Malaika Kids UK Annual Reportand-Accou s202
Malaika Kids UK Chair’s Report
At the end of 2022, my wife, Francesca, and I spent four weeks in Tanzania. Due to Covid travel restrictions this was our first visit after nearly three years. We were delighted to find everything was thriving.
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§ In Mkuranga at the Children’s Village we met 80 healthy and happy children.
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§ The primary school children were speaking good English, and the end of school exam results were all A and B grades (having been C and D in the past).
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§ We found the staff in Dar es Salaam and Mkuranga were happy, stable, and continued to be well-motivated.
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§ The 20 older children doing vocational courses in Dar es Salaam are performing well, as are the two who are studying degree courses in accountancy and social work.
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§ Our Relatives Support Programme was caring for a further 100 children, enabling them to remain in their community. They are normally cared for by an aunt or grandmother. The 20 we were able to talk to were healthy and doing well at school.
We discussed the proposed budget for 2023 with the MK Tanzania management team and have agreed on spending £330,000. This is not a huge amount for the running costs for staff, accommodation, food, and education and health care for over 200 children for a year.
We are glad that fundraising in the UK stayed strong in 2022, bringing in £164,000 in the calendar year. Since MK Netherlands also raised £160,000, and we got £35,000 from other sources, we are confident we can continue to operate for the foreseeable future.
However, it remains a concern that a lot of our fundraising is dependent on a small number of ageing trustees in the UK and the Netherlands. This means that we spend conservatively while trying to encourage younger supporters and trustees.
What follows is a month-by-month snapshot of our work in Tanzania, and then our annual accounts.
My thanks go to all our loyal supporters who continue to help us to thrive and to those that donated laptops!
With best wishes.
Alan Edwards Malaika Kids UK Chair
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January
A highlight of the Christmas holidays was all the boarding children returning to the Children’s Village for Christmas, putting the total number up to 76 for the festivities. Here they are competing in teams in a ‘current affairs’ quiz.
They had a day at the beach and an outing to the Vikindu Forest Reserve about 25 k m from the Children’s Village in Mkuranga on the way to Dar es Salaam.
Now all the children who are three years or older are back at school, in new school uniforms at the start of the new school year. The secondary school children attend two boarding schools. One, Ujenzi is in Mkuranga town itself and the other, St Matthews, is midway between Mkuranga and Dar es Salaam. They will return for half-term at Easter and then in June for a month of holiday.
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February
Of the 96 children that Malaika Kids looks after directly, 10 are twins, a much higher proportion than in the population as a whole. The first born is usually called ‘Kulwa’ and the second born is ‘Dotto’. So, if you meet a man with either of these names you can be sure that he is a twin!
One says of the other, “He is sometimes naughty, and he speaks a lot.” The other says, “We don’t share the same desk in class, and we feel it is okay as we have a lot of time together at home.” They are competitive, always coming towards the top of their class. Perhaps because they were very young when they joined us, these boys seem very well adjusted. They live together with the same mama and tell us, “We real like our mama. She is so lovely, and she likes us very much.”
Another older set of twins is a little more self-aware. They say, “For us being twins is something very special. So, we are very happy to be the way we are.” One told us, “I once heard of three twins (editor’s note: she means 'triplets') I wish I could see how they look and behave.”
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March
In 2021, Malaika Kids helped more than 200 children – about half in residence with us in the Children’s Village Mkuranga and in the Reception Home in Dar es Salaam, and half in the Relatives Support Programme. To achieve this, we spent £250,000 – just over £1,000 per child on average for a whole year. Food and staff costs took up half of the spending (£125,000).
The food is mainly a staple called ugali – it looks like mashed potato and is made from maize flour. It is most frequently eaten with kidney beans and green vegetables that we grow ourselves. Although the diet is somewhat lacking in variety, the children are healthy and have plenty of energy.
We have 24 members of staff. The average cost to Malaika Kids per staff member is £3,000 – very little by European standards, but we believe competitive in Tanzania. It helps that we have been a reliable employer. Education took up 20% of our spending in 2021 (£50,000).
The remaining 30% of our 2021 spend was spread over a wide range of necessary activities: clothes, hygiene, cleaning, and kitchen (£25,000: 10%); maintenance, water, electricity, and farm costs (£11,000: 4%); and other overheads such as vehicles, RH rent, regulatory, etc. (£40,000: 16%).
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April
Five years ago, one of our older girls left our care, having attended primary school, followed by an apprenticeship course in hotel management. Ever since we have kept in touch with her, and she with us. First, she worked in Dar es Salaam and then in Moshi, in the north of the country. She came back to Dar es Salaam for the last couple of years where she met her partner and future husband, a builder. They married at the beginning of this month, and it was such a joy to see her surrounded by her ‘sisters’ from Malaika Kids, together with Mama Anna, who brought her up.
This year Easter coincided with Ramadan, so every child in the village, Christian and Muslim alike, had something to celebrate!
A few years ago, we organised an Easter egg hunt – possibly the first-ever in Tanzania (because of the heat). It is understandably not a tradition there. But this year, very many lollipops were acquired and the younger children, most kitted out in their best clothes, had a great time searching for them.
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May
At our Children’s Village we operate two programmes: a nursery school for children between three and six years old, and a ‘baby class’ for children from birth to three. These ages are flexible – if we take in a child who has never learned to recognise numbers or letters, we may keep them in the nursery class for longer to give them a good chance of succeeding at primary school.
Our nursery school is run by Madam Tumaini, a qualified early years teacher. At present there are seven children in her class ranging from four to eight years of age. The teaching is predominantly in English with some Swahili stories and rhymes. Basic arithmetic, reading and writing are important, as are physical exercise, nature walks, painting and singing. The day often starts with a rousing but not always tuneful rendition of the Tanzanian national anthem, Mungu ibariki Afrika (God bless Africa). The children are in school from 8 am to 11:30 am, followed by lunch and then a long nap.
Mama Haruma is in charge of the baby class. We now have eleven babies in this class, so Mamas Zailatu and Martha also help out too. Six of these babies are Malaika Kids, and five come in from outside our Village. The parents of these five pay us a small fee.
Two weeks ago, our youngest ever Malaika Kid joined us. While she is technically in the baby class she is still so young that she spends most of the time in the care of a single Mama. This baby girl was found by a stranger in an underpass in Dar es Salaam. She was only a few hours old and her natural mother, almost certainly a terrified young teenager, could not be identified. After a few days in hospital the Welfare Department asked us to look after her. She will be with us for the next eighteen years or more and we will do our very best to support her in every way possible.
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June
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the price of cooking oil in Tanzania has doubled and the price of maize has risen by 35%. Tanzanians use cooking oil in almost every aspect of their cooking, while maize is the main ingredient in ugali, a stiff porridge which is generally served once or twice a day.
Over half of an average family’s income is spent on food, compared to one-sixth in the UK. And the average income is itself tiny – less than £1,000 per year – in the UK that number is £34,000.
We at Malaika Kids are trying to address this crisis as best we can. When we heard that the Village Manager, James, was considering cutting back on holiday trips so that the children could have enough to eat, we increased the food budget by 13%. This was an across-the-board increase which applies to all 200 children and their carers. So, the budget increased for all those in our Children’s Village, all those in the Reception Home and all those in our Relatives Support Programme. We are totally committed to looking after our children and we are ready to increase the budget further if needs be.
We are grateful at this difficult time to have the expertise of Julius, our Farm and Maintenance Manager, at the Village. Thanks largely to him the children eat our own home-produced greens once or twice a day, and seasonal fruits such as guava, pineapples, and bananas. Our cassava crop is also very useful as a partial replacement for ugali. Both foods are very high in carbohydrates.
We do expect further food price increases and will do what is necessary to ensure that our children have enough nutritious food to eat.
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July
Malaika Kids trustee, Dr Simon Cooper, arrived at Dar es Salaam airport at 1:30 am on July 5 for a 10day working visit. After a Covid induced 3-year absence we are delighted to be back visiting once more.
“Of the 79 children in CVM, 32 were new to me. Part of the challenge this year was the sudden change to the school holidays so that all the boarding school students were away. I visited Ujenzi school but was shown into a room with no furniture at all so decided to put all the children in the van and bring them back to the Village for an hour, which proved very popular.”
Simon also visited the Reception Home in Dar es Salam which now has 22 children and young adults either staying in it or living nearby. Three children were new to him but were settling in well, including a young teenager who had been badly beaten by her employer.
He was also able to meet Ramadhan, the relatively new Social Worker we have hired at the Reception Home. He said, “I was impressed. He speaks good English, was very helpful, and seems resourceful in problem-solving. A good find.”
James, our Village Manager, arranged for Simon to meet the District Medical Officer at Mkuranga District Hospital. As a result of this visit, we were given 70 new long-lasting insecticidal nets – vital in the ongoing battle against malaria.
In conclusion, he found that “physical health is generally excellent.” There are some recurrent issues such as skin infections and ear wax blockages and Martha, one of our mamas who is also a qualified nurse, is highly competent and deals with these as they arise. We also have two small children with HIV and this is well controlled with medication. Others are treated for epilepsy and autism.
Mental health for some is more of an issue due to earlier physical and sexual abuse. However, the team of James, Emanuel, Julius, and the mothers work extremely well to make a safe and understanding environment where the children flourish despite their problems.
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August
All our children are on holiday now until 9 September. The weather is heating up from a low of 17 degrees, a month ago but not nearly as hot as it will become – 40 degrees, towards the end of the year; when it’s their summer but our winter.
James, our Village Manager, decided to take the secondary school children and the older primary school children on a day trip to the National Museum in Dar es Salaam. The museum, originally named after the British King George VI when it was opened in 1940, houses exhibitions on First Man and his emergence in the Rift Valley; colonial Tanzania as first ruled by the Germans as German East Africa; and then by the British as the sovereign state of Tanganyika, and post-colonial when it and Zanzibar merged to form the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964.
Meanwhile, our younger children enjoyed a day out at the beach. This is probably their favourite outing and there is great excitement and chatter as they drive in our two vans to the coast. When we started to go on this trip a few years ago virtually no children could swim, but now around half can at least manage a few strokes and a few are very confident in the water.
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September
We now care for 96 children, aged from one to 16 in our Relatives Support community programme. Once a child reaches the age of 17, they leave the programme in order that we can take on more, younger children. Our reasoning is that a 17-year-old has been sufficiently well educated at both primary and secondary levels to have a good chance of finding a job, although we must accept that this is not always the case.
There are three prongs to our Relatives Support Programme. The first is help with educational costs, notably uniforms and books. However poor a child is, they are barred from school unless they wear a serviceable uniform. This costs us £70 per year per child. In addition, we recently started to pay for each child in the junior part of primary school to receive regular practise tests to improve their academic performance.
Malaika Kids also provide a vital bimonthly food package for each child, consisting of staples such as cooking oil, salt, flour, dried beans and some fresh fruit and vegetables. Toothpaste and soap are also included, at a total cost per child of £195 per year. Finally, and crucially, we arrange basic health insurance for each child. This allows them to access basic healthcare, including free prescriptions. This costs us an additional £46 per child per year.
So, for £311 per child per year, we can make a real difference to the likely life outcomes for these children while keeping them within their extended family. This family unit is typically headed by an aged female relative, often the grandmother.
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October
In our last newsletter, we told you we had 17 supporters running the Royal Parks Half Marathon or the Norfolk Coastal Trail Marathon earlier this month. Together they have raised just over £8,000 and after race fees, this will be around £6,000. Thank you!
Meanwhile, the pound sterling/Tanzanian shilling exchange rate has deteriorated by nearly 20% compared to last year. This means that we need 20% more in sterling donations just to stand still, and to provide the same level of care and service to our children.
As of 25 October, we support 198 children (aged three months to young adults at college or in higher education), roughly half in residence at the Children’s Village and Reception Home, and half cared for in the community in our Relatives Support Programme. We had budgeted for 194, and clearly will shortly move beyond 200. We have nevertheless kept our costs under tight control, and we are managing to run at 7% below budget in the local currency. In sterling terms, we are spending more than budgeted, and we will probably top £300,000 for this full year. At an average of only £1,500 per child this is excellent value for money, and covers food, staff costs, repairs, education expense and much more.
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November
Francesca and I had not been in Tanzania since January 2020, just before Covid struck, a gap of nearly three years. Here were some of our initial impressions. First of all, we have more children than before who are below school age.
Secondly, it was terrific to be greeted by much the same staff as were here three years ago. They are more confident, more experienced, and keen to keep on improving.
Thirdly, our agricultural project was doing better than we expected.
Fourthly, the trip between Dar es Salaam and the Children’s Village, about 30 miles, has definitely improved, as the road is much better pave d – h aving been horribly pot-holed.
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December
The Reception Home is at maximum capacity, with 19 children sleeping there every night. In addition, five of our older children are living in rented accommodation a few minutes' walk away, paid for by us. The staff see them every day as they come for supper every night at the Reception Home.
We were impressed by our visit to Don Bosco College, a not-for-profit organisation that trains young adults in practical courses such as carpentry, electrical installation, and welding. Five Malaika Kids study there, and we hope to send some more in the near future. The emphasis is on finding jobs – crucial with youth unemployment conservatively estimated at 50%. We attended a graduation ceremony for two boys who have just completed their 3-year course in carpentry.
Two of our more academic girls are studying marketing and social work. The latter has two years to go before she receives her Bachelor’s degree. She, alongside a boy who is studying accountancy, will hopefully be our first Malaika Kids to attain these advanced qualifications.
We talked to some of the children who are supported in our Relatives Support Programme. They are typically primary school children who were delighted to be given some balloons to play with while waiting to speak to us.
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Children cared for by Malaika Kids Tanzania
| Reception Home |
Relatives Support Programme |
Children’s Village |
Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children at beginning of 2022 | 19 | 97 | 76 | 192 |
| Incoming – external | +31 | +18 | +3 | +52 |
| Moved from the Children’s Village |
+8 | 0 | -8 | 0 |
| Placed with family | -15 | -6 | -6 | -27 |
| Death | -1 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| Moved to Children’s Village | -18 | 0 | +18 | 0 |
| Left Malaika Kids | -1 | -6 | -1 | -8 |
| Total at end of year 2022 | 23 | 103 | 82 | 208 |
The overall number of children helped at year-end grew to 208. The Children’s Village (CV) exceeded our capacity of 80 for a few days at the end of 2022 and as of March 2023 is back down to 78 as four children have moved to the Reception Home (RH) to start training courses. We expect smaller overall growth this year, to be concentrated in the Relatives Support Programme.
In addition, 21 (15 RH and 6 at CV) children were brought to us by the Welfare Department and helped on a short-term temporary basis, before an appropriate home was found. In addition, a very young baby died shortly after being brought to us in an extremely distressed condition, premature and malnourished.
The Reception Home is at full capacity. We rented rooms/hostels for eight older children doing courses near to the Reception Home. We expect to continue to expand the number of rental rooms in 2023. These children eat supper at the Reception Home during the week and other meals at weekends. This means that we continue to monitor their progress and support them in their studies.
We helped 115 children aged between three months and 17 years through the Relatives Support Programme, (97 in January plus 18 newcomers) providing food packages, health insurance and school uniforms. These children live in the community, often cared for by a grandmother or aunt, only rarely by a natural parent.
Over the course of the year 12 children reached the age of 18 and moved off the Relatives Support Programme, while as noted above we also helped 21 children on a short-term basis. Overall, the total number of children supported at some point during the year was 244, an all-time record, and likely to be exceeded sometime during 2023.
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Malaika Kids Trustees
| Trustee | Last elected | |
|---|---|---|
| Chair | Alan Edwards | 2022 |
| Treasurer | Emile Farhi | 2022 |
| Secretary | Phil Cooke | 2022 |
| Honorary President | Nigel Fawkes | 2020 |
| Francesca Edwards | 2020 | |
| Helen Marriage | 2020 | |
| Sophie Florentin-Siu | 2020 | |
| Martin Stoll | 2021 | |
| Alison Clewlow | 2022 | |
| John Whitworth | 2022 | |
| Dr Simon Cooper | 2021 | |
| Dr Alan Lamont | 2022 Co-opted |
Malaika Kids UK and Malaika Kids in Tanzania
Thanks go to all the trustees, who do a great deal of work that is unsung behind the scenes. All are elected by Members at our Annual General Meeting, usually for a three-year term of office.
Thanks go to our Independent Examiner, Cyril Barratt, who has been very helpful.
Malaika Kids UK exists solely to support Malaika Kids in Tanzania. We have no employees; our biggest local expense relates to acquiring places for the Royal Parks Half Marathon.
Almost all of our money therefore goes to Tanzania, transferred on an as-needed basis. Malaika Kids Netherlands has traditionally raised more than 30% of the total funding needed in Tanzania. This has been generated by heroic efforts made by a small number of active trustees. This may not be sustainable in the longer term, so MKUK needs to continue to grow in order to assure the future of Malaika Kids Tanzania. The annual budget to be spent in 2023 in Tanzania is £330,000 – considerably higher than MKUK's 2022 income of £164,000. Fundraising will continue in the Netherlands (and in the US and in Tanzania itself) but there could be choppy water ahead.
Reserves in the UK as of end 2022 at £650,000 would support just two years of budgeted operations in Tanzania if no new income were obtained. Given that young children can be with us for nearly two decades, we don’t really have a lot of money… so we continue to be glad of all the financial support we can get!
A word of thanks
Our thanks go to our senior staff, mamas in Tanzania, and to our volunteers who have travelled to Tanzania. The biggest thanks of all go to our individual supporters all over the world who continue to donate both their time and money to ensure that the children continue to thrive. Please keep on supporting us!
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Malaika Kids Annual Accounts 2022
Income and Expenditure Account
Year ended 31 December 2022
| 2022 | 2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | £ | £ | ||
| 1 | ||||
| Income | ||||
| Donations | 145,322 | 157,757 | ||
| Gift Aid | 2 | 15,167 | 11,706 | |
| Bank interest | 3,430 | 2,976 | ||
| Total Income | 163,919 | 172,439 | ||
| Expenditure | ||||
| Funds transferred to Tanzania | 119,625 | 107,190 | ||
| Event costs | 2,444 | 2,364 | ||
| UK fundraising costs | 854 | 544 | ||
| Bank charges | 317 | 489 | ||
| Website development and maintenance | 468 | 4,540 | ||
| Total Expenditure | 123,708 | 115,127 | ||
| Net Income for the year | 40,211 | 57,312 |
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Balance Sheet
Year ended 31 December 2022
| 2022 | 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | £ | £ | |||
| Current Assets | |||||
| Cash at bank | 650,372 | 610,161 | |||
| Total current assets | 650,372 | 610,161 | |||
| Current liabilities | - | - | |||
| Net assets | 650,372 | 610,161 | |||
| Funds | 3 | ||||
| Balance at start of year | 610,161 | 552,849 | |||
| Surplus in year | 40,211 | 57,312 | |||
| Funds at end of year | 650,372 | 610,161 | |||
| Notes to the Accounts | |||||
| 2022 | 2021 | ||||
| £ | £ | ||||
| Note 1 | Accounting basis | ||||
| These accounts have been prepared on a cash basis. |
|||||
| Note 2 | Gift Aid receipts These relate to donations received in the year. |
||||
| Note 3 | Charity’s funds Restricted funds, received from and restricted bythe donors. |
- | 20,000 | ||
| Reserves restricted by the trustees | |||||
| Continuity Reserve, determined by the trustees. This will be reviewed and adjusted annually. It does not represent a contractual obligation and the trustees may lift the restriction at anytime. |
550,000 | 500,000 | |||
| Unrestricted funds | 100,372 | 90,161 | |||
| Total | 650,372 | 610,161 |
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We are Malaika Kids
Registered Office
Malaika Kids UK 6 Lauderdale Mansions London W9 1NE
Bank Details
Bank: CAF Bank Name: Malaika Kids UK Account: 00093337 Sort Code: 40-52-40
Website: malaika-kids.uk Email: info-uk@malaika-kids.org
Registered Charity No. 1118149
Malaika Kids Annual Accounts 2022 Income and Expenditure Account Year ended 31 December 2022 2022 2021 Note5 Income Donations 145,322 157,757 GiftAid 15,167 11,706 Bank interest 3,430 2,976 Total Income 163.919 172.439 Expendlture Funds transferred to Tanzania 119.625 107,190 Event costs 2.444 2.364 UK fundraising costs 854 544 Bank charge5 317 489 Website development and maintenance 468 4.540 Total Expenditure 123,708 115,127 Net Income for the year 40,211 57,312
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Malaika Kids UK On accounts for the year endod 31 Deomber 2022 Charity no lif any} II181Ltrq Set oirt on page8 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounls of the above charity nhe Twsf) for the year ended R•8ponsibllllies and As the charity trustees of the TNst. you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordan with the requiremenls of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Act.). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 ofthe 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b} of the Act. I have completed my examinats'on. I confirm that no material matter5 have Come to my attention (other than that disclosed below ') in connection wtlh the examination whith give5 me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordano with section 130 of the Acl or the awounls do not accord with the accounting records Independent examlner's statsment I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connedlon with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the words in the bketS rfthey do not apply. Date". ts.1.23 Slgned: Namo: Cyril Barratt Relevant professional qualiftcatlon(s) or body {if any}: FCMA Address: 56 Long Meadow Eccleston St Helens WA10 4LS IER October 2018