2023-03-31-accounts - East Africa Children's Project

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EAST AFRICA CHILDREN’S PROJECT

Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts

for the year ended

31 March 2023

EACP is a Registered Charity in England and Wales (No. 1136340)

Trustees: Pieter Lagaay, Jennie Lawes, Martin Sadofski, Ros Stow 2 Eastfield Crescent, Brighton BN1 8EL www.eacpcharity.com

Registration details and Trustees

Charity name

EAST AFRICA CHILDREN’S PROJECT (“EACP”)

Registered in England and Wales

Registered in England and Wales No. 1136340 Principal address 2 Eastfield Crescent Brighton BN1 8EL Website www.eacpcharity.com

Trustees Office Date of appointment Pieter Lagaay Chairman 8 March 2010 Jennie Lawes Secretary 20 January 2011 Martin Sadofski 11 December 2012 Ros Stow 8 March 2010 Officers Barry Harper Secretary to the Trustees Paige Rumble Treasurer

Welcome to EACP’s Annual Report for the year to 31 March 2023

The Trustees of EACP are delighted to present their thirteenth annual report for EACP’s year ended 31 March 2023.

Once again, we are delighted to report another excellent year for donations with total income of £81,547 (2022 £91,896), our second highest ever after 2022’s record breaking year. As a result, the charity achieved the significant milestone of having raised over £500,000 since its inception. This is extremely gratifying, given the very difficult times we are experiencing with continuing pressures on household budgets from increases in living costs, and is testament to the generosity of our regular donors and the hard work of trustees and volunteers in successfully approaching grant making trusts. Most importantly, it demonstrates the belief of others in the difference that EACP and our partners in East Africa can make, and have made, to so many lives.

In the remainder of this report, we will provide you with details of our:

Structure, governance, and management.
Charitable objects and how we are putting them into practice.
Project partners in East Africa and our combined achievements.
Financial performance this year.

There then follow EACP’s receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023.

Structure, governance, and management

Constitution

EACP began in August 2009 as an informal organisation under the direction of Pieter Lagaay, providing support to projects in East Africa. It soon became apparent that there was a tremendous public interest in these activities and what Pieter was trying to achieve. The logical next step was to enact a more formal constitution and seek full charitable status.

EACP was constituted as a charitable trust under a Trust Deed dated 8 March 2010 and, following amendments to its objects, a new Trust Deed was enacted on 20 May 2010 (the ‘Trust Deed’). EACP then successfully obtained registration as a charity in England and Wales on 14 June 2010.

Recruitment and appointment of trustees

Under the terms of the Trust Deed, EACP must have a minimum of three trustees who are appointed for a term of one year.

Pieter Lagaay who has a long and distinguished background in children’s education, particularly those with special needs, as well as experience with development charities in Africa, was appointed one of the first Trustees and he brought together other friends and associates with relevant professional experience to act with him. Trustees are subject to annual re-election by a majority of their fellow Trustees.

We currently have four Trustees, including Pieter, who have each worked with EACP for many years. The current Trustees bring a complementary mix of development, fundraising, communications, administration, and finance skills to EACP.

Prior to appointment, trustees are provided with guidance produced by the Charities Commission, for example the publication ‘The Essential Trustee’, and ongoing training needs of trustees are reviewed on an annual basis.

Governance and management

The work of EACP is directed by its Trustees, who provide their services voluntarily and are ably assisted by committed volunteers. The Trustees are in regular contact and hold regular meetings, approximately monthly, where formal decisions to fund individual projects are made and minuted.

We are fully aware of our obligations to our donors and the trust they have placed in us when donating funds. With that in mind, we have developed policies and procedures to minimise the risks to EACP’s assets.

For example, we conduct checks on potential new project partners, formally assess all requests for funding in terms of risks, viability, and relevance to our charitable objectives, and monitor the

outcomes of the initiatives we support. We also ensure that our partners have appropriate Child Safeguarding Policies in place.

We aim to conduct a monitoring visit to the projects we support every two to three years to confirm our understanding of the existing work being carried out by our project partners as well as explore new ideas and new organisations which we may consider supporting. The Covid-19 pandemic has prevented us visiting since June 2019, but we have a planned visit to East Africa, Kenya and Uganda, in June 2023.

Objects and activities

Objects

The charitable objects of EACP are:

To advance the education of children and adults in East Africa for the benefit of the public through the provision of or the assistance in the provision of education, educational materials and training.
The relief of poverty and the promotion and preservation of good health of children and adults in East Africa, through the provision of or the assistance in the provision of projects designed to improve health and welfare.

Main activities

The main activity undertaken by EACP in furtherance of these objectives is the support of projects which:

Directly improve the health, welfare and education of disadvantaged children and their families.
Provide training or sustainable livelihoods for young adults and women which directly or indirectly improve the health, welfare and education of disadvantaged children.

EACP currently supports small, manageable projects in Kenya and Uganda that produce tangible outcomes for children in need. We do not currently support any activities in Tanzania but are open to considering new initiatives there, as well as in the countries where we currently operate.

We strongly believe that working together with local partners produces the best results and our work could not be undertaken without the dedication and initiative of the people who manage the projects we support. We firmly believe that local solutions to local problems are the most effective means of delivering longer term positive change for children and their communities.

Public benefit

In exercising their duties and, in particular, in making decisions as to how EACP’s resources will be applied, the Trustees have had regard to the guidance on public benefit issued by the Charity Commission, as required by Section 4(6) Charities Act 2006 and the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008.

Achievements and performance

EACP’s focus this year continued to be initiatives which support improvements in children’s education, health, and welfare. We continued to respond to exceptional requests for funding to meet food price increases and support orphan babies, as well as supporting direct education costs and infrastructure projects to improve classrooms and sanitary facilities.

Our ability to support this range and extent of initiatives has been made possible by:

Core funding by way of regular donations from individuals, mostly in the Brighton & Hove area, to whom we are extremely grateful.
Funding from grant-making bodies that we have approached directly or have been introduced to by a professional fund-raiser. These grants have enabled us to support specific larger projects such as classroom building, improvement of toilet blocks and digging of boreholes. We also extend our thanks to those bodies who have provided grants this year.

During the year, we made grants to seven organisations, as described below. For more details and photos of the outcomes of our work please visit our website: www.eacpcharity.com.

Joy Children’s Centre, Ruiru, near Thika, Kenya (‘Joy’)

EACP has provided significant support to Joy since 2010, during which time Joy has provided a home and primary education to an increasing number of abandoned, disadvantaged, and local children. Its founder, Sarah Wanjiku, remains extraordinarily committed, creative and resilient in these difficult times.

We have continued to support basic subsistence needs and educational materials at Joy as well as improving the buildings and sanitary facilities, and supporting Joy’s older resident children obtain secondary and tertiary education.

Faith School, Uganda (‘Faith’)

Faith was introduced to us in 2017 by one of our volunteers who has been supporting the school personally for some years. Faith is a thriving, well run organisation which has much support from the local community. We have supported the provision of school lunches and equipment; bedding and clothing for orphans; school uniforms; solar panels and ICT equipment as well as funding the completion of much improved classroom facilities.

St Vianney School, Uganda (‘St Vianney’)

We began supporting St Vianney in 2016. This year the school has faced several challenges to its continued operation post Covid, and our involvement has primarily been in the form of emergency financial support to enable the school to complete the academic year. Any future support to St Vianney is subject to the Trustees being satisfied that the school is financially viable.

Bulogo School, Uganda (‘Bulogo’)

We have supported Bulogo since 2017. This year we continued to provide support in the early part of the year granting funding for mosquito nets and various school equipment including textbooks, uniforms, and desks. However, the trustees became concerned by delays in the provision by Bulogo of adequate update reports on projects and suspended all payments from May 2022. See also Bulogo Women’s Group (below).

Bulogo Women’s Group, Uganda (“BWG”)

BWG is a community organisation to support local children’s health and education and women’s empowerment and was a relatively new venture for EACP in 2022 following our work with Bulogo School. This year we raised grant funding to complete borehole works; enable planting of crops to supply school meals; install solar lighting; create new toilet blocks and pay for 120 women to attend a garment making training course. Following a lack of engagement by personnel at BWG in response to EACP’s requests for satisfactory update reports, all payments to BWG ceased from May 2022.

The failure by Bulogo and BWG to meet EACP’s reporting requirements means that the trustees have been unable to obtain satisfactory evidence that grants were properly applied. Relevant third parties, including the Charity Commission, have been informed. To seek to prevent recurrence of these issues, EACP’s Trustees have enhanced EACP’s procedures to strengthen controls over the making of grants and reporting requirements.

Let The Children Hear, Uganda (“LTCH”)

Last year we entered into a pilot project with LTCH Registered Charity 1145080 to fund speech and language therapy for 10 children with hearing difficulties. The therapy is delivered by qualified practitioners and includes teaching sign language skills to the children and their families. Following the success of that pilot, we have continued to provide support in the form of training from UK staff for 5 audiologists in Kampala, which will be carried out in summer 2023, and should benefit up to 640 children with hearing issues.

Rossholme School in Kenya (“Rossholme”)

In January 2023, the trustees agreed to partner with Rossholme School in Kenya Registered Charity 1178553, a school located within Nairobi’s Kiambiu slum which provides free education and pastoral care for 330 children aged between 3 and 12 who would otherwise receive no formal education. To date EACP has provided funding for solar lighting and 84 classroom desks.

Financial review

Incoming resources

EACP’s total income during the year was £81,547 (2021: £91,896). All our income, except for interest on funds held on deposit, was from voluntary donations as shown in the following table:

Income Voluntary donations Interest	Year ended 31 March 2023 Total £ Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 81,518 41,965 39,553 29 29 81,547 41,994 39,553	Year ended 31 March 2022 Total £ Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 91,895 63,936 27,959 1 1 91,896 63,937 27,959

A further breakdown of our voluntary donations is shown in the table below:

Grants Regular donations Other donations Twinned schools Gift aid	Year ended 31 March 2023 Total £ Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 67,653 28,100 39,553 11,413 11,413 124 124 2,357 2,357 81,547 41,994 39,553	Year ended 31 March 2022 Total £ Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 76,009 50,000 26,009 10,684 10,684 518 518 1,950 0 1,950 2,734 2,734 91,895 63,936 27,959

Our largest source of voluntary donations (both restricted and unrestricted) was from grant-making bodies. Except for specific funding applications, we seek to raise grant funding on an unrestricted basis, so that it may be applied where most needed. Our successful specific appeals included those for renovating classrooms, toilet blocks and solar projects.

Donations from individuals by regular standing order continued at a similar level to 2022. These regular donations have in the past provided us with more than sufficient funds to meet our regular funding commitments. As the financial impacts of the Covid-19 continue to be felt and the war in Ukraine impacts food costs, our regular commitments remain at a higher level with the additional costs being met from unrestricted grants. We benefit from gift aid on most of the regular donations we receive.

Resources expended

During the year, EACP expended a total of £86,492 (2022: £88,579):

Charitable activities1 Fundraising costs Administration costs	Year ended 31 March 2023 Total £ Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 85,292 44,187 41,105 913 913 287 287 86,492 45,387 41,105	Year ended 31 March 2022 Total £ Unrestricted £ Restricted £ 85,305 51,367 33,938 2,847 2,847 427 427 88,579 54,641 33,938

£85,292 or 98.6% (2022: £85,305 or 96.3%) of our total expenditure went in grants and donations to the charitable activities and projects we support as follows:

	2023	2022
	£	£
Joy	33,666	39,785
Faith	11,091	16,617
St Vianney	5,159	13,088
BWG	16,932	8,344
Bulogo	11,589	5,471
LTCH	3,131	2,000
Rossholme	3,724
	85,292	85,305

As in most previous years, Joy was the main beneficiary of our grants this year, with Faith, BWG and Bulogo also benefiting from building projects.

As a small charity run entirely by volunteers, we strive to minimise our expenditure on items other than direct project costs.

Our fundraising costs mostly comprise commission paid to a fund-raising consultant. This year we raised over £7,800 (2022: £24,000) from the grant making bodies introduced to us by the consultant.

Our administration costs of £287 (2022: £427) were largely for IT and internet subscriptions, and printing and stamps for our appeal letters.

Reserves policy

EACP’s reserves policy is, subject to exceptional circumstances, to maintain a minimum reserve of £2,000 or three months anticipated committed expenditure, whichever is the lesser. As of 31 March 2023, we had an unrestricted reserves balance of £14,599 (2022: £17,992) which is more than sufficient to cover three months of committed expenditure at current levels (including the additional

1 Including money transfer costs

food inflation related funding). In addition, we have a restricted funds balance of £7,533, all of which is earmarked for specific projects.

Surplus funds are held on deposit as the Trustees do not consider it appropriate to invest funds where there is a risk of capital depreciation.

Inspection of accounts

As our income for the year exceeded £25,000, we are required to have our accounts inspected by an independent examiner. This service has been provided on a pro bono basis. The inspector’s report is at page 11.

Declaration

The Trustees declare that they have approved the Trustees’ Report above.

Signed on behalf of EACP’s Trustees by:

Pieter Lagaay, Trustee and Chairman

Date: 22 July 2023

Jennie Lawes, Trustee

Date: 22 July 2023

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF EAST AFRICA CHILDREN'S PROJECT

Registered Charity number 1136340

Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023

The accounts have been prepared on the Receipts and Payments basis.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and independent examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to:

examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act), and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of Independent Examiner’s Report

My examination was carried out in accordance with General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view, and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent Examiner’s Report

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:
to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and
to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act;
have not been met; or
To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Shari Norton ACA

Flat 1, 17 Cambridge Park, Twickenham TW1 2JE

Signed:

Date: 24 August 2023

Section A Receipts and payments for the year ended 31 March 2023

	31 March 2023	31 March 2023	31 March 2022 Unrestricted £ Restricted £	31 March 2022 Unrestricted £ Restricted £
Receipts	Unrestricted £ Restricted £
Voluntarydonations andgrants	41,965	39,553	63,936	27,959
Interest on deposit accounts	29	0	1	0
*Total receipts* Payments	41,994	39,553	63,937	27,959

Grants and donations	44,187	41,105	51,367	33,938
Costs of fundraising	913		2,847
Administration	287		427
*Total payments* Net of receipts/(payments) during the period Accumulated net receipts brought forward at 31 March 2022 (2021)	45,387	41,105	54,641	33,938

	(3,393)	(1,552)	9,296	(5,979)
	17,992	9,085	8,696	15,064
Accumulated net receipts (payments) at 31 March 2023(2022)	14,599	7,533	17,992	9,085


Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 March			2023
	31 March 2023 Unrestricted £ Restricted £		31 March 2022 Unrestricted £ Restricted £
Cash at bank	14,599	7,533	17,992	9,085

Signed on behalf of all the Trustees of EACP by:

Pieter Lagaay, Trustee and Chairman

Date: 22 July 2023

Ros Stow, Trustee

Date: 22 July 2023