2023-07-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report

For the period :-

From 01/08/2022 to 31/07/23

Giving Opportunities to Achieve and Learn for The Gambia G.O.A.L. for The Gambia (Charity No. 1125489)

29 Upton Scudamore

Warminster

Wiltshire BA12 0AG Trustee - Sandy Sanyang Chair Paul Reynolds Treasurer Daniel Harston Bank - HSBC PLC 2 London Road, Twickenham, Middx, TW1 3RY

Structure, Governance and Management:-

Type of governing document:- Constitution adopted on 13[th] August 2008

How the charity is constituted:- Association consisting of 10 members

Trustee selection:- Trustees are appointed or reappointed annually at the Annual General Meeting

Additional governance issues :- All trustees give their time voluntary and receive no remuneration or other benefits.

Objects and Activities :-

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document:-

To advance the education of Gambian Children by providing and assisting in the provision of facilities and equipment for their use at school including the provision of funds for the construction and improvement of educational facilities.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects:-

Sponsorship Programme :-

We currently have 450 children being sponsored, with 241 regular sponsors.

Bantangba Nursery :-

The charity has continued to support the Nursery by providing Teacher salaries and continuous teacher training. We also manage the children sponsorship programme and the development of planned building projects.

Kitty :-

We continue to work with the school, providing school materials, toys, donations and supplementing staff incomes.

Sanyang Arabic School :-

We have continued to build a very good relationship with the school and very pleased to help the school with their building projects and support their teachers through the National Training programme.

Sanyang Scouts :-

The Charity has continued to be involved with the Sanyang Scout Troop by providing financial support and the donation of musical instruments to their Scout Band and other training requirements.

Sanyang Clinic:-

The charity has continued to support the Clinic by providing medical equipment and medicines, and financial support to assist in the daily running of the clinic.

Beach Days :

We had 4 beach days for the children from Bantangba, Kitty, Sanyang schools, and the Scouts.

Additional details of objectives and activities:

The Charity has continued to ship school and sports equipment from England, this has been funded by the secondhand clothes that have also been shipped and sold to the Gambian people.

Rice donations from sponsors to their sponsor child/ family have continued to increase, and occasional requests for additional support.

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year:-

Sponsorship Process :-

We currently have 450 children being sponsored, with 241 regular sponsors. There were 10 new sponsors during the year and 10 donors stopped their sponsorship. The current financial environment has had a negative impact in support within many charities, however we have been able to keep a constant number of sponsors throughout the year.

Bantangba Nursery :-

The school still has a full quota of approximately 180 students. However, we have had staffing issues. We recruited one grade 12 student as an unqualified teacher and sent him to college to start his 3 year course to qualify as a teacher. We also recruited other staff from outside of the village but,sadly, none of them stayed. We are working on getting new teachers to fill posts as soon as possible.

We have also had a few issues with the management of the school and I have now handed over responsibility for dealing with the staff and PTA to our charity caseworkers, as no matter how may meetings I attended nothing was ever resolved. Obviously they still report back to me for final decisions.

Kitty School :-

We continue to work with the school, providing school materials, toys, donations and supplementing staff incomes. We haven’t had any major projects there in this financial year. We also have a couple of volunteers who regularly support the Nursery school

Sanyang Arabic School :-

We continue to support the school and we are very happy that our intervention allowed them to enter grade 9 students for their school leaver exams for the very first time. Every student passed, with amazing results. Nationally students from the school took 1[st] , 3[rd] and 7[th] places. Fantastic results.

The school feeds all of the children at lunchtimes, however they were at risk of losing their supply of food due to the lack of kitchen facilities. Once again we received donations from our supporter and were able to upgrade their kitchen.

The heavy rain destroyed the locally built corrugate and grass school building during the rainy season, early in the summer of 2023. We have decided not to replace it but fundraise for a permanent structure.

Sanyang Scouts :-

The troop continues to go from strength to strength. I am immensely proud of these young people and support them wherever we can. They still do a lot of community work, beach cleaning etc , and training camps twice a year. We do lose a lot of the older scouts to the Army

and Police, especially to the band and this year we had 10 leave at the same time. We supported them with their extensive kit requirements for their employment. I am always happy to see them when they are off duty. They are still involved with the scouts, helping to train them. They also attended the beach days and they are great fun.

Sanyang clinic project

We are still receiving regular large donations from supporters. Medicines, paracetamol. Baby hats, blankets, mobility aids and much more. The staff at the clinic are always very grateful as they get very little from the Gambian government. The Nurse in Charge and takes very good care of donations and ensuring they are used appropriately.

Beach Days :-

We had 4 beach days for the children from Bantangba, Kitty, Sanyang schools, and the Scouts. These days are really good fun for all that attend and the young people love them.

First Aid Training

First Aid For Gambia still go to each of our projects , even those we no longer work with, to undertake refresher training and top up the first aid kits.

All teachers attend this training and each school then designates one or two first aiders. Sanyang Arabic School had their initial training and are now part of the ongoing support from First Aid For Gambia

Case Workers

All the Case Workers have worked extremely hard during the year and have been able to manage all areas of business when required Our newest recruit has provided to be a great asset and we have big plans for him for the future.

One of our earlier sponsored young people has now qualified as a State Registered Nurse and the government have given him his own clinic to run. We no longer supporting him financially but he keeps in regular contact.

Shipments

The charity has spent £ 8542 on shipping items out to The Gambia during this year, this is a decrease of 24% on the previous year. Once again, we have been extremely lucky to have a large number of sponsors who have donated towards the costs of these shipments. When Gift Aid has been claimed on their donation, the total of their contribution is £4903. There has also been a further £2037 raised from the sale of Secondhand clothes. This brings the total to £6940. Leaving only £1602 to be taken from the main charity account

UK Support :-

We continue to send out all the sponsor updates every summer. It is a huge job collating them all and chasing the boys for missing information. Our long time volunteer also organises a lot of our shipping and regularly sends items to sell.

Another one of our active supporters has connected us with Rotary clubs, fundraising and donating personally. Her particular interest is in Sanyang Arabic School and she has been the driving force for many of the projects since we started working there.

I have made some good links with the Muslim community in Blackburn and they are very generous with their donations. They have provided clothing, toys and medicines and Qurans and rice at Ramadan .

There has also been a further 160 bags of rice purchased by sponsors for their sponsored families to celebrate Christmas and Ramadan.

The charity has supported a local family for many years. During the first storms of the rainy season their house was destroyed They had to move out as it wasn’t safe but they couldn’t find anywhere for them all to stay together. We were able to fundraise and build a line house which meant that the whole family were housed. Unfortunately the father passed away in August 2022, however the new building will give the sons the opportunity to stay at home and support their mother

I am very grateful to all the above as well as countless other supporters who support us. We couldn’t do it without them!

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The charity bank accounts had a balance of £12,606 at the end of the 22/23 financial year. The total income for the year was £79,138 and total expenditure for the year was £89,789, giving a deficit of £10,651 this year.

This can be explained by the significant increase in expenditure of £9,145 for school fees. At the beginning of the year, when the school fees have to be paid, the exchange rate for the £/Dalais was 61, whereas it was 67 the previous year. During the year the exchange rate has continued to improve and by the end of the year we were getting a rate of 76 Dalais to the pound.

There has also been a decrease in the total for Fundraising/ Donations over the previous year. There was a large donation in 21/22 that made the total for that year so high, taking that into account the total for 22/23 was still higher than 20/21.

There has been an increase in people visiting Gambia and this has reflected in the £2000 increase in donation from Gambia.

There has been less movement in all other areas of business.

Summary :-

In July 2023 we celebrated our 15year anniversary as a registered charity.

Reflecting back over this time I think we should be proud of what we have achieved.

We have raised over £775,000, which is down to the support we have received over the years. I think for a small charity to reach this total is amazing.

The charity is a voluntary organisation and we have always adopted an approach that everybody who volunteers gives their time freely and nobody takes a salary. This approach has shown to the sponsors that all the money donated to the charity is spent in line with the sponsors wishes, I think this ethos has played a significant part in making the charity such a success.

As a country, Gambia can be a challenging environment to work in and the founder of the charity has continued to build up a strong network of caseworkers. They work extremely well as a team. and they have always been there to support her during some demanding times.

What is the future for the charity?

There has been significant changes in the world over recent years and this has had an impact upon the charity sector. GOAL for the Gambia has effectively managed these changes and our resilience has allowed us to continue supporting the Gambian people.

Our aim is to reach the £1 million target, how long this take will depend on the influences beyond our control, however continuing to operate in our current form we are determined to reach that target.

Trustees :-

The Trustees have all agreed to stand for a further year and they will continue to liaise via email or telephone on all relevant issues, and all actions will be agreed before actioning.

Declaration :-

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature :- P.A. Reynolds

Full Name :- Paul Albert Reynolds Position :- Treasurer/Trustee

Date : 30/03/24

Charity Name GOAL for The Gambia No (if any) Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To — ~~——__=~~ from 01/08/2022 31/07/2023 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total funds Last year funds funds funds to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Regular Donations 38,945 - 38,431 Fundraising/Donations 25,136 - 31,184 Gift Aid 10,249 - 12,891 Donations in Gambia 2,771 - 788 Secondhand Clothes Sales in Gambia 2,037 - 2,588 - - - Sub total (Gross income for AR) [ 79,138 ] - 85,882 ~~=—====~~ A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - - - - - - - - - Sub total - - Total receipts 79,138 - - 85,882 ~~SS S555~~ A3 Payments School Fees 33263 - 24118 Staff Remunerations 11814 - 11657 Charity Expenses 6620 - 4881 School Projects 15049 - 13990 Shipment Costs 8542 - 10593 Medical expenses 0 - 102 Beech Days 922 587 Donations from Sponsors 13579 - 13177 - Sub total [ 89,789 ] - 79,105 ~~eee~~ A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) - - - - - - - - - - Sub total - ~~——~~ Total payments 89,789 - - 79,105 Net of receipts/(payments) - 10,651 - 6,777 A5 Transfers between funds - - - - A6 Cash funds last year end - - - - Cash funds this year end ~~=~~ - 10,651 ~~eS=~~ 6,777

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

07/04/2024

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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds	Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Cheque Account Savings Account Money in Gambia Details Details Details Signature P.A Reynolds	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 2,581 586 9,439 12,606 Agreement Error OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name Paul Albert Reynolds	Endowment funds to nearest £
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	P.A Reynolds	Paul Albert Reynolds	18/04/2023

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

07/04/2024

2

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examlnor's Rèport Report to th• tNst•e•l membgrs of G.O.A.L. for The Gambla On •¢counts for th• y•ar ended 31107r23 Ch¥rlty no Ilf any) 1125489 Sot on pages R•sp8Ct1￿ The tharitys trustees are responsible for tho preparation ofthe a￿)unts. rosponslbllltlgs of The tharity's Irustse8 ¢onsid8r that an audit is not r9quired for this year and •xamln•r under section 144 of tha Charlll8s Act 2011 (tho Ch#Tide8 A¢ll and tr4t an Inde￿ndent examination i8 n6ed8d. 1118 my re8pon81bS11ty to: examine the a￿oUnts under section 145 Ltho Charitle8 ACL to follow the procduros laid down in the gonaral Directions glvgn by tho Charlty Cornmi8slon lundgr section 145{5llb) ofth8 Charibes Act, and to state vthether partifAlar mattors have come to my attention. Bas1¥ of Independent My examinalion was caffied out in a¢￿￿4￿ce with g8n8ral Dlrections gpnn gxamln•rf$ statement by the Charity Commi&3th. An examinalion IndUd￿ a rgviaw of th accounlng rewrds kapl by the tharity and a comparison ofthe a¢uJunts presontg¢J with those ro¢ord8. 11 also indudes o)nsid&ration of any unusual Ilems or disclosures in tha accounts, aFKI segking axplanations from the trusto88 concemlng any such matters. The pr{￿dUreS undertaken do not provide all the evidence that woukl be r9quired in an audlt, and constyuenuy no opinion is glvgn as lo whether the ac¢ounts prg88nt a and fair, vi8w and the rowrt is Ilmlted lo th089 matters set out in Iho statement bolow. Indepondont In connection wlth my examlnatlon. no malarlal maltars hav8 cr)mg to my oxaminerfs statement attention lother than that disclosed below'l wh￿h givgs me cause lo belwg that in, any malerial respect,: the a￿O￿nting rwx)rds were not kept In accordanca wth seckn 130 of tha ChaFilies ACL. or Iho Ar￿unt8 did not accord wllh the oc%ounllng T8￿rdS.. or Ihe arKounts did not comply with the applicabb requir9mants concoming the fom and content of accounts sel out in the Charities (Accounts and Rowrtsl RegulalKsns 2Th)8 other than any r8quiremgnt that the accounts gNe a 'true and falr, view which is not a matt9r considered 08 part of an Independent 8xamination. I have have comg across no olhar maltors in conneclK)n with the ax8minatJon to which altontbn 8hould be drawn In this rèport in order lo enabkn a proper undorst8nding of the a¢u)unts to b• reached. 'pi so del8t8 th8 words in tho brock•ls rflhey do not opply. 1110412024 Name: Jolyon HeBd IER December 2017

Rolevant proftsslonal ' Institirte of Charterad Act>￿tants of Scouand quallficatlon(sl or body Momb8rshp M21986 {rf any): Addross: Section B Disclosure Onty Ixjmplèie rf th6 exa￿￿ newts to hb3h￿"ght maiters of cx)ncem Is88 CC32. IndepeTrJenl exarrbnatm of thwity xcojnts: aTrJ guidance for o¥aminr¥). Doc•mbw 2017

Give horo detslls of any items that tho examin•r wlsh8s to dl$clw. IER December 2017