**FRIENDS OF MATTHEW RUSIKE CHILDREN’S HOME**
Charity Number 1120944
## **FoMRCH annual report 2020**
Sadly the poor economic situation in Zimbabwe declined further throughout 2020 causing the Children’s Home much financial difficulty. There were severe problems with daily price rises and shortages of basic staples particularly mealie meal, dried fish, peanut butter and beans putting pressure on protein intake. They had barely the minimum of stocks of basic medications. Also, donations to the charity continued to decline and we had to continue £2000 each month being sent bi monthly to reduce exchange costs. The home still depends on our regular remittance in order to plan the full care of approximately 100 children resident in the Home as it is the only money which is guaranteed to arrive. They do receive donations in cash and kind from local supporters and businesses but these are intermittent due to their own financial situation.
In February it was reported that there had been 3 very good A level results for one residential boy and 2 good results from a community-based boy. 20 children had started primary and secondary education **,** (10 in grade 1, age 6, and 10 in form 1 age 11/12) and they had all been provided with the basic needs to start (stationery and uniforms) including the fees.
By March Zimbabwe was affected, along with the rest of the world, by the coronavirus 19, schools closed and non residential staff were locked down in their homes leaving residential staff to care for the children, educate them and keep the home running. This lasted for several months, fortunately spouses of residential staff were able to step in to help, one is a headmaster and 2 others are teachers so they supervised the education of the children. One of the teachers also helped the group of children new to MRCH just before lockdown who were identified as having learning difficulties and 2 young teens who had never been to school. The staff were able to use some online lessons to enhance the teaching. No visitors were allowed on site, deliveries were left at the gate, staff and children only left the site for essentials such as medical situations or looking for food.
Everyone remained well at MRCH. Children attended school on the premises from 11am to 1pm everyday dressed in their school uniforms to improve motivation. They had a lot of recreational time to fill but generally everything went well.
By the middle of the year it was clear that the Home’s usual fundraising events were non-existent. These usually involve MRCH being open to many visitors (often over 1000) who bring goods in kind (food, cooking essentials, clothing) as well as cash, which has been raised in the churches. (70% of school fees are paid by local supporters) However they had managed to have a reduced event online that had also been ‘attended’ by Zimbabwe Methodist Fellowships in the UK, Canada and Australia during which donations could be made.
During the long school holiday in August a week of communication skills and fun was organised by the staff for the children. We received many lovely photographs of children doing their own dramas, showing off their dressmaking skills with a fashion show, including girls modelling dresses and boys modelling shirts or waistcoats they had made. They looked very proud. The smaller children showed their skills at pronouncing or spelling words in English, parading in their best clothes and a sports day, teenagers wrote speeches to read to the audience and there were debates and quizzes.
By October schools were supposed to be open but due to teacher strikes MRCH management decided to keep the children at home because of the unreliable situation. They had the advantage of continued education delivered by the educationists living on site. They kept in touch with the school situation. Exam classes returned to the on site MRCH college – 16 children and young people and they had PPE for each one.
A boy was taken to hospital with a serious health emergency which the nurse couldn’t deal with. They spent the night waiting for help but as no doctors were available they decided to go privately. After an
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examination and a scan, medication was prescribed and the nurse monitored the child back at the home. All this cost an unexpected amount of money.
There were some issues of sexual misconduct among teenagers and this was immediately reported to their respective social workers who swiftly responded and gave counselling. One 13 year old girl reported attempted rape immediately by a 20 year old boy due to for discharge to foster parents and a police report was made within two hours. The girl was taken for medical examination and the boy was put in prison on remand. He was then removed from the Home. The case is under court proceedings.
MRCH is now supporting 2 local Epworth families in dire need of food: a young mother of 7 with 4 months old triplets and a grandmother with 5 grandchildren.
Non residential Staff were able to return to work in November after being locked down for most of the year. School Fees went up to US$988 equivalent for the 5 pupils who went back to school for their final examinations. Another unbudgeted area for the home is Covid19 testing, as they are testing all relief mothers and Caregivers as they come back from their off days. The cost is US$15 per test **.**
The Home has a new Finance Officer to replace the one who resigned at the beginning of the year. The Church’s finance officer had been dealing with the Home’s finances until this time.
We continued to be very concerned about the situation with the Senior Childcare officer who had been transferred to a remote area without electricity or a vehicle to run a rural Outreach Community Centre. We did however begin to receive brief reports about what he was doing and he had managed to contact around 50 children and families who needed support. He is working to involve local families in his work and pass on food growing skills. Later in the year he was given a vehicle to help him but he still has to travel several miles to be able to use his laptop and recharge his phone.
Our March executive committee meeting was cancelled due to the virus but we were up and running online by May.
As a committee we have been unable to encourage fund raising and have relied on appeals to our supporters/members reminding them of the plight of Zimbabwe in addition to the virus and informing them that, like most other charities, our income had dropped yet again. Our first appeal raised under £3,000. We also asked more supporters to set up standing orders or maybe raise the amount they have already pledged if at all possible.
A committee member signed the charity up to charitable giving by Pay Pal, Amazon Smile and donating by text and over the year this has gradually brought in more income.
We agreed to invite leading people at MRCH and the Zimbabwe church, also our contact at HSBC to the online AGM in June but no one took up the invitation.
The church which prints the newsletter for us had closed down, like everywhere else, so with the help of a committee member we went with a company who was able to do everything including posting. This all seemed rather ‘corporate’ and we were able to revert to our usual routine by September.
As usual, the officers and 3 members of our committee stood down at the AGM and were then re-elected. A replacement minute secretary wasn’t found so Michael Mapako agreed to continue on a temporary basis until someone came forward. We are still looking for a replacement treasurer but Immanuel Mudzinge has generously said he will stay on as long as possible until we can find someone. We had one volunteer but sadly he was unable to do anything on computer so couldn’t attend online meetings.
The added burden of Covid 19 means the outlook for childcare in Zimbabwe continues to be challenging with a constant need for financial support.
May 2021 Carol Banham Chair FoMRCH
www.friendsofmatthewrusike.org
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**Friends of Mathew Rusike Children's Home Receipts and Payments for the 12 months ended 31st December 2020**
|**Friends of Mathew Rusike Children's Home**|**Friends of Mathew Rusike Children's Home**||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Receipts and Payments for the 12 months ended 31st December 2020**|||||
||||||
|**As at 31/12/2019**|**ITEM**|**As at 31/12/2020**|Notes||
|_£_|**RECEIPTS**|_£_|||
|730.00|Membership|750.00|Note 1||
|31,916.79|Donations|31,674.27|Note 2||
|500.00|A level student sponsorship|360.00|Note 3||
|0.00|Special appeal donations|8,508.00|Note 4||
|12.95|Interest on deposit account|0.03|||
||||||
|**33,159.74**|**TOTAL RECEIPTS**|**41,292.30**|||
||||||
|19,470.39|Bank balance brought forward|3,468.44|||
||||||
|**52,630.13**|**TOTAL RECEIPTS + BANK BALANCE BROUGHT FORWARD**|**44,760.74**|||
||||||
||**PAYMENTS**||||
|48,483.69|MRCH Remittances|24,120.00|Note 5||
|240.00|Remittance Fees(bank charge)|180.00|||
|224.51|Printingcosts(BAA Print)|577.84|Note 6||
|147.15|Postage and stationery|0.00|||
|66.35|Room Hire - Droitwich Methodist Church|0.00|||
|0.00|Playground equipment donation|5,000.00|Note 7||
||||||
|**49,161.70**|**TOTAL PAYMENTS**|**29,877.84**|||
||||||
|_3,468.43_|Bank balance carried forward|_14,882.90_|||
||||||
|**52,630.13**|**TOTAL PAYMENTS + BALANCE CARRIED FORWARD**|**44,760.74**|||
||||||
||||||
|**as at 31/12/2019**|**BANK BALANCES**|**as at 31/12/2020**|||
|3,010.32|HSBC Current Account|14,424.75|||
|450.01|Co-opBank Current Account|450.01|||
|8.11|HSBC Deposit Account|8.14|||
|**3,468.44**|**CLOSING BANK BALANCE**|**14,882.90**|||
||||||
|Accounts prepared by
Examined & found to be true reflection of transactions by|||||
|**Immanuel Mudzinge FoMRCH - Treasurer**
**Michael Mudyiwa BSc, MSc, MBps**|||||
||||||
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## **Notes to the accounts:**
## **Note 1** :
Membership fee = £10 per annum and the count is based on donors who sign membership forms or write letters to say they wish to be included as members.
## **Note 2:**
Donations in 2020 remained at same level as previous year
## **Note 3:**
One donor has a standing order for £30 per month dedicated to A level sponsorship.
## **Note 4:**
Special donations were made up of:
- £4000 - Special appeal to donors launched in early 2020.
- £4,208 - from HMRC for Gift Aid claim for the year 2017
- £300 – Christmas gift for the children from one donor
## **Note 5:**
Remittances continued to be done bi-monthly to reduce bank charges
## **Note 6:**
A payment of £288.92 made in March for printing costs to BAA Printing was duplicated in December, in error as claim from one of the trustees. Funds reimbursed in January 2021 and will reflect in 2021 accounts
## **Note 7:**
Playground equipment special donation of £5,000 was from one donor.
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## **FRIENDS OF MATHEW RUSIKE CHILDREN’S HOME INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT**
## **31 December 2020**
## **Charity number 1120944**
## **TRUSTEES**
1. **Donald Banham** -Chair of the Trustees
2. **Mrs. Carol Banham** -Chair of the Executive Committee and Trustee
3. **Immanuel Mudzinge** -Treasurer and Trustee
4. **Michael Mapako** -Secretary and Trustee
5. **David Graaff** -Trustee
6. **Wayne Cooper** -Trustee
7. **Rev. Ed Standhaft** -Trustee
8. **Rev. Audrey Standhaft** -Trustee
I have conducted an independent examination of the Friends of Mathew Rusike (FoMRCH) accounts covering the period from 01 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. The purpose of this inspection was to ensure that the laid down FoMRCH accounting procedures and internal controls are operating as effectively and are compliant with the provisions set out under the Charities Acts (2011).
The responsibility for preparing the final accounts for the charity remains with the Trustees of FoMRCH. Based on the income /receipts threshold set out in the Charities Act, the Trustees of FoMRCH have determined that a full audit of accounts is not required but that an independent examination will suffice.
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I conducted the independent examination by:
- ➢ Inspecting the Treasurer’s accounts record book.
- ➢ Following a sample of funds deposited into the bank accounts and ascertaining whether deposits were being banked within reasonable time.
- ➢ Examining whether payments made were properly authorised and supporting invoices and receipts were being kept.
The main points arising from this independent examination are as follows:
## **Bank Accounts**
The FoMRCH holds three bank accounts (two with HSBC and one with Co-operative bank). The two current accounts are held as the ongoing operations accounts. The deposit account is a reserves/investment account which is passive.
## **Treasurer’s record book**
All receipts and payments have been recorded correctly by the Treasurer.
## **Receipts**
All receipts into the charity account are made through cheques and direct debits from members and supporters’ accounts into the Charity’s account. The Treasurer records the breakdown of cheques received at the back of the deposit slip before making the deposits. An email is sent to acknowledge receipt of cheques, samples of which were submitted.
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## **Payments.**
FoMRCH’s main payments were in the form of bi-monthly remittances of £4000 to Mathew Rusike Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.
Acknowledgements of remitted funds by the recipient MRCH were submitted to the independent examiner.
All payments for operational expenses were properly recorded and authorised. It appears that the internal control system in this domain is working well.
## **Opinion**
It is the opinion of the Independent Examiner that the accounts of FoMRCH are being kept well and there is no evidence or suggestion of any financial impropriety.
## **Michael Mudyiwa (BSc, MSc, MBps** )
199 Cort Crescent Leicester LE3 1QN Mobile : 07775996091 Email : mudyiwa23@gmail.com
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