new culture is an important effort to:

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  1. change the mindset of many families towards agriculture,

  2. teach how to recycle organic waste and the importance of compost

  3. and recognize their own capacity to produce their own food.

Cuca Legal

Education

Grant in 2020 : £4,500 Location: Brazil Partner since: 2018 Beneficiaries: 60 children/teenagers and their families

At the beginning of 2020, Cuca Legal had a record number of children (116) enrolled in their workshops. This was due to strong partnerships the project established with La Vida and other local organisations, which allowed for an enticing programme of activities. A military intervention that jailed drug lords and inhibited drug dealing activities in the area also meant that families were walking more freely and participating in community activities. However, on 13th April, all schools and communitiy activities were prohibited by the local government because of the pandemic.

Part of La Vida's funds had already been used to buy materials for the workshops and to pay for the tutors' salaries during the first semester. La Vida also helped to buy a new computer for the project, and hand sanitiser and cleaning products for the community. Cuca Legal was not able to fully open their doors and restart the workshops for the rest of 2020.

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Many of the families in the community lost their income and the project saw a need to help the families by distributing food and basic hygiene and cleaning products. Keeping the project's doors open was fundamental to distribute the packs and also as a safe haven for members of the community.

La Vida's funds for the second semester paid for electricity bills and the salary of a full time employee that ensured the project's house was open for the community. It also contributed to renewing the project’s community library. With children losing so much of their education, the project aims to intensify support lessons for children as soon as activities are back to normal.

Fundesoc

Environmental Education

Grant in 2020 : £8,242 Location: Bolivia Partner since: 2018 Beneficiaries: 450 students

In July 2020, we decided to conclude the Project “Youth in Action for the Environment 2020” in Santa Cruz since schools were closed in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic and it was no longer

possible for FUNDESOC to continue implementing the project as planned. Instead, we decided to assign remaining funds to respond to requests for emergency assistance received by both La Vida & FUNDESOC from rural municipalities in the Chiquitano region of Santa Cruz department in their battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. FUNDESOC proposed to redirect efforts and funds to this Covid solidarity initiative to 5 rural municipalities that La Vida trustees approved.

That initiative provided support to vulnerable populations in the Chiquitano region, in their response to the Covid-19 crisis, through the donation of medical and biosecurity supplies for frontline health staff, according to their requests for help. Support was made effective by Fundación Boliviana para el Desarrollo Social (FUNDESOC) that joined this voluntary campaign without charging staff, administrative or operating costs, coordinated with local medical and municipal authorities to establish priority needs, found best purchase options and coordinated with other organizations (NGOs & indigenous organizations) to avoid duplication, join forces and reduce transport costs. The provision of supplies included PPE for health staff, medical oxygen bottles, bed linen to equip rooms for patients, infrared thermometers and oximeters.

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Helping Hands

Education

Grant in 2020 : £6,321 Location: La Paz, Bolivia Partner since: 2009 Beneficiaries: 4 students Beneficiaries since 2009: 44 students

Helping Hands provides financial support and mentoring to help disadvantaged young people in La Paz, Bolivia, complete their studies and

take their first steps into the world of work. Originally focused on teenage boys leaving care, Helping Hands has expanded its activities, supporting more than 300 boys and girls since its foundation in 2004. In 2020 Helping Hands supported 100 students (65% female) between 13 and 28 years old.

Like in many countries around the world, Covid-19 created enormous challenges for students and their families in Bolivia. With limited access to internet or to mobile devices, continuing education was challenging and compounded by financial difficulties and illness in many of the students’ families. Helping Hands owes its success in outcomes over the years to its personalised, consistent follow-up and mentoring, and it was this which enabled it to maintain close contact with its students through the lockdown, and to identify and meet their specific needs which in some cases meant sourcing medicines, providing internet access cards or indeed basic sustenance.

In 2020, La Vida funded support for four students, two of which are in high school with the other two pursuing university degrees.

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Maya Midwifery

Health

Grant in 2020 : £4,996 Location: Guatemala Partner since: 2020 Beneficiaries: 71 midwives

Our Maya Midwifery Project provided funding for an association of 71 midwives who serve indigenous Mam communities in Guatemala. This is essential as many communities do not speak any Spanish and are

so remote that women would not otherwise see a doctor or any health visitor/midwife throughout their pregnancy and birth - thus resulting in a high death rate of both mother and baby.

Working out in the rural communities is a hard vocation; most of the midwives work without electricity, running water or basic health accessories. The midwives are wives and mothers first before being midwives and have family commitments to meet daily in addition to their work. They all come from very modest backgrounds living in houses with dirt floors and very limited financial resources.

La Vida helped to fund basic equipment for the midwives to be able to do their work safely and effectively.

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Poder Joven

Education

Grant in 2020 : £7,267 Location: Medellin, Colombia Partner since: 2010 Beneficiaries: 75 children and their families

We continue to support the Poder Joven Foundation who work within areas of Medellin, Colombia where street kids have a great need

for a healthy, safe and nurturing environment. Poder Joven uses its resources with care and focus and achieves positive changes for many at-risk children with a long-term impact on their life chances. The children are given access to doctors, dentists and psychologists, practise yoga and meditation and are helped with homework whenever required. The children come from very poor families of which around 70% are subjected to violence in the home. There is a two year waiting list to join the Poder Joven programme, which runs weekly sessions on different topics such as prevention of drug use and violence, communication, how to behave in society etc. Our funding continues to provide food, medical and school supplies for 75 children at Casa Maren.

During the Covid crisis they managed to secure local government funding to keep them operational, which allowed them to feed 70 kids twice a day (as well as their siblings). Schooling went online but most of the kids had no access to computers or phones so Poder Joven liaised with the school and they were sent the work which they printed off as worksheets for the kids, and then helped them with the school work when they were at the centre. Many of the parents have struggled to work (a lot of the mums are cleaners in the wealthy areas and those houses did not let them clean due to fear of catching Covid). In addition, La Vida provided 112 bags of food and hygiene supplies to help these families get through some difficult months.

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Viva a Vida

Education

Grant in 2020 : £5000 Location: Camacari, Brazil Partner since: 2015 Beneficiaries: over 1700 students and their families

Viva a Vida reinvented themselves during the pandemic. They ran online workshops and talks reaching an even larger number of people than before. Hundreds of people took part in Viva a Vida's online sessions, whilst the Viva a Vida house continued to be a safe space for the local community. They also produced a documentary called 'Ascending ideas - for a new policy on drugs’.

La Vida's donations paid for the salary of a key youth worker in addition to costs associated with Zoom and producing videos. Below is a summary of what the sessions entailed.

SUMMARY:

Work directly related to pandemic relief distributed in the community:

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Villa Maria

Education

Grant in 2020 : £8296 Location: Lima, Peru Partner since: 2007 Beneficiaries: 100 Primary school children and their families, school staff.

In Peru, the schools closed in early March last year and remained shut the whole year. In these difficult circumstances the primary school in Villa Maria, which La Vida supports, has done a remarkable job in enabling its students to continue to learn as best it can. In many cases they report the students' results are actually better as they had more support from their families. Unfortunately, however, 40 of the 140 students had to leave the school as they could not afford the fees and had to switch to using the public system, educating their kids through local tv channels.

The Villa Maria school managed to teach the remaining 100 children remotely in very difficult conditions, using Zoom and Whats App video calls, delivering worksheets weekly to parents and using a Google drive with photographs of their work for teacher evaluation. The commitment from the staff has been phenomenal with a reduction in teacher salaries and increased working hours, using the utilities in their homes and improving internet capacity at their own expense to be able to have adequate communication with their students. During the pandemic, the school has also served as a hub for distribution of food parcels and other aid for the most needy, cementing its role within the local area.

Last year, La Vida supported 32 children's education at the school. Together, we have been supporting the school since 2008, during which it has developed and grown significantly. One of our aims in 2021 is to continue to seek ways for it to gain more local funding, something which was obviously hard to achieve in 2020.

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Financial statements and notes

Financial review

Policy on reserves: For 2020, La Vida kept 6 months of our ongoing commitments to projects as reserves. We will continue to do this in 2021.

For the period from January 2020 to December 2020

A1 Receipts
~~att~~		 Unrestricted
Funds
(nearest £)
~~att~~		 Restricted
Funds
(nearest £)
~~att~~		 Endowment
Funds
(nearest £)
~~att~~		 Total
Funds
(nearest £)
~~att~~		 Last year
(nearest £)
~~att~~
Donations
~~att~~		 60,678
~~att~~		 60,678
15,367
~~att~~		 15,367
~~att~~		 76,044
~~att~~		 76,044
58,928
~~att~~
Fundraising events
~~att~~		 14,827
~~att~~		 14,827
~~att~~		 ~~att~~ 14,827
~~att~~		 14,827
2,793
~~att~~
Interest on Deposit
~~att~~		 ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~
~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~
~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~
Sub total
(Gross Income AR)
~~att~~		 Sub total
75,505
~~att~~		 75,505
15,367
~~att~~		 15,367
~~att~~		 90,871
~~att~~		 90,871
61,720
~~att~~
~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~ ~~att~~
A2 Asset and
investment sales
~~=asne~~		 ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~
~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~
Sub Total
~~=asne~~		 ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~
~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~
Total receipts
~~=asne~~		 75,505
~~=asne~~		 75,505
15,367
~~=asne~~		 15,367
~~=asne~~		 90,871
~~=asne~~		 90,871
61,720
~~=asne~~
~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~ ~~=asne~~
A3 Payments
Cost of fundraising
events		 3,688 3,688 3,688 3,688
553
Internet costs
Grants to Latam
projects		 34,886 34,886
32,253		 32,253 67,139 67,139
36,538
FX and bank charges 116 116 116 116
170
Sub Total 38,690 38,690
32,253		 32,253 70,943 70,943
37,261

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A4 Asset and
investment purchases
Sub Total
Total payments
38,690
32,253
70,943
37,261
Net of receipts/
(payments)
36,814
-16,886
19,928
24,459
A5 Transfer between
funds
A6 Cash Funds last
year end
30,513
35,850
66,363
41,904
Cash funds this
year end
67,327
18.964
86,291
66,363
~~=~~
~~======~~		 A4 Asset and
investment purchases
Sub Total
Total payments
38,690
32,253
70,943
37,261
Net of receipts/
(payments)
36,814
-16,886
19,928
24,459
A5 Transfer between
funds
A6 Cash Funds last
year end
30,513
35,850
66,363
41,904
Cash funds this
year end
67,327
18.964
86,291
66,363
~~=~~
~~======~~		 A4 Asset and
investment purchases
Sub Total
Total payments
38,690
32,253
70,943
37,261
Net of receipts/
(payments)
36,814
-16,886
19,928
24,459
A5 Transfer between
funds
A6 Cash Funds last
year end
30,513
35,850
66,363
41,904
Cash funds this
year end
67,327
18.964
86,291
66,363
~~=~~
~~======~~
Section B: Statement of Assets and
Liabilities at the end of period
B1 Cash
donations
Unrestricted Funds
(nearest £)
Restricted Funds
( nearest £)
Endowment Funds
(nearest £)
CAF cash funds
67,327
18,964
Total Cash Funds
67,327
18,964
~~—~~
Signed by two trustees on behalf of all trustees:
Helen Ilsley , date of approval

Katy Vatis, date of approval

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Independent examiner’s report ~~ae~~

Report to the LA VIDA Vital Investment for Development Aid in Latin America trustees/ members of ~~oo~~ On accounts for 31 December 2020 Charity no. 1115796 the year ended ~~a~~ Set out on 15 - 16 pages ~~Oo~~ I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/12/2020.

Responsibilities and basis of As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the report preparation of the accounts in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

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 given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

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Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect,:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: Date:
10 Aug 2021
~~—~~		 Date:
10 Aug 2021
~~—~~
Name: Tracey Falero
Relevant Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA)
professional
qualification(s)
or body (if any):
Address: c/o LA VIDA
Gordon House, Gordon Ave, London SW14 8DZ. UK.

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Administrative details

La Vida - Vital Investment for Development Aid in Charity name: Latin America 1115796 Charity Number:

GORDON HOUSE Registered Address: GORDON AVENUE LONDON SW14 8DZ

Ana Beatriz Alencar Trustees: Rosie Bichard Ivonne Cantu Zarela Feeney Helen Ilsley Katy Vatis

Independent Examiner:[Tracey Falero (ACA) ]

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Structure, Governance and Management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document:

Trust deed

How the charity is constituted:[Trust ]

Trustee selection methods:

Appointed by existing trustees

Additional governance issues

La Vida - Trustee Selection Process Statement

Objectives and Activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in this governing document

To further any charitable purpose for the benefit of disadvantaged people residing permanently in Latin America. In particular, by preserving and protecting health, relieving sickness, relieving poverty and advancing education.

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Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects

Provide funding for specific health, education and environment projects identified in any country in Latin America.

La Vida is 100% volunteer run. All of the Trustees and Executive Committee work on a voluntary basis and aim to keep expenses to a minimum so the money raised goes directly to the project beneficiaries.

Donations and fundraising have allowed us to improve and directly benefit the lives of over 60,000 children and their families across Latin America.

We continue to fund health, education and environment projects throughout the region. In 2020, we continued to support our existing ongoing projects in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. We funded new projects in Costa Rica and Guatemala. We also funded specific Covid relief projects in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Additional details of objective and activities

Policy on grant making:

The Trustees of La Vida endeavour to directly grant funding to specific projects that relieve sickness and /or improve education in any Latin American country. Preference will be given to independent projects, but trustees could also look to partner with local organisations that will see through the success and completion of compelling projects in health, education and the environment in Latin America.

The project committee meets every 3-6 months to discuss and approve new project proposals. We assess our projects in depth and have a rigorous selection process. Each grant application has to complete our project proposal form and give proof of identity of their organisation and the people running it, plus 2 years of bank statements. Every project we support has a partnership agreement signed by La Vida and the organisation receiving the project funding which includes all of our reporting requirements. The agreement sets out the timeline of the project with final goals to be reached, all of our reporting requirements such as photos of the project, receipts for items purchased etc.

The executive committee, all of whom are volunteers, continues to help organise fundraising events, develop the website, publish newsletters and broaden the reach of the charity.

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