## **FRIENDS OF ALALAY (SANTA CRUZ) Annual Report to Year End 31 December 2023** ## **1. BASIC DETAILS AND STRUCTURE** Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz) – in this Report now referred to as FoA Registration number 1123425 Registered address 13 Fremantle Road Cotham Bristol BS6 5SY The FoA Trust comprises three family trustees: Annie Syrett (Chair) Graham Syrett (Treasurer) Rosamund Syrett All decisions of consequence are taken jointly and appropriately minuted. Trustees are currently chosen by appointment of the other Trustees. The Trust supports and works with the Alalay Foundation, primarily in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. ## **2. ACTIVITIES AND OBJECTIVES** These have remained the same since the initial registration of the charity. ## **2.1 The principal activities are:** To advance education, preserve health, relieve poverty and otherwise meet the needs of street children supported by Alalay in the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, by providing funding as determined by the Trustees and by educating and informing people (especially school children and students) on the plight, circumstances and needs of these street children. ## **2.2 Our philosophy and principal objectives are:** That funds raised will be used in either educating, training or developing the children 1 and establishing projects that will become self-financing within six months and invariably aid in the development of the skills of the children. That no funds raised will be used to meet administrative costs of FoA in the UK or elsewhere (eg travel, stationery, telephone, publicity, bank charges and so on). These will be met directly from family funds and there are no conflicts of interest. ## **3. ACHIEVEMENTS AND EVENTS IN THE REPORT YEAR** Thankfully this year it was no longer necessary to hold some funds in reserve to protect our children and staff from Covid 19 and we were able to invest more funds directly into the work. Overall the following has been achieved:. ## **3.1 Projects and other supporting payments made** This year saw a major initiative in the development of staff, thanks to a generous single donation of £20,000. This enabled around 50 staff to come off-site for five days and to explore ways of providing “respectful parenting” for the children. The course was considered by all participants as an outstanding success and follow-up sessions are planned for 2024. In addition, we continued to invest in: . - the production of around 8,000 panettone for sale at the end of 2023 by the children and staff. The profitability of this project was in the region of £3,500 - the vocational training of eight students. Four completed their courses and graduated, two dropped out of their courses and two agreed to spread their studies over a longer period. The training scholarships that we have provided have proved invaluable. - educational items (eg books, pens, pencils, exercise books and so on) We have also continued to pay the salary and on-costs of a house mother named Darleny. This was necessary because of a shortfall of Alalay funds from other sources. It had been intended that major renovation work on the Girls’ Welcome House would be undertaken starting May 2023 but because of the slowness by the Authorities in issuing a building permit, and as a result of unanticipated additional work, this was delayed. It is hoped to now commence work in May 2024. 2 Overall, our total funding for the Alalay Foundation since the formation of FoA now exceeds £400,000. ## **3.2 Volunteers** No volunteers were sent by FoA to Alalay in Santa Cruz this year. Since this report is being written during the war in Ukraine, and other international unrest, we consider it unlikely that there will be any significant use of volunteers in the following year (ie 2024). ## **3.3 Presentations, events and publicity** FoA continue to send out a Quarterly newsletter. Our aim continues to be that this would not exceed a single sheet – as previously this has always been much appreciated by our readers! There have been no major events during the year, though we have maintained a presence via a stall selling Bolivian items and promoting FoA at a local church festival. ## **3.4 Website** Our website continues to attract new contacts and some new donors. We regard this and our Facebook and other social media outlets to be increasingly important to our work. We recognise a need to update our website but this has once more proved impossible in the current year and is unlikely to be achieved in the near future. ## **3.5** ## **Communication with Bolivian staff** A key member of staff named Valeria, who had been our principal point of contact, sadly left Alalay at the end of 2023. This was unexpected, it is likely to take time to replace her and this may put an almost intolerable burden on other staff, such as the Founder and CEO Claudia Gonzales. In addition it is anticipated that this will have an adverse affect on communication, complicate and may slow down some of the important decision making ## **4. POLICIES** We maintain the following written policies, and these were reviewed and confirmed in July. They are: risk assessment and management, investment, safeguarding and child protection, conflicting interests, volunteer management, complaints handling, Gift Aid, privacy and data protection, and website data protection. 3 ## **5. FINANCIAL REVIEW** We were able to transfer much needed funds of £40,000 to Alalay in May 2023 and anticipate that by the end of that year we will have in excess of a further £30,000 for investment. This is largely due to some major donors during the year (one of £20,000) and we recognise that this makes us especially financially vulnerable in the future. However, it is perhaps worth repeating a statement made in our previous three reports, namely: “We are in the fortunate position of having a wide support base, with a large number of donors giving via standing orders, in addition to several consistent and reliable larger commercial donors”. That this continues is something of a relief. ## **6. CONCLUSIONS** This has been our most successful year financially since FoA was first formed in 2007 and we end the year in a healthy financial state. We have achieved all of our key goals with the exception of the work to renovate the Girls’ Welcome House. This latter is disappointing as, when completed, it should result in an income stream exceeding £6,500 pa and further reduce costs. Our need to hold contingency funds because of Covid 19 has now substantially reduced and consequently we can more fully invest in potentially profitable outcomes. We remain cautiously optimistic for the future of Alalay but recognise the importance of increasing staffing at senior levels in the organisation and thereby to maintain efficiency. Annie Syrett Graham Syrett Rosamund Syrett 09 April 2024 4 ## **FRIENDS OF ALALAY (SANTA CRUZ) Registered number 1123425** ## **PROFIT/LOSS ACCOUNT FOR FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 31 December 2023** **INCOME** Donations 51,704.12 Loan from Kingsdown Community Fund 408.01 Administration payment by family 360.00 Interest 335.13 Total Income £52,807.26 **EXPENDITURE** JustGiving costs 216.00 Bank charges for currency transfers 10.00 Repaid loan Kingsdown Community Fund 408.01 Funds transfer Santa Cruz (15/05/23) 40,435.82 Total expenditure £41,069.83 **PROFIT RETAINED £11,737.43** 05 April 2024 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts •** Section A Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trustees Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz) On accounts for the year ended 31st Deomber 2023 Charity no (if any) 1123425 Set out on pages I rèport to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity {'the Trust.) for the year ended 31112 12023. ResponsSbllltles and basis of report As the charty'5 trustees. you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance wrth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 {'Ihe Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying oul my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5)Ibl of the Act. Independent I have completed my examination. l Confirm thal no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention 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 Charrties Act., or the accounts did not accord with the a¢counling records.. or the accounls did nol comply with the applicable requirements oncerning the fomi and content of accounts sel out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports} Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair, view which is nol a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection wilh the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of Ihe accounts to be reached. Please delele Ihe words in the br8ckets if they do nol apply. Signed: Date: qlts Name: leuan Ward Relevant profegsional qualifi¢alion{s) or body (if any): Chartered Tax Adviser Chartered Institute of Taxation Address: Ingenhaag LLP 39 Eastcheap, London EC3M 1 DT IER Oct 2018 Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs lo highlight material mallers Df concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give hère brief details of I items that the examSner wishes to disclose. None IER Oct 2018