OTRA COSA NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT OTRA COSA E T W O R K
Mission
promote education and social development in our local communities
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Word from the directors
We wanted to acknowledge the tremendous efforts made by our staff & volunteers during 2020 and thank all the partners, funders and donors who make our work possible. 2020 was a very challenging year, as Peru was one of the worst affected countries in terms of COVID-19. We would like to acknowledge some of the key achievements in a difficult year.
The year started well with our Swim Tayka project teaching over 70 children to swim and our HELP Projects progressing well, particularly HELP Literacy, where with increased funding from Global G.L.O.W., we were about to increase the number of classes and girls beneficiaries.
As the impact of COVID-19 started to become clear, we began the process of assisting volunteers to return home and shut down our projects. Our first priority was keeping our volunteers, staff and beneficiaries safe and well. In March, in liaison with the British Embassy, various Universities and others, we arranged the repatriation of all our international volunteers safely back home. We closed all face to face activity at our projects and implemented all recommended COVID-19 protocols.
In the difficult circumstances, we consulted community leaders and changed our short-term priorities to help the community with a ‘soup kitchen’, which the mothers organised & staffed while we paid for sacks of rice etc. We also sent supply packs to our beneficiary families, which contained pasta, rice and a monthly educational booklet with different themes to keep the children learning and occupied while the schools and our projects were closed.
We increased our fundraising and managed to raise over £4,000 with our COVID -19 response appeal. We also carried out several fundraising campaigns that allow us to complete our new Recreation and Education Centre (REC) and Skate Ramp. We would like to thank all our generous donors, as without your support our work would not be possible.
We continued the designs and planning of the new skate park area at our new REC, with our partners at Concrete Jungle Foundation (CJF). We plan to have the skate ramp completed in 2021, with materials supplied through Otra Cosa Network (OCN) fundraising and labour provided by CJF volunteers. Our new REC will be a great step forward in OCN supporting the community from our own premises in the future.
It was a challenging year for OCN financially, but having reduced staff and other costs substantially, and after some successful major fundraising, we kept our core cash flow better than break even for the year. We successfully fundraised for the new REC and built stronger walls, 2 classrooms, a kitchen, a toilet and a multi-purpose room. We are diversifying our source of funds and are now less dependent on volunteer payments.
At the time of writing in 2021 we are now very much back open to welcoming volunteers to come & help in our communities. Thanks again to all who made our work with the community possible in 2020 and we look forward to continuing to work together in the future.
Peter & Juany Murphy, Co-Directors, Otra Cosa Network.
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Contents 04 2020 at a glance & Highlights
08 HELP Projects
14 Partners & Partner Projects
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Staff
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volunteers marketing
22 International Relations 23 fundraising, donations & grants Finance
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2020 at a Glance Challenging year with Covid-19, projects closed during lockdown. all Volunteers returned safely home. Started a ‘soup kitchen’; rice & pasta donations to families; educational booklets to children. Fundraising, grants & donations ensured our essential work could continue throughout the pandemic. Classrooms of the New Recreation & Education Centre and ramp design were completed. continued partnerships with Global GLOW, Swim Tayka and Concrete Jungle Foundation.
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Highlights 2020
Building of the Recreation and Education Centre
Phase one and two of the construction of our new Recreation and Education Centre was completed despite many complications due to COVID. The new REC is located in Cerrito de la Virgen, and will be the centre of all our work we will do with the community. The centre will have two large classrooms, a complete water-saving bathroom with a shower, a small kitchen/multi-purpose room and a storage room. Construction of the skate ramp in cooperation with our partner Concrete Jungle Foundation will begin at the beginning of 2021, depending on the pandemic.
Phase one of the build included the construction of the perimeter walls, main external doors, classroom walls, doors and windows. Phase two involved working on the design of the skate ramp in partnership with Concrete Jungle Foundation, reconstructing and building the classrooms with windows to improve the lighting in the rooms, building the storage room, the complete watersaving bathroom and small kitchen/multipurpose room.
The REC will allow for children to learn in a safe environment, with access to high quality educational resources. The skate ramp will allow our HELP Youth project to continue, developing social and physical skills, using sport as a tool to tackle community development issues.
All volunteers successfully returned home
In response to the pandemic, all volunteers working with us were returned home safely. We received the highest ever Otra Cosa Network satisfaction average from our volunteers, an amazing 4.75, compared to a score of 4.19 in the same period the previous year. This reflects how satisfied the volunteers were with the way they were supported during the COVID-19 outbreak and how well the OCN team responded to the pandemic.
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Highlights 2020
English and Environmental awareness booklets created for beneficiaries during lockdown.
From March- December, in partnership with Global G.L.O.W., we gave 150 children monthly booklets during lockdown, surrounding topics such as English, environment, Black Lives Matter, health, skating and more. This helped keep the children educated and occupied whilst classes were unable to go ahead. The booklets contained fun exercises; short stories, themes and texts that allowed children to continue learning from home.
Regular donations of food and hygiene products to 150 children from Cerrito de la Virgen and Huanchaco.
Throughout the lockdown from March to December, 150 beneficiaries in Cerrito de la Virgen and Huanchaco received 1kg of pasta and rice per month. The donations gave some relief to many families that were severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Hygiene products such as soap, hand sanitizers and masks were also handed out monthly in an attempt to limit the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the communities as much as possible.
Trek for Cerrito (fundraisers)
Trek for Cerrito was a hugely successful fundraising event where participants from all over the world including ex-volunteers and donors were involved in trekking, running and cycling 760km; the equivalent of the distance between Lima and Huanchaco. Participants went above and beyond to raise money, and achieved a combined distance of 1436km, almost double the intended distance raising £2862.
Soup Kitchen
In September, we hosted a soup kitchen at La Rampa, where soup and rice were handed out to families in Cerrito by our volunteers.
Fundraising & Grants
In 2020, thanks to our amazing donors we were able to raise £22,738. This is in addition to grants recieved from funding organisations, which totalled £25,436.
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150 booklets and food donations given every month to families during lockdown
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HELP Projects HUANCHACO EDUCATION AND LEARNING PROGRAMMES
Otra Cosa Network runs five projects which are all part of the Huanchaco Education and Learning Programme (HELP), namely HELP English, HELP Environment, HELP Literacy, HELP Youth and HELP Women. HELP is dedicated to advancing the education possibilities and resources for lower-income children and adults in Huanchaco and the surrounding areas. The following pages document the achievements and challenges within the projects during the year 2020.
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HELP ENVIRONMENT HELP LITERACY
HELP ENGLISH
HELP WOMEN HELP YOUTH
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HELP English
PROVIDING EQUAL EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH ACCESS TO ENGLISH CLASSES AT THREE LOCAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS: MARIA DEL SOCORRO, LAS LOMAS AND SAN CARLOS IN HUANCHAQUITO
English classes continued to be taught at our summer school throughout January and February at La Rampa and La Junta in Las Lomas. Unfortunately all English classes had to be put on hold from March 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The HELP English programme was reactivated in Quarter 4 with two part-time volunteers who taught English online and provided homework to the 6th grade classes from Maria del Socorro.
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HELP Environment
TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
The HELP Environment classes were also taught at our summer school at La Rampa and La Junta but we could not re-establish them before the end of 2020. Instead, two of our volunteers focussed on planning the curricula, lessons and activities for 2021 at our new Recreation and Education Centre in Cerrito de la Virgen. A design for a Community Garden for environmental classes was also made. In addition, OCN liaised with the municipality to provide water delivery to Cerrito.
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HELP Literacy BOOSTING GIRLS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS THROUGH READING AND WRITING – IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LITWORLD AND GLOBAL G.L.O.W.
Our Lit Clubs continued to meet throughout the summer and Global G.L.O.W. were so pleased with our progress that they wanted to visit with their donor to showcase us as a success story after lockdown is over. Since classes were cancelled, emergency packs were sent out to the girls which included 1kg of pasta as well as hygiene materials and masks every month. Additionally, in partnership with Global G.L.O.W. a monthly educational and wellbeing booklet was sent out to keep the girls learning and occupied, which was then extended to 150 beneficiaries including the boys and girls at La Rampa. We also updated our calendars to include a 3rd annual celebration – International Menstrual Hygiene Day at the end of May.
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HELP Youth
LA RAMPA/THE SKATE RAMP – A SAFE AND INSPIRING ENVIRONMENT FOR CHILDREN TO PLAY, LEARN AND BE CREATIVE
In the summer holidays, Concrete Jungle Foundation (CJF) successfully started implementing their EduSkate curriculum and their coordinator worked in collaboration with our Project Coordinator to ensure streamlined lessons and skate provision for the kids. From March 2020, like our other HELP programmes, the Youth programme had to close. During this time, the designs for the new skate ramp were finalised for the construction to start in February 2021 and similarly to HELP Environment, a lot of curricula and lesson planning was carried out in preparation for the following year. Moreover, a short course about stress management and conflict resolution for the kids was developed.
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HELP Women
PROMOTING WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN HUANCHACO
The HELP Women programme was in the early stages of development, and due to the pandemic we did not implement this. We are looking forward to implementing this to assist women who suffer from domestic violence and start our initiatives in business programmes, garden programmes etc.
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Partners & Partner Projects
WE WORK CLOSELY WITH OUR PARTNERS IN AND AROUND HUANCHACO.
Concrete Jungle Foundation
We have started working in partnership with Concrete Jungle Foundation, in the construction of the skate ramp and conducting skate lessons. The EduSkate program began in the summer holidays, with skate lessons being led by Concrete Jungle Foundation volunteers in our ramp in Cerrito de la Virgen. Phase one and two of the build of the new Recreation and Education Centre in Cerrito de la Virgen was completed, with the view to have the skate ramp completed in 2021 by Concrete Jungle Foundation volunteers, as COVID-19 restrictions have caused delays in the construction process. Designs and planning of the skate park area has been completed and we are well advanced in fundraising for the Materials fro the new skate ramp.
Global G.L.O.W.
Our classes in partnership with Global G.L.O.W., an organisation that creates programs designed to equip girls with the resources to be strong, healthy and educated, continued throughout the summer until the COVID-19 outbreak. During lockdown, volunteers distributed education and wellbeing booklets and packs to the Global G.L.O.W. beneficiaries.
During OctobHER, the International Month of the Girl, the Global G.L.O.W. girls participated in an international virtual summit with other Global G.L.O.W. members from 10 different countries all over the world to discuss girls’ health and wellness. The girls also joined the ‘Girls’ Right Townhall’ in cooperation with the United Nations, in which they discussed gender violence, menstrual equity, economic justice etc. All girls received certificates and presents at the end of the event.
SwimTayka
At the beginning of the year, SwimTayka and OCN worked together to implement summer swim classes at a local pool, with 70 local children attending weekly sessions in the pool and daily educational workshops on water safety and environmental issues. Once a week we were joined by participants and volunteers from GroundSwell Girl’s Surf Project. The project was a resounding success, with a solid international team working with the local Peruvian team, ensuring a smooth running of the classes.
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Teamwork
our staff and volunteers make all the difference
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Staff
2020 started well but once COVID-19 struck was a challenging year for our management team. However we responded well to a range of challenges from getting our volunteers safely home to re-inventing how we supported our beneficiaries with projects closed. We manage to do this through projects such as the ‘soup kitchen’, pasta & rice donations and educational booklets. Unfortunately with our finances squeezed we did have to implement cost reductions and reduce our team in Perú. We do plan to reinstate three person management team in Perú in 2021 as things improve. Juany and Peter continued to direct the objectives of the NGO in their capacity as directors and provide overall managerial guidance to the field staff, via regular meetings and calls.
Marketing and Projects Manager, Andrea Mayr
As of January 2020, Andrea Mayr took over as Marketing and Projects Manager. Andrea is from Austria and has a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management and a Masters in Innovation and Marketing in Tourism from a Spanish university. Her thesis looked at the motivation of volunteer tourists because of her strong interest in this field. Andrea has travelled widely to gain practical experience within the tourism sector, working with children as well as studying abroad in Mexico. With COVID-19 closing our projects, sending our volunteers home and requiring cost savings, we had to reduce our management team and Andrea took the lead in Peru from August 2020 and successfully saw us through the balance of the year.
Programme and Operations Manager, Sophia Robson
Sophia represented OCN in Peru, from managing all our programme and partner projects, to liaising with local, regional and national government agencies. She says she loves the variety of her work, from fixing broken doors to working directly with project participants, coordinating volunteers and staff, attending official meetings to flying out to New York. Sophia left us in August 2020 at the end of her 2 year contract to return to England & spend some time with her family in Yorkshire.
Fundraising and Finance Manager, Rhiannon Prideaux
Rhiannon headed up our finance and fundraising initiatives in the field, as well as supervising the English and Environment projects. She is also a keen athlete and ran two half marathons to raise vital funds for us. In March 2020 we needed to reduce our team size and Rhiannon offered to move back to England and quickly found a role managing volunteers in London.
Marketing and Communications Manager, Irene Parra Lopez
Irene headed up our marketing, communications and volunteer coordination, supervising our Women's and Youth projects and leading on recruitment until she left us in January 2020, as she accepted a new role in her previous NGO.
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Our Volunteers
OUR VOLUNTEERS - THE BASIS OF OUR PROJECT'S SUCCESS
The number of volunteers was severely impacted during the year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In total we had over ten international volunteers in Peru from January-March 2020, which then reduced to one after the outbreak. We started recruiting more remote volunteers for marketing, translation services, web design, fundraising and recruitment.
A part-time recruitment intern helped to keep volunteer applications coming in for people who could support us online whilst volunteers continued to promote us on social media. They also worked on improving our relationship with future volunteers by looking into initiatives such as online Spanish classes in exchange for small donations. Focus was also shifted to expanding and diversifying our University Outreach database. Our fundraising volunteers continued their initiatives in grant writing, Tshirt design and sale, our Christmas fundraiser, and our social media campaign #TrekForCerrito.
Volunteer satisfaction
In March 2020 we received the highest ever volunteer satisfaction score of 4.75. This is based on many perfect 5 scores and is a credit to how well the response to the pandemic was executed. Volunteers felt that Otra Cosa handled the situation well and supported them as the outbreak developed. This emphasises the excellent teamwork amongst staff and volunteers and their swift response. Our 2020 volunteer satisfaction score is a significant increase from 2018 (4.25) and 2019 (4.19).
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Our Volunteers
OUR VOLUNTEERS - THE BASIS OF OUR PROJECT'S SUCCESS
Volunteer House
Many of our volunteers living in the community expressed their desire to be amongst other volunteers during the lockdown. We therefore made the volunteer house a base for those who wished to live there. All volunteers had regular in-person and online update meetings to stay informed on the situation.
Risk Matrix
A risk matrix was introduced to assess whether any pre-existing health conditions meant that certain volunteers should be isolated and shielded more. It also highlighted those who had a strong desire to return home imminently due to family situations etc.
Embassies, Consuls, Universities & Insurers
We helped our volunteers to contact and register with their relevant embassies and consular staff. We also provided support in liaising with their universities to feedback important field information and help them make emergency travel plans to return to their home countries.
Health
Volunteers were advised on all recommended precautionary health measures such as mask wearing, washing hands regularly etc. (as per Peruvian Health Authorities, WHO, CDC and NHS). We organised a Q&A session for volunteers via Skype with an English speaking Peruvian doctor. They were on-call for any volunteers who had concerns about symptoms.
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Our Volunteers
OUR VOLUNTEERS - THE BASIS OF OUR PROJECT'S SUCCESS
Wellbeing
We ensured that all volunteers kept themselves busy with a wide range of activities during lockdown. In order to reduce stress, they were encouraged to make a schedule for themselves which included social and wellbeing activities alongside their OCN tasks. Volunteers took part in exercise, cooking, movie nights, art, karaoke, and language exchanges with people in the local community via Skype.
There were also one-to-one meetings arranged with all volunteers to check in on their wellbeing.
Physical Measures
All volunteers were advised on social distancing and the use of alternative greetings. There were also large quantities of hand sanitiser provided in the volunteer house and volunteers were encouraged to cook together to aid communal shopping trips. In addition, posters and informational flyers from the Peruvian Health Authorities and WHO were distributed to provide guidance on key practises and wellbeing tips.
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Marketing USING STATE-OF-THE-ART MARKETING TOOLS TO ENGAGE WITH OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY
In 2020 our social media performance improved significantly in comparison with the end of 2019. Across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram our page likes more than tripled. Between Q1 and Q2 of 2020 the engagement in our Facebook page was +625 (from 3122 to 3747).
We ran several social media campaigns including the #trekforcerrito campaign where we made several different forms of content (posts, videos, stories). Additionally we consistently uploaded content for our social media pages using the hashtags #motivationalmonday #huanchacowednesday and #myfavouritevolunteeringmemory. Additional creation of two campaigns to address tourists who are already in Peru: ‘backpacker campaign’ and ‘refer-a-friend campaign’ for local businesses.
One of our volunteers with excellent photography skills also developed a new Photo Portfolio, which we used to create engaging content on our social media platforms. We took part in a Radio Interview with Rádio_FM - RTVS Slovakia about Otra Cosa Network and Volunteering.
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Marketing
We completed the posting of all volunteer job descriptions (taking into account the new conditions due to Covid-19) for volunteer, website and internship platforms.
Intense university outreach resulted in the addition of 24 Spanish and American universities promoting our work and vacancies. These include: Ohio State University, University of California Santa Barbara, Western Michigan University, DePaul University, Valparaiso University, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, University of Granada, amongst others. Liaised with Santander University for a prospective paid internship and volunteer program in Peru.
We had a strong increase of volunteer applications from the US and a solid mix of volunteers from each continent (in the past we mainly had applicants from the UK). However, there was a significant drop in volunteer applications due to Covid-19 between mid-March 2020 and June 2020. We only had 13 signed contracts, 5 volunteer contribution deposits and no full volunteer contribution payments after April 2020 (mainly because we were encouraging volunteers to plan their stay from January 2021 onwards). However, between 1st September 2020 - 15th November 2020 this situation improved and we received 53 applications which is up by 34 applications compared with the same period in the previous year.
Future plans to grow our following and engagement on social media include a new full time Social Media Coordinator. Additionally recruiting a website designer to help us design the new website and fix technical issues. Maintenance of regular contact with all our applicants by sending them updates of our work right now, keeping them informed about regulations within Peru, encouraging them to plan their stay from the beginning of the new year onwards (for those who applied for 2020).
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International Relations
WE ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO STRENGTHEN AND EXTEND OUR NETWORK
Relationship Management with Universities
Our relationships with most universities were kept on hold as most of the classes went online. There was limited activity but we attended one fair at Queen Mary College and continued to work closely with Sheffield University.
We had a meeting with the Sheffield University Geography department to offer a virtual field trip, as we couldn’t offer an in person trip. During the meeting we also provided some general background information about the area and local development issues.
We suggested topics which could be researched remotely and online, due to ongoing travel restrictions. We Identified the key informants per student group who would be knowledgeable about the topic, who then conducted interviews with the rest of the participants. We suggested any background reports or documents that would be relevant to each topic, and sent the students relevant local information that they could otherwise not easily access.
Other Activities
Despite the pandemic putting on hold many activities, we were able to continue working on our international relations in various ways such as:
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Contacted the program for Tourism in Northampton University to invite them to collaborate with us.
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Agreed a Memorandum of Understanding and now we need to implement the programme.
We updated the volunteer posting at the Royal London University.
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Fundraising & Grant Related Activities
As we were short of Peruvian based staff, we shifted our focus towards UK based fundraising activities and marketing. We created a fundraising team comprised of two students from the University of Sheffield MA programme, two from the London School of Economics, and one BA student from the Royal Holloway University.
Monthly meetings were conducted and constant communication was maintained with our donor Global G.L.O.W. throughout the pandemic. We also agreed on the budget for the Global G.L.O.W grant and given the progress we had made with our programme they agreed a substantial increase in funding to enable us to run more classes and reach more beneficiaries. With this programme we will be able to introduce our much needed female rights and sexual education programme. We have prepared the implementation of these classes ready to begin after lockdown.
We ran various successful fundraising campaigns over the year, raising nearly £23,000 in total, with volunteers, ex-volunteers and others participating from all over the world. We also coordinated an international two week course that is due to take place in 2021, attracting 25 students from MA & MSc programmes from the University of Sheffield.
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Fundraising, Donations & Grants
SPECIAL THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT GOES TO THE ORGANISATIONS WHO TRUSTED US WITH THEIR GENEROUS GRANTS.
Fundraising, donations and grants this year have been more crucial than ever, allowing Otra Cosa Network to continue its essential work throughout the pandemic and beyond. Many thanks to all who donated, here are highlighted the largest donations we received in 2020.
Donations
Here are highlighted the largest donations and grants recieved in 2020.
£670 From Peter Reynolds company via CAF £500 Mrs & Mr Cox
Grants
This year we were awarded a very generous grant from RAFT as well as continued support from Global G.L.O.W. We also recieved additional valuable grants, as seen below.
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£14,777 Global GLOW
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£5,000 RAFT for HELP Environment and the REC garden project
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£2,659 Swim Tayka for swimming programme
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£2,000 Souter Charitable Trust
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£1,000 Leeds Charitable Trust
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our projects were altered throughout 2020 with some having to close down completely, due to government restrictions. As a result of this, we would like to acknowledge some of our funding organisations for the flexibility in allowing us to redirect some of the grants towards other ongoing projects. Redirected grants can be seen below:
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Didymus - REC construction/Core including English Open Gate - REC/Garden & compost toilet/ Staff salaries Souter - REC/Core including women project
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Ernest Kleinwort - Environment project, staff salaries, transport, teaching materials, gardening materials, water project.
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Fundraisers
SPECIAL THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT GOES TO THE INDIVIDUALS WHO SUPPORTED US IN OUR FUNDRAISING EFFORTS, CONTRIBUTING TO THE SURVIVAL OF OCN.
Major Fundraising Activities
Online fundraising campaigns led throughout lockdown that allowed the work of OCN to continue, including the building of the REC in Cerrito.
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£4,095 Covid response appeal in March.
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£2,862 Trek for Cerrito , participants all over the world trekked, ran and cycled 1436km altogether, even further than the original goal of 760km; the distance from Lima to Huanchaco.
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£1,245 Christmas ‘Live on Less’ Fundraiser - participants lived off £1.40 a day for a week (7th- 14th December).
Other Donations to Fundraising Activities
Contributions that came from Virgin Money Giving, PayPal, Wonderful and direct bank transactions.
- £12,357 Other individual/ regular donations to fundraising activities
£2,179 In addition to the above fundraising, OCN received Gift Aid from HMRC directly related to the REC/Core fundraiser & HMRC (UK government) from previous fundraisers.
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FACTS FIGURES OTRA COSA
Finances
FINANCIAL COMMENTARY
These 2020 Accounts have been prepared using the UK Charity Commission's Receipts & Payments accounting conventions so that all funds received and payments made between 1st January 2020 and 31st December 2020 are included.
Therefore our 2020 accounts include a £5,000 donation pledged in December 2019, for our £6,259 land purchase made then, but received into our accounts on 3rd January 2020. If the 2019 and 2020 accounts were adjusted for this, then they would show a smaller deficit of £206 in 2019 and a smaller surplus of £5,037 in 2020.
The context to these Finances was Covid-19 closing down our in-person projects and sending our volunteers home early in the year. In March 2020, as the potential scale of the financial impact on us was anticipated, we called a special Trustee board meeting and agreed a number of cost-saving actions & fundraising plans. These managed to keep us going on a financially sustainable level throughout 2020.
Receipts
Total receipts were £56,284 in 2020, down substantially by £20,631 against the receipts of £76,915 in 2019. Volunteer payments were down 78% to £4,809 and Housing income by 87% to £13,128, combining to reduce our Income by £30,358.
However, Fundraising & Donations combined show an increase of £13,081. This does include the £5,000 donation pledged in December 2019 but received into our accounts on 3rd January 2020, but even excluding this we have a substantial increase over 2019 which itself was more than four times our 2018 levels. This reflects our successful campaigns to raise funds for our Covid response appeal which enabled us to support the soup kitchen and rice/pasts donations, also the ‘Trek for Cerrito’, our Xmas fundraiser as well as continuing to raise funds for our new Recreation & Education Centre and our own administration & staff costs.
Grant income actually rose by £4,014 to £25,436 as our largest grant donor Global GLOW generously stuck to their commitments for our increased 2020 budget, even though some classes had to be cancelled, but the teachers continued to be fully paid to support them & their families. In addition to this, we also receive further grants that allow us to continue some of our projects despite the COVID 19 pandemic.
Other/sundry income, and expenses were substantially reduced as the local Spanish lessons our volunteers pay for and our payments to a local Spanish teacher stopped. As we had no groups travelling with us in 2020 there was no Group Travel Income or Expense this year.
We note that 2020 rapidly accelerated our long-term strategy of being less dependent on Volunteer payments & Housing income and increasing our Fundraising, Grants & Donations. For the first time, Fundraising, Grants & Donations was more than half our income, in fact, exceptionally, in 2020 made up 88% of our Income, offsetting most of the decrease in Volunteer payments and Housing income.
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Finances
FINANCIAL COMMENTARY
Payments
As mentioned above, in March 2020, as Covid-19 hit, we agreed a number of costsaving actions as well as fundraising plans to keep us financially sustainable. These included reducing the Peru management team from 3 to 2 people (later 1 temporarily), substantially reducing UK payments and cutting all other costs across the board, except for our local project expenditure which we aimed to protect. In total our current expenditure was reduced by almost 50% but our current project expenditure was fully protected.
Total current expenditure for 2020 was £38,038, down £37,824 from the £75,862 in 2019 in line with our March sustainability plan. The main reductions were in Peru based Salaries £5,632 with the team cut from 3 full-time staff to 2, then later 1 temporarily, Housing/accommodation costs down £12,208 with no volunteers in the house for most of the year, UK Salaries etc down £10,022, no Group Travel Expenses saving £4,514, ‘Other expenses’ down £3,369 with no Spanish teacher payments for most of the year and Promotion, fundraising & other expenses down by £2,456. Current project expenditure actually increased by £377 to £18,578, but was retargeted to help beneficiaries through the Covid-19 crisis.
Following our capital expenditure of £6,259 in 2019 to purchase the land in Cerrito for our new Recreational and Education Centre (REC), we spent £8,209 in 2020 on new buildings at the REC including two classrooms, a bathroom/toilet, a small kitchen/multi-purpose room and a storage room. Funds have been reserved for completing the build of a Skate Ramp etc there in 2021.
Allowing for this increased capital expenditure, total payments in 2020 at £46,247 were still down by £35,874 compared with 2019 and current expenditure was reduced by almost 50% as planned while protecting project/community expenditure.
Net cash surplus/(deficit)
In 2020 our net cash surplus was £10,037 including the £5,000 donation received on 3rd Jan. 2020 but pledged in 2019. Most of this surplus is a build-up of Reserves in 2020 from successful fundraising to pay for the new Skate ramp to be built in 2021. However, importantly, mainly through our substantial cost savings, we did manage to do slightly better than breakeven on our core or Unrestricted funds, leaving our reserves fully protected for 2021.
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Finances
2020 ACCOUNTS
2020 FINANCIAL STATEMENT
| 2019 | 2020 | better/(worse) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income | (£) | (£) | (£) |
| Volunteer payments | 22,039 | 4,809 | -17,230 |
| Housing income | 15,011 | 1,883 | -13,128 |
| Fundraising | 8,230 | 22,738 | 14,508 |
| Grants | 21,422 | 25,436 | 4,014 |
| Donations | 2,635 | 1,208 | -1,427 |
| Group travel income | 4,749 | 0 | -4,749 |
| Other/Sundry income | 2,829 | 210 | -2,619 |
| Total Income | 76,915 | 56,284 | -20,631 |
| Payments | |||
| Project Expenditure - Revenue | 18,201 | 18,578 | -377 |
| Peru based salaries, benefits & living expenses | 12,683 | 7,051 | 5,632 |
| UK based salaries & benefits | 12,659 | 2,637 | 10,022 |
| Housing/accommodation/ food expenses | 18,355 | 6,147 | 12,208 |
| Promotion & fundraising | 1,734 | 549 | 1,185 |
| IT expenses | 710 | 564 | 146 |
| Telecommunications | 525 | 218 | 307 |
| Legal/accounting expenses & professional fees | 669 | 209 | 460 |
| Office supplies | 325 | 261 | 64 |
| Transport | 859 | 565 | 294 |
| Group Travel Expenses | 4,514 | 0 | 4,514 |
| Other expenses (incl. ex rate losses & revaluations) | 4,628 | 1,259 | 3,369 |
| Total current expenditure | 75,862 | 38,038 | 37,824 |
| Capital expenditure - Land/ buildings purchase; Cerrito, Peru | 6,259 | 8,209 | -1,950 |
| Total payments | 82,121 | 46,247 | 35,874 |
| Net cash Surplus/(deficit) | -5,206 | 10,037 | 15,243 |
Note: These accounts include all transactions from 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020.
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Finance Appendix SUMMARY OF INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
Income 2020
Volunteer Contributions 4,809 Housing income 1,883 Fundraising 22,738 Grants 25,436 Donations 1,208 Other income 210 Total Income 56,284
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Finance Appendix SUMMARY OF INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
Expenses 2020
| Project Expenditure - Revenue | 18,578 |
|---|---|
| Peru based salaries, benefits & living expenses | 7,051 |
| UK based salaries & benefits | 2,637 |
| Housing/accommodation/ food expenses | 6,147 |
| Promotion & fundraising | 549 |
| IT expenses | 564 |
| Telecommunications | 218 |
| Legal/accounting expenses & professional fees | 209 |
| Office supplies | 261 |
| Transport | 565 |
| Group Travel Expenses | 0 |
| Other expenses (incl. ex rate losses & | 1,259 |
| revaluations) | |
| Capital expenditure | 8,209 |
Total Expenditure £46,247
31
Otra Cosa Network
Peruvian Charity Registration Number 11126841 UK Charity Registration Number 1133680
info@otracosa.org
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinefs Report Report to the trusteesl members of Chanry Narne On accounts for the year ended Charity no {if any) 1123680 Set out on pages (remeth palle nlbets of3ddlYonal sheets) I ieport to the tnjstees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (he Trusf) for the year ended 219 I liiQi Lo)9tJ Responsi bilities and As the charity trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the Charilies Act 2011 {°the ACV,). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my exarninalion, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5}(b) of the Act. Independent (The chartvs gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am qualified lo examiner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualrfied member of linsert name of applicable listed bodyl]. Delete l ] rfnot applicable. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed oelow") in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect,: the accounting rerdS 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 ue and fairf view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no COnmS and have come across no other matters in connection with the exarnination lo which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Pl88se delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed.. £1 Name: Relevant professional qualification{s} or body {if any).. IER October 2018
Address: 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. IER October 2018