Open Way
Helping people out of poverty
(Charity Number: 1122055)
Trustees Annual Report & Financial Statements
for the year ended
31st July 2023
Charity accounts preparation &
independent examination service

Open Way
(Charity Number: 11220551
Contents
Index
Page
Report of the trustees
Independent examiner's report
10
Receipts & payments accounts
11
Statement of assets and liabilities
12
Notes to the accounts
13

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
For the period: 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023
Referen?and Administration detai
Charity's Full Name:
Open Way
Other names the charity is known by:
n/a
Charity number:
1122055
Address:
26 Spring Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire. OX14 IAQ
Email:
openway@hotmail.co.uk
Names of the Trustees who manage the charity
Trustee name
Office (if any)
Dates acted if not
whole year
Name of person entitled
to appoint trustee
Nicholas Osborne
Chair
Maria Lopez
Trustee
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity:
None
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others:
None of any kind
Names and addresses of advisers:
Independent
Examiner..
Karen Wood
ACMA
Outsource VSCE Support
CIC, 29 Millfield Road,
York. Y023 INH
Banker..
CAF BANK Ltd
25 Kings Hill Avenue,
Kings Hill, West Malling,
Kent.
ME19 4JQ
Name of chief executive:
Nick osborne (Chair of Trustees)

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
ement
Description of the charity's trusts
Governing Document
Trust Deed
How the charity is constituted
Trust
Trustee selection methods
Appointed by existing trustees
Objectlves and Actlvltles
The charity has power to do anything which is calculated to further its Object(s) or is conducive or
incidental to doing so.
Summary of the purposes of the charity set out in its governing document
The relief of poverty and suffering related to the lack of basic needs for people of any age or cultural
background in poor countries with the aim of bettering their present situation and improving their
chances of future self-reliability.
To advance the education of the public in poor countries in the subjects of: health,. and the
conservation of the natural and physical environment.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects
Helping people out of poverty in Ethiopia by:
Providing medical help.
Providing free pre-school education in poor rural villages.
Tackling malnourishment.
Helping the vulnerable and the elderly.
The trustee5 consider that they have complied with their duties to have due regard to the public benefit
guidance published by the Charity Commission.

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
chievements and Performance
Introduction
We are happy to have completed another year of activities despite a difficult general situation in
Ethiopia.
There are many ethnic tensions in the country, and these have led to chaotic circumstances in several
regions. Earlier this year, ethnic violence even reached Addis Ababa (where large numbers of people
had their houses demolished due to ethnic conflict). and into the church where a split along ethnic
lines resulted in numerous killings.
Travel between Addis Ababa and Sidamo also remains dangerous. In June, guerilla fighters kidnapped
over 70 bus-drivers and co-drivers.
Fortunately, the situation in Sidamo itself is peaceful and the main battles are with hunger and inflation
as usual. Open Way has delivered food in the form of grain and seedlings, shelter in the form of
housing, health care by organizing medical asslstance and education through its schools; and this has
helped thousands of people to be a bit less in the grip of poverty right now and for the future.
Education Project
In October 2022, Open Way schools registered 1,348 students. We always aim to equally encourage
girls into education and once again we have more girls 677 than boys 671 registered this year.
It was really good to see such high demand after the difficulty of the Covid period when numbers were
forced down. In fact, there was more demand than we could accommodate. In the village of Shigesho,
the community were so keen to give a place to all the children, that they got together and found two
rooms that could be rented as classrooms, so we could hardly refuse to provide two more teachers!
The community of Shigasho also paid for the desks for these two classrooms, so this is a great
collaboration. With an additional cla55 in Lela Wemerera too, we had three additional classes thi5 year
and employed three more teachers.
The libraries at five of the schools are used for students to studyi read, and play games. In Shigesho,
Lela Wemerera and Lela Honcho, these are used as comrllunity centres in the evening for people to
gather and watch the news on solar powered tv.
In total the eight Open Way schools operated 30 classes and five libraries.
School
Classes in operation
2021-2022
Classes in operation
2022-2023
Schools with
libraries
TK
Shigesho
L. Wemerera
Lela Honcho
Hatabo
Kokosa
Mi-ke
Bentibata
27
30

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
During the summer, a survey was conducted of necessary repairs needed for the schools and libraries.
Lela Wemerera's library needed some construction repairs and all the other schools needed minor
repairs and painting. All blackboards at the schools were repainted ready for the beginning of the new
school year.
TK school after painting.
Hatabo school being painted.
The school year was a very successful one with almost all of an initial roll of 1,348 students receiving
a year of education. The children at Open Way schools learn Mathematics, Amharic, English,
Environmental Science and Health Education and the schools are well known for giving a really good
start in education.
Exercise books being handed out.
With rising prices of materials such as exercise books and pens (inflation is well over 300/0 for such
items) budgets have become stretched. The teachers and other staff are also feeling the pressure of
the ever-increasing cost of living. For these reasons, class running costs are increasing next year and
we will be happy to be able to raise teachers,, librarians,, and other staff salaries.
The three schools without libraries have petitioned for one and they will soon also have this benefit
next coming academic year.
For once, our existing teachers will remain mainly unchanged from this year to next year, following an
announcement by the Ministry of Education that there are no new teaching jobs available this coming
year. Normally, we have a few teachers move on to government schools following their experience with
us and training.
After teachers flagged up the fact that some children had clothes that were literally falling to pieces,
we found it important to purchase clothes for these children. The teachers helped select 80 students in
need of clothes.

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
Tackllng Food Insecurlty
Grain
Food insecurity is the main issue this year. As mentioned in the introduction, inflation has been tough
on poor rural people. The price of vegetable oil for cooking went up more than five times during a
12-month period,. and crucially for our work, the price of grain went up by nearly a third.
To put the situation in some kind of perspective, the grain we supply costs about 60p per kg and the
ration a family receives from us (10 kg or 15 kg) is pretty much the only food the family has other
than any vegetables they may grow on their plot like, for example, cabbage. Naturally, things are
a bit better at harvest times and in the coffee picking season when people can earn a little money,
but families don't even imagine having items that we might consider "basics" like milk or sugar.
Malnourishment is, therefore, unfortunately very widespread. Many of the families we supply come to
our knowledge because medical staff recognize malnourishment and point them our way and write out
a 'prescription" for our area manager.
Many people that are helped with grain have no plot or a plot which is too small to allow them to grow
enough food. Grain, therefore, is a crucial survival food for such families.
Sirgu, our manager, negotiated a good price for grain at the mill which has helped. The assisted people
are given a voucher, and they collect the grain directly from the mill themselves.
Over the last 12 months, we have distributed over 57 tonnes of grain.
From this coming August, we will be trying a new project to see if we can kick-start people's small
businesses and give at least some a way out of their situation.
Seedlings
In May and June false banana seedlings were distributed to 484 families.
Some recipients of false
banana seedlings.
Some young plants.

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
This year we gave false banana crops exclusively. While false banana crops require time to mature,
they are beneficial for a number of reasons..
They can be planted at any time, and they can be propagated from cuttings.
They are drought resistant (their growth pauses during drought)-
The flesh is used to make a fermented staple called kocho that is nutritious and calorie rich.
The root can be used as animal feed or even emergency human food boiled like a potato.
The leaves of false banana plants can be used for animal feed or other uses. The fibers of the plant
are used to make rope and leaves are used for traditional roofs.
The plant reaches maturity after three to five years after which it produces a harvest of around 40 kg
of staple food. If a family can stagger the growth of their false banana plants by taking cuttings, then
they will eventually have a reliable and nutritious food supply. 40 to 60 plants in an area of 300 square
meters (which is a fairly typical plot size) can sustain a family of 5 or 6 people.

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
Providing Housing
This year we have constructed 22 houses for people living in unsafe dwellings.
A house under construction.
Most rural people live in traditional mud round houses with grass roofs. These grass roof houses are
great if they are well made and can be maintained, but vulnerable people such as the elderly, disabled,
unwell or single parents can find themselves in a poorly construtted, deteriorated and unsafe dwelling
which lets in the rain, and does not offer protection from hyenas. Tragically there are cases each year
of people being killed by hyenas in the region.
People in this kind of difficulty are selected for house construrtion. The house constructed is a simple
square timber and mud house with a metal roof. Like everything else, the price of metal roofing has
increased a lot. Our manager Sirgu did well to purchase a large amount of metal roofing material early-
on to make this project viable with the available funds.
Seventeen of the houses were built in different villages and this year five houses were built in the town
of TK. People in the town tend not to have land, but the TK district authority gave Open Way a plot to
build five houses for vulnerable and homeless people in the town.
llllknntfvw I,,;
Houses before mud rendering.
Houses after mud rendering.

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
Helping the Elderly
For many years, Open Way has been helping about 16 elderly rural people in the project area who have
no other support from anyone else. This includes clothing, soap, and blankets when needed and a little
bit of money. They also receive monthly grain.
This makes a big difference, allowing them to live their final years with dignity.
Provldlng access to medlcal help
In the period August 22 to July 23, 202 patients received medical help thanks to Open Way paying
for: cost of transport to clinics and hospitals,. registration fees. medicines and tests, and food and
accommodation when needed. These are people that otherwise would not have the means to get
medical help. The treatments can vary from very simple to very serious cases which may even be
referred to Addis Ababa hospitals on occasion. This coming year (August 23 July 24) we hope to help
a similar number.
A total of 202 patients were treated for the conditions in the table. Of these, 112 were female, 90 were
male, and 29 were children.
Condition
No. of cases
Condition
No. of cases
Anaemia
Kidney issues
Liver issues
18
Asthma
Brain tumour
Lung issues
Malaria
io
Breast issue
Cancer
Mental health
Cataratts
52
Nerve issues
Depression
Diabetes
Pneumonia
Prostate
Diarrhea
Skin
IIN
Epilepsy
Eye issues
Fistula
Stomach issues
Swelling
TB
Gastritis
Typhoid/typhus
Unknown
44
Giardia
Glaucoma
17
Womb
Heart issues
Worms
li
HBP
Wounds
Hyena wound
Total
244*
* The total number of medical cases is larger than the number of patients because some patients had
more than one medical problem.

Open Way
(Charity Number 11220551
Trustee's Annual Report
Financial Review
Open Way's reserves are reduced due to emergency spending.
Our end of year balance is £54,587.01. This is almost all earmarked for upcoming projetts from 1st
Aug 2023.
Our aim is to hold reserves of around 4 to 6 months.
Open Way has no funds in deficit.
Declaratio
The trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees Annual Report and Accounts.
Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees:
Signature:
Name:
Nick Osbourne
Position:
Chair of The Trustees
Date:
10th February 2024

Independent examinerf5 report to the trustees of O
I report on the accounts of:
Open Way
forthe year ended:
31st July 2023
Responsibilities and basis of report
enwa
which are set out on pages 11 to 14.
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in
accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 20111'the Act'l.
I report in respect of my examination of the Charity'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 14515llbl of the Act.
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 giving me cause to believe that in any material respect..
l accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of
the Act,. or
2 the accounts do not accord with those records
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.
2710212024
Karen Wood {ACMA)
Outsource independent examination
service
The H iscox Building
Peasholme Green
York YOI 7PR
Date:
io

Open Way
Icharity Number- 11220551
Receipts & Payments Accounts for the year ended:
31st July 2023
2023
Total
funds
2022
Total
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Receipts
Grants
Donations - standing orders
Donations - one-off
My Donate / Wonderful
Gift aid
Bank interest
147.308
196
147.308
7,726
5,420
80
3,163
39
40,660
8,021
3,715
644
7,530
5,420
80
3,163
39
Total receipts
16,232
147,504
163,736
53,041
Payments
Grants to project
Postage & packaging
Bank charges & trf fees
Independent examination fee
27,496
93,004
120.500
50,000
361
150
361
150
221
150
Total payments
28,007
93,004
121,011
50,371
Net of receipts/(payments)
Transfers between funds
{11,775)
54,500
42,725
2,670
Balance brought forward
Balance carried forward
11,862
11,862
9,192
87
54,500
54,587
11,862
li

Open Way
(Charity Number.. 11220551
Statement of Assets and Liabilities at:
315t July 2023
2023
Total
funds
2022
Total
funds
Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Assets
Cash at bank and in hand
CAF current account
54,587
54,587
11,862
2023
Total
Funds
2022
Total
Funds
Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Liabilities
Independent Examination fee
150
150
150
150
150
150
12

Open Way
(Charity Number.. 11220551
Notes to the Accounts for the year ended:
l. Basis of Accounts
31st July 2023
The Trustees have taken advantage of section 14412} of the Charities Act 2011 and prepared
the accounts on a receipts and payments basis.
2. Analysis of Funds
2.1 Details of restricted funds
All funds of the charity are utilised in the alleviation of poverty in Ethiopia. However the
charity obtains grants and donations which are restricted for the following purposes..
Education
Elderly & vulnerable Imalnutrition, Housing and Farm projertsl
Helpto individuals
Medical
2.2 Movement of major funds
Balan¢e
blfvid
Incomlng
resources
Resources
expended
Balance
clfwd
Unrestricted Funds
General unrestricted funds
11,862
11,862
16.232
16,232
28,007
28,007
87
87
Restricted Funds
Education
Band Aid Trust
Just Trust
Hazel's Footprints Trust
24,675
1,000
4,050
29,725
6,750
1,000
4,050
11,800
17,925
17.925
Elderly & Vulnerable
Band Aid Trust Imalnourishmentl
Let Yourself Trust Imalnourishmentl
Let Yourself Trust IFarm project)
Donations Imalnourishmentl
Donations (Elderly)
Band Aid Trust (Housing)
Let Yourself Trust IHousingl
64,720
2,277
27,223
153
535
21,300
500
116.708
37,320
2,277
27,223
153
535
13,000
500
81,008
27,400
8,300
35.700
Help to individuals
Donations
196
196
Medical
Band Aid
875
875
Total Restricted
147.504
93.004
54.500
Total Funds
11,862
163,736
121,011
54,587
13

Approval of Accounts for the year ended:
31st July 2023
The report and accounts were approved at a
meeting of the Trustees held on..
27th Feb 2024
Date
27th Feb 2024
Signed for and on behalf of the Trustees
Date
Nick Osborne
Chair
Print Name
Position (e.g. Chair etc)
14