## **Congo Children Trust Annual Report 2024-25**
The trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.
During the year 2024-25, the trustees continued to focus on supporting fundraising by groups and individuals as well as applying for grant funding. A large number of churches and individuals continued to give generously and talks and presence at a range of events continued to raise awareness in the UK.
Congo Children Trust once again made both monthly maintenance grants and occasional oneoff grants to the Kimbilio Project for street children in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo and to related projects in DRC.
## **Income**
In 2024-25 income grew by almost 25% in comparison with the previous year while expenditure also grew by almost 17%. Donations continued to be received towards the construction costs of the new Day Centre for the Kimbilio Project and this continues to be a key aim for fundraising from grants and donations.
The trustees continue to owe particular thanks to Ruth Allen for operating the Etsy shop and co-ordinating the volunteer sewers in the UK, along with Gill Venton. Jan McCarthy also crocheted 250 tiny turtles. As in previous years, a great deal of hard work by volunteers and Ian Harvey, the founding Director, went into maintaining personal contact with group and individual supporters as well as applying for grants from funders with the support of Joanne Peters. Jen Appleby is providing one day per week administrative support in the office.
The trustees are deeply grateful to the following trusts, companies, and funds for their generous support:
- Carne Global Finance, IX Metals, IX Metals (South Africa), The C & R Pignatelli Foundation, University of Strathclyde University Muslim Student Association, Wolverhampton Rotary Club, Rotary Charity Auctions, Brian Mercer Trust, Sussex Mineral and Lapidiary Society, Carpe Crystals Ltd, Souter Trust
A substantial body of regular donors continue to support the charity via standing orders, ensuring that regular income is maintained and that funds are available when required for grants for costs of food and utilities and the trustees are deeply grateful to them for their generous commitment.
In addition, the trustees owe particular thanks to the following churches:
- The congregations and church councils of Horwich Evangelical Church, St Andrew, Hadfield; St Michael and All Angels, Cosby; Wesley Methodist Centre, Chester; Central Exeter Parish; St Michael, Helston; St Helen, Wheathampstead; The Church of the
Good Shepherd, Romford; St Andrew, Lowestoft; St James, Woodley; St Margaret, Whalley Range; St Helen, Etwall; All Hallows, Allerton; Holy Trinity, Warrington; Christ Church, Harpurhey; Glenbrook Christian Fellowship; St Mary, Ellenbrook; St Michael, Mytholmroyd; Hillheads Christian Fellowship, Whitley Bay; St Mary, Long Stratton.
Other funding sources of note:
- Once again, various volunteers took part in various fairs and fundraising events in Manchester, Essex, London and Greenbelt Festival, adding to trading income.
- Global Giving continued to be a particularly helpful online fundraising tool in the course of the year, with significant match funding provided, including £28,000 in December 2024.
- Kumi Foundation has been instrumental in linking CCT with some key corporate donors and their support is very much appreciated by the trustees.
## **Expenditure**
Operational expenditure increased once again with pressure from inflation, but funds were again able to cover this and donations continued to be received for the new Day Centre. The bulk of Congo Children Trust’s financial support continues to provide for the day to day running of the Centre Kimbilio and Maison Kimbilio; a day centre for street children as well as associated accommodation and support provision for former street children. The Kimbilio/Mapendo school also received funding for month-to-month expenses.
In the course of the financial year, 6679 meals were provided at the KImbilio Day Centre providing street children with the opportunity to receive medical care, food, entertainment, counselling, and many other activities. The girls undertake sewing training, and the boys play football once a month. 337 children, who would otherwise not be able to attend school, were registered across the KImbilio/Mapendo primary and secondary school and the school also plays a role in helping to integrate the former street children into their local community. A perimeter wall was constructed around the school precinct in the course of the year. 72 children were provided with accommodation in one of the Maison Kimbilio homes, receiving basic education in literacy, mathematics, dance and art. 60 children were reunited with their families by the social work team; 11 of these reunited children were provided with bursaries to attend school in their home towns and villages; 44 mothers of reunited children have graduated from the sewing training project; 6 young mothers have graduated from the young mums hairdressing and beauty training and 6 young people were provided with University education
Through the year 2024-25 the Trust once again continued to have very low UK running costs at under 10% of our income and we continue to be extremely grateful for the generosity of the St Margaret's Centre, Whalley Range, Manchester for giving use of office space free of charge. The Kimbilio Project UK director Ian Harvey worked more than a day per week on a voluntary basis, with some support donated funds specifically for his expenses. His activities involved communicating with supporters and volunteers in the UK, including emails, newsletters and online meetings and a programme of visits to supporter churches. He also
maintained regular contact with the volunteers and staff in DRC and led a visit to Lubumbashi including representatives of donor partner Kumi Consulting in July 2024, which included an exploratory visit to meet with potential funders and partners in Kolwesi.
**Charity Name No (if any) Congo Children Trust 1121048**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
4/1/2024 3/31/2025 **To**
**For the period from**
## **CC16a**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|||||**Unrestricted**
**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**||**Total funds**||**Last year**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**|
||**A1 Receipts**||||||||||||
||Donations||**73**|**73,437**||||||**73,437**||**98,372**|
||Unrestriced Grants||**76**|**76,827**||||||**76,827**||**40,741**|
||Sewing project|||||**11,304**||||**11,304**|||
||Trading||**1**|**1,033**||||||**1,033**||**1,683**|
||Bank Account interest|||**653**||||||**653**||**289**|
||Donation(food costs)|||||||||**-**||**2,000**|
||Rotary (English teacher and football|lish teacher and football)||||**1,600**||||**1,600**|||
||Church Donations|||**21,250.24**||||||**21,250**||**12,762**|
||Church Donations(director salary)|||||**1,022**||||**1,022**||**321**|
||Donations(daycentre)|||||||||**-**||**20,610**|
||Visits to DRC|||||||||**-**||**1,250**|
||Mireille|||||||||**-**||**140**|
||Church Donation(youngMums)|||||||||**-**||**750**|
||Lilyfor the Congo|||||||||**-**||**2,580**|
||Church Donation Daniella university|||||**1,485.35**||||**1,485**||**1,195**|
||Grants (sewing workshop and kitchen
extention)|||||||||**-**||**2,000**|
||Emergencyoperation|||||||||**-**||**210**|
||Global Giving|||||**59,117**||||**59,117**||**-**|
||**173,200**
**_Sub total_**(Gross income for AR)|||**173,200**||**74,528**||**-**||**247,728**||**184,903**|
|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total receipts_ 173,200**
**74,528**
**-**
**247,728**
**184,903**
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
~~——————~~|||||||||||||
||**A3 Payments**||||||||||||
||Publicityand fundraising||**4**|**4,653**||||||**4,653**||**4,077**|
||Subscriptions/Memberships|||**448**||||||**448**||**399**|
||Grants to DR Congo||**118**|**118,162**||||||**118,162**||**141,729**|
||Insurance|||**781**||||||**781**||**722**|
||Staff and Office Expenses||**4**|**4,980**||||||**4,980**||**10,069**|
||Bank fees|||**435**||||||**435**||**435**|
||Visits to DRC|||||||||**-**||**2,435**|
||Transfer to reserve account|||||||||**-**|||
||YoungMums|||||||||**-**||**750**|
||Teacher Salaries|||||||||**-**|||
||School Buildingand furnishing|||||||||**-**|||
||SewingProject|||||||||**-**||**1,000**|
||Global Giving|||||**59,117**||||**59,117**||**-**|
||Tradingexpenses|||**518**||||||**518**||**46**|
||Rotary (English teacher and football|lish teacher and football)||||**1,600**||||**1,600**|||
||Girls House|||||||||**-**||**1,000**|
||Lillyfor the Congo|||||||||**-**||**2,580**|
||Food Costs|||||||||**-**||**2,000**|
||Director salary|||||**1,022**||||**1,022**||**321**|
||Mirellie|||||||||**-**||**140**|
||Emergencyoperation|||||||||**-**||**210**|
||Daniella Universityfees|fees||||**1,485**||||**1,485**||**1,195**|
||CRM Cost||**9**|**9,346**||||||**9,346**||**-**|
|||**_Sub total_ **|**139**|**139,324**||**63,224**||**-**||**202,548**||**169,107**|
**A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) -** ~~————~~ **-**
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**_Sub total_ -**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||||||||||
||**_Total payments_ 139,324**||**63,224**||**-**||**202,548**||**169,107**||
||||||||||||
||**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ 33,876**||**11,304**||**-**||**45,180**||**15,796**||
|**A5**|**Transfers between funds**||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**A6**|**Cash funds last year end**
**32,739**||**28,188**||||**60,927**||**45,131**||
||**_Cash funds this year end_ 66,615**||**39,492**||||**106,107**||**60,927**||
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**||**Endowment**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**||**Details**||**funds**||**funds**||**funds**|
|||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**|
|**B1 Cash funds**|Current Account
**66,615**
**39,492**
**-**
Reserve Account
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**66,615**
**39,492**
**-**
**_Total cash funds_**
~~—=S==~~||||||||
|||(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|(agree balances with receipts and payments|OK||OK||OK|
|||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**||**Endowment**|
|||||**funds**||**funds**||**funds**|
|||**Details**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**|
|**B2 Other monetary assets**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
~~——==~~||||||||
|||**Details**||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B3 Investment assets**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
~~nee~~||||||||
|||**Details**||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
~~mie~~||||||||
|||||**Fund to which**||**Amount due**||**When due**|
**Details liability relates (optional) (optional) B5 Liabilities - - - - -** Signed by one or two trustees on Date of behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name approval Mark Gant ~~———~~
## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
## **Section A**
**Independent Examiner’s Report**
**Report to the trustees/** Charity Name **members of** Congo Children Trust **On accounts for the year** 31 March 2025 **Charity no** 1121048 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **31 / 03 / 2024** .
**Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the **basis of report** 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.
## **Independent**
**examiner's statement**[I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have ] come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect,:
- the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act; or
- the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
- the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
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.
* _Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply._
**Signed: Date:** 24 November 2025 ~~CT~~ **Name:** Euan Menzies ICAEW **Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** 24 Balcombe Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex
**October 2018**
**IER**
1
## **Section B Disclosure**
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
**Give here details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** .
N/A
**October 2018**
**IER**
2