ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2022-2023
CHILDREN UNITE
Directors’ Report
The year 2022-23 has seen Children Unite deepen and expand our work on ethics and safeguarding for campaigning and research by children with lived experiences of exploitation. We have explored the key ethical issues for participatory research with children and young people and deepened our understanding of ‘safeguarding’ by applying it to the youth activism and campaigning environment. In so doing we are learning about the overlap between what is traditionally thought of as ‘child protection’ ‘safeguarding’ or ‘ethics’ and the concept of ‘meaningful engagement’ with young people.
This work has enabled us to deepen our solidarity and strengthen our partnerships with colleagues working at the ‘coalface’ in Guyana (ChildLink), Indonesia (Kita Sahabat), Kenya (Lensthru Consultants) and Nepal (Swatantrata Abihyan Nepal) and from research institutes such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Safer Young Lives Centre at the University of Bedfordshire. And it has been fantastic to be working more closely this year with all our Associates – Silvie Bovarnick, Alphonce Omolo, Rabia Gungor and Kirsche Walker. In the aftermath of the pandemic, we undertook a lot of travel this year – connecting with our partners and our associates - and we want to thank all those who welcomed us into their organisations, their hearts and their lives – we feel enriched and re-motivated from these experiences to continue our work with Children Unite.
Our work on safeguarding prompted us to get our house in order and, with the help of Rabia Gungor (our resident safeguarding expert) we reviewed and revised our safeguarding policy and procedures to be more aligned with the principles of ‘survivor-informed’ safeguarding that we have been working on over the past two years.
For Helen, the publishing of her discussion paper on re-framing sexual violence against children as a rights violation was a long awaited personal goal. Especially as it was launched through a community conversation with key donors, achieving its aim of prompting discussion and debate - as is evident from the title of the paper!
Our Trustees have provided great advice and support to us over the year - and a good deal of laughter and fun at our meetings. We want to wholeheartedly thank Toral Shah for her valuable contribution as a trustee and treasurer of Children Unite for five years and welcome back Adrian Storey to fill Toral’s big shoes. And, of course, to thank the remaining trustees, Audrey Guichon, Beth Herzfeld and Gillian Harrow (our Chair), for continuing to support us to work with integrity and purpose.
More detail on our activities this year can be found below.
Helen Veitch and Jonathan Blagbrough, Co-Directors
Children Unite
Mission: Children Unite promotes participatory approaches to working with exploited children. Through consultancy and by delivering research and advocacy projects we support child domestic workers, street connected children and sexually exploited children to claim their rights.
Consultancy: Through our Technical Advice Service we work with NGOs and donors that support exploited children and young people. Our advice service builds organisations' capacity to integrate children's participation into organisational policy and structure, and helps to develop programmes that are based on needs identified by children themselves.
Projects: Through our projects we facilitate children's activism and advocacy in order to influence national and international policy and practice. We design and co-ordinate participatory research and projects that empower exploited children.
Since 2010 we have worked in over 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with children's rights agencies and donors that are supporting exploited children and young people.
Summary of Activities
Discussion Paper on Understanding Sexual Violence Against Children: Commissioned in 2021 by Ignite Philanthropy, a discussion paper on ‘Understanding Sexual Violence Against Children as a Rights Violation: engaging with the challenges’, authored by Helen Veitch and Claire Cody, was reviewed by Ignite Philanthropy and the Prevent Child Sexual Abuse team at Oak Foundation over the course of the year and revised. The discussion paper was launched through a community dialogue with donors, hosted by Elevate Children in March 2022 and has subsequently been added to Ignite Philanthropy’s website as a key resource informing the organisation’s new strategy.
Survivor informed safeguarding for campaigning: In October 2021 Children Unite was commissioned by Oak Foundation to undertake a review of safeguarding practices for survivors involved in campaigning and advocacy. Two Associates, Rabia Gungor and Kirsche Walker, were involved in this consultancy working alongside Helen Veitch. It resulted in the development of a new approach to safeguarding that we called ‘survivor informed safeguarding for campaigning’. The review findings were presented to Oak Foundation in June 2022 who extended the contract with Children Unite to undertake a validation exercise of the key findings with key stakeholders. A revised report on Survivor Informed Safeguarding for Campaigning was submitted to the Oak team in December 2022.
In September, Children Unite sub-contracted, Rabia Gungor to develop tools for the ‘Survivor Informed Safeguarding for Campaigning’ approach that were used in campaigning activities on the sexual abuse of boys by national NGOs Projeto Legal in Brazil and Taller de Vida in Colombia. Ethics for participatory research: In 2023 Children Unite moved into the field work phase of the ETHYCS project – a three year collaborative study with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) exploring research ethics for participatory research activities with children in ‘risk situations’ (exploited children). In this phase, Helen Veitch and Jonathan Blagbrough were supported by one of our Associates, Silvie Bovarnick, to run field testing of research ethics in four countries. In Kenya, we worked with another Associate, Alphonce Omolo, to pilot research ethics with street connected children.
Over the course of the year, we supported the Kenyan team to obtain ethics approval and prepare child researchers for the pilot (which took place in August 2023). In November 2022, we worked with LSHTM to support the team at ChildLink Guyana to undertake focus group discussions in Georgetown with youth researchers. In December, the team from Kitah Sahabat undertook focus group discussions in Semarang with young women working in karaoke bars and their employers. In January 2023, Swatantrata Abhiyan Nepal undertook focus group discussions with sexually exploited young women in Kathmandu.
Two examples of the ‘flower exercise’ which collated data on support networks from youth researchers in Guyana.
Collaboration with Safer Young Lives Research Centre: In March 2023, Children Unite started collaborating with the Safer Young Lives Research Centre at the University of Bedfordshire to sub-contract Silvie Bovarnick, Children Unite Associate, to undertake work on a project called Learning Together, which supports researchers to safely and ethically involve children and young people in sexual abuse research and explore what the support needs of researchers are to help them to do this.
Pro-bono support to Wotesawa, Tanzania: Children Unite supported Wotesawa (a local Mwanza-based NGO working with young domestic workers: https://wotesawa.or.tz/) with editing their Annual Report 2022, their key annual publication to inform supporters and funders of their activities. Jonathan also acted as a referee for Wotesawa’s successful application to the Freedom Fund-Survivor Leadership Fund, which awarded the organisation 20,000 USD.
Updated Safeguarding Policy: Children Unite’s safeguarding policy and procedures have been reviewed and updated by Rabia Gungor, (Children Unite Associate and safeguarding expert) to better reflect the participatory and child-led principles in the ‘survivor-informed safeguarding’ approach
that Children Unite has been developing over the past year. An extraordinary trustee meeting is planned for June 2023 to brief trustees on the policy and procedures in preparation for adoption by trustees at the 2023 AGM.
Publications: Jonathan authored an article for peer review journal Children’s Geographies entitled ‘Not-Quite-Friendship: exploring social relations between child domestic workers and the children of employing ’ families .
Governance & Finances
Finances: Children Unite moved our bank account from Triodos Bank to Starling Bank in August 2022 in order to cope with increasing income from international sources, which Triodos, as a local UK bank, was not set up to do.
Governance: in September 2022 Children Unite held its AGM where Toral Shah resigned from the Board as Treasurer and Adrian Storey joined to replace Toral. Beth Herzfeld, Gillian Harrow and Audrey Guichon were reappointed for a further 1 year.
Registration
Children Unite is a company limited by guarantee: 07032485 Children Unite is a registered UK charity: 1136614 Registered address: 33 Skipworth Road, London E9 7JR
Founders and Directors: Helen Veitch and Jonathan Blagbrough Company Secretary: Helen Veitch Non-share holding Directors: Adrian Storey (Treasurer) Gillian Harrow (Chair) Beth Herzfeld Audrey Guichon
Contact us: helen@childrenunite.org.uk www.childrenunite.org.uk
| Children Unite | Children Unite | Children Unite | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2023 | ||||
| Balance Sheet | 22/23 | 21/22 | ||
| Current Assets | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Cash at Bank | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Debtors | - | - | ||
| Prepayments | - | - | ||
| Current Liabilities | - | - | ||
| Pendingdisbursements | - | - | ||
| Accruals | - | - | ||
| Net Current Assets | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Funds | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Balance brought forward | 16,984 | 7,678 | ||
| Surplus/ (Defcit) | 2,745 | 9,306 | ||
| Reserves carried forward | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Restricted funds | 6,100 | 8,622 | ||
| Unrestricted funds | 13,629 | 8,362 | ||
| For the year ended 31 March 2023 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relatingto small companies |
||||
| Director's responsibilities: The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year inquestion in accordance with Section 478. |
||||
| The directors acknowledge their responsiblities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts. These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the Companies Act 2006. |
||||
| These accounts have been delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime. |
||||
| The accounts were approved bythe directors and signed on their behalf by: | ||||
| Director: | Date: | |||
| 15/12/2023 | ||||
ANNUAL REPORT & ACCOUNTS 2022-2023
CHILDREN UNITE
Directors’ Report
The year 2022-23 has seen Children Unite deepen and expand our work on ethics and safeguarding for campaigning and research by children with lived experiences of exploitation. We have explored the key ethical issues for participatory research with children and young people and deepened our understanding of ‘safeguarding’ by applying it to the youth activism and campaigning environment. In so doing we are learning about the overlap between what is traditionally thought of as ‘child protection’ ‘safeguarding’ or ‘ethics’ and the concept of ‘meaningful engagement’ with young people.
This work has enabled us to deepen our solidarity and strengthen our partnerships with colleagues working at the ‘coalface’ in Guyana (ChildLink), Indonesia (Kita Sahabat), Kenya (Lensthru Consultants) and Nepal (Swatantrata Abihyan Nepal) and from research institutes such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Safer Young Lives Centre at the University of Bedfordshire. And it has been fantastic to be working more closely this year with all our Associates – Silvie Bovarnick, Alphonce Omolo, Rabia Gungor and Kirsche Walker. In the aftermath of the pandemic, we undertook a lot of travel this year – connecting with our partners and our associates - and we want to thank all those who welcomed us into their organisations, their hearts and their lives – we feel enriched and re-motivated from these experiences to continue our work with Children Unite.
Our work on safeguarding prompted us to get our house in order and, with the help of Rabia Gungor (our resident safeguarding expert) we reviewed and revised our safeguarding policy and procedures to be more aligned with the principles of ‘survivor-informed’ safeguarding that we have been working on over the past two years.
For Helen, the publishing of her discussion paper on re-framing sexual violence against children as a rights violation was a long awaited personal goal. Especially as it was launched through a community conversation with key donors, achieving its aim of prompting discussion and debate - as is evident from the title of the paper!
Our Trustees have provided great advice and support to us over the year - and a good deal of laughter and fun at our meetings. We want to wholeheartedly thank Toral Shah for her valuable contribution as a trustee and treasurer of Children Unite for five years and welcome back Adrian Storey to fill Toral’s big shoes. And, of course, to thank the remaining trustees, Audrey Guichon, Beth Herzfeld and Gillian Harrow (our Chair), for continuing to support us to work with integrity and purpose.
More detail on our activities this year can be found below.
Helen Veitch and Jonathan Blagbrough, Co-Directors
Children Unite
Mission: Children Unite promotes participatory approaches to working with exploited children. Through consultancy and by delivering research and advocacy projects we support child domestic workers, street connected children and sexually exploited children to claim their rights.
Consultancy: Through our Technical Advice Service we work with NGOs and donors that support exploited children and young people. Our advice service builds organisations' capacity to integrate children's participation into organisational policy and structure, and helps to develop programmes that are based on needs identified by children themselves.
Projects: Through our projects we facilitate children's activism and advocacy in order to influence national and international policy and practice. We design and co-ordinate participatory research and projects that empower exploited children.
Since 2010 we have worked in over 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with children's rights agencies and donors that are supporting exploited children and young people.
Summary of Activities
Discussion Paper on Understanding Sexual Violence Against Children: Commissioned in 2021 by Ignite Philanthropy, a discussion paper on ‘Understanding Sexual Violence Against Children as a Rights Violation: engaging with the challenges’, authored by Helen Veitch and Claire Cody, was reviewed by Ignite Philanthropy and the Prevent Child Sexual Abuse team at Oak Foundation over the course of the year and revised. The discussion paper was launched through a community dialogue with donors, hosted by Elevate Children in March 2022 and has subsequently been added to Ignite Philanthropy’s website as a key resource informing the organisation’s new strategy.
Survivor informed safeguarding for campaigning: In October 2021 Children Unite was commissioned by Oak Foundation to undertake a review of safeguarding practices for survivors involved in campaigning and advocacy. Two Associates, Rabia Gungor and Kirsche Walker, were involved in this consultancy working alongside Helen Veitch. It resulted in the development of a new approach to safeguarding that we called ‘survivor informed safeguarding for campaigning’. The review findings were presented to Oak Foundation in June 2022 who extended the contract with Children Unite to undertake a validation exercise of the key findings with key stakeholders. A revised report on Survivor Informed Safeguarding for Campaigning was submitted to the Oak team in December 2022.
In September, Children Unite sub-contracted, Rabia Gungor to develop tools for the ‘Survivor Informed Safeguarding for Campaigning’ approach that were used in campaigning activities on the sexual abuse of boys by national NGOs Projeto Legal in Brazil and Taller de Vida in Colombia. Ethics for participatory research: In 2023 Children Unite moved into the field work phase of the ETHYCS project – a three year collaborative study with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) exploring research ethics for participatory research activities with children in ‘risk situations’ (exploited children). In this phase, Helen Veitch and Jonathan Blagbrough were supported by one of our Associates, Silvie Bovarnick, to run field testing of research ethics in four countries. In Kenya, we worked with another Associate, Alphonce Omolo, to pilot research ethics with street connected children.
Over the course of the year, we supported the Kenyan team to obtain ethics approval and prepare child researchers for the pilot (which took place in August 2023). In November 2022, we worked with LSHTM to support the team at ChildLink Guyana to undertake focus group discussions in Georgetown with youth researchers. In December, the team from Kitah Sahabat undertook focus group discussions in Semarang with young women working in karaoke bars and their employers. In January 2023, Swatantrata Abhiyan Nepal undertook focus group discussions with sexually exploited young women in Kathmandu.
Two examples of the ‘flower exercise’ which collated data on support networks from youth researchers in Guyana.
Collaboration with Safer Young Lives Research Centre: In March 2023, Children Unite started collaborating with the Safer Young Lives Research Centre at the University of Bedfordshire to sub-contract Silvie Bovarnick, Children Unite Associate, to undertake work on a project called Learning Together, which supports researchers to safely and ethically involve children and young people in sexual abuse research and explore what the support needs of researchers are to help them to do this.
Pro-bono support to Wotesawa, Tanzania: Children Unite supported Wotesawa (a local Mwanza-based NGO working with young domestic workers: https://wotesawa.or.tz/) with editing their Annual Report 2022, their key annual publication to inform supporters and funders of their activities. Jonathan also acted as a referee for Wotesawa’s successful application to the Freedom Fund-Survivor Leadership Fund, which awarded the organisation 20,000 USD.
Updated Safeguarding Policy: Children Unite’s safeguarding policy and procedures have been reviewed and updated by Rabia Gungor, (Children Unite Associate and safeguarding expert) to better reflect the participatory and child-led principles in the ‘survivor-informed safeguarding’ approach
that Children Unite has been developing over the past year. An extraordinary trustee meeting is planned for June 2023 to brief trustees on the policy and procedures in preparation for adoption by trustees at the 2023 AGM.
Publications: Jonathan authored an article for peer review journal Children’s Geographies entitled ‘Not-Quite-Friendship: exploring social relations between child domestic workers and the children of employing ’ families .
Governance & Finances
Finances: Children Unite moved our bank account from Triodos Bank to Starling Bank in August 2022 in order to cope with increasing income from international sources, which Triodos, as a local UK bank, was not set up to do.
Governance: in September 2022 Children Unite held its AGM where Toral Shah resigned from the Board as Treasurer and Adrian Storey joined to replace Toral. Beth Herzfeld, Gillian Harrow and Audrey Guichon were reappointed for a further 1 year.
Registration
Children Unite is a company limited by guarantee: 07032485 Children Unite is a registered UK charity: 1136614 Registered address: 33 Skipworth Road, London E9 7JR
Founders and Directors: Helen Veitch and Jonathan Blagbrough Company Secretary: Helen Veitch Non-share holding Directors: Adrian Storey (Treasurer) Gillian Harrow (Chair) Beth Herzfeld Audrey Guichon
Contact us: helen@childrenunite.org.uk www.childrenunite.org.uk
| Children Unite | Children Unite | Children Unite | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2023 | ||||
| Balance Sheet | 22/23 | 21/22 | ||
| Current Assets | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Cash at Bank | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Debtors | - | - | ||
| Prepayments | - | - | ||
| Current Liabilities | - | - | ||
| Pendingdisbursements | - | - | ||
| Accruals | - | - | ||
| Net Current Assets | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Funds | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Balance brought forward | 16,984 | 7,678 | ||
| Surplus/ (Defcit) | 2,745 | 9,306 | ||
| Reserves carried forward | 19,729 | 16,984 | ||
| Restricted funds | 6,100 | 8,622 | ||
| Unrestricted funds | 13,629 | 8,362 | ||
| For the year ended 31 March 2023 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relatingto small companies |
||||
| Director's responsibilities: The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year inquestion in accordance with Section 478. |
||||
| The directors acknowledge their responsiblities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts. These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the Companies Act 2006. |
||||
| These accounts have been delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime. |
||||
| The accounts were approved bythe directors and signed on their behalf by: | ||||
| Director: | Date: | |||
| 15/12/2023 | ||||
Independent examiner's port to the trustees of Children Unite I report to th8 tffust685 on my 8xamin8h.on of th8 8CCOUlJts of Childr8n UnAt8 (th8 Ch81ityl forth8 y8arend8d 31 March 2023. Responsibilities and basis of report As the chanty trustees of the Chantyyou are responsible forthe preparbb.on of the èccoufits aecort1èrt with the requitsments of the Chérihes Act 2017 ('the Act). l portin Spect ofmy examination ofthe Charitys accounts can7ed out under secbon 145 of the 2011 Act and in canying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission undersection 145(5)(b) of the Act. Ind8pènd•nt •xamin•r's stètomènt I have completed by examination. I confirm thatno materi81 Matte have come to my attention in Gonnection with the examination giwng me cause to believe that in any material respect.. accounting reconls We not kept in spect of the Charity as required by section 730 ofthe Act,. or the accounts do not accord wilh those reconls,. or the accounts do not comply with the applicable reqU1MentS conceming the fom and nIent of accounts set out in the Chanties (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2Q08 other than any requirement that the accounls give a twe and fair view which is not a matterconsidered as part of an independent examination. Recommendations.. I have tscommentlah.ons forthe Childn Uff>ite oft Ihe intemal control enhancement to Consider." To have approved fNnanGialpolicy ndpr(dure8 manual 2. Documentation.. ProperdoGUnnt&t1on of financi81 tr8ns8Glions, ceIptS, and expendItuS crucial. This not only aids in the pparatIon of acGOUnts but also ensu8 Ir8nSP8renGy and aGGount8bNlity. Sign8d.. Shabn8m Ssdaat (SAgngd El8CtronAcallyl Name.. Shabnam Sadaat R8l8vantprof8ssn8l qualification ormemb8tship of prof8&%ional bodies lif any).. Address.. 25 Brampton Court, Brnmpton Gn)ve, Hendon Cent1 NW44AJ D8t8.' 31/01/2024