2023-11-30-accounts - Liberty Children's Home

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date Day Month Year Day Month Year From 01 12 2022 To 30 11 2023

Section A Reference and administration details

Liberty Children’s Home

Charity name Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) 1136713 Charity's principal address 123 High Road Wilmington Dartford, Kent DA2 7DP

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Mrs Meryl O’Shea	Chairman
Mr Douglas Hunter	Treasurer
Mrs Jeanette Hunter	Secretary
Mrs Susan Sebborn
Miss Helen Case















Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name		Dates acted if not for whole year

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March 2012

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document Trust. 30/05/2010

(eg. trust deed, constitution)

How the charity is constituted Trust (eg. trust, association, company)

Trustee selection methods Appointed by trustees (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

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March 2012

Section C Objectives and activities

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

1) To relieve poverty and advance the education of school age children and college age adults resident at the Liberty Children’s Home and Student Hostel Located in Chintalapudi, Andhra Pradesh, India, (administered by the Indian charity Abundant Life Ministries, Indian registration number 390/2001), by providing funds to enable the provision of educational equipment, shelter, food, clothing and medical care.

2) To prevent or relieve poverty of adults and children in Andhra Pradesh, India by providing: grants, items and services to individuals in need through Abundant Life Ministries (registered as charity number 390/2001 in India).

To avoid confusion in this summary, the term ”the charity” refers to the English charity Liberty Children’s Home and the term “the Home” refers to the actual Liberty Children’s Home in Chintalapudi village, India. The trustees are aware of the importance of complying with the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and have considered this when awarding grants to Abundant Life Ministries in India. They also recognise the need to confirm the use of the funds, once transferred, by either periodic visits to the Liberty Children’s Home in India or live video communication with the Home and proof of purchases.

Provides grants to Liberty Children’s Home and Student Hostel

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

The charity funds the Home, which is a foster home for some children, with one or both parents alive, and an orphanage for others, who do not have parents, providing a secure place for the children and students to live in. The orphan children have usually been looked after by aged grandparents or close relatives. Some of the children have been rejected in re-marriage situations where the new step-parent does not want the child in the house. Others have parents who have long term illness or had an accident and cannot earn enough to look after their children. What they all have in common is that, without the Home, they would not grow healthily or regularly go to school to receive an education. The children, who this year were aged between 5 and 22, are provided for by the Home through to university education or completion of training in a trade. The funding from the charity enables the Home to provide food, clothing, medical care and meet the costs associated with the children attending the village schools and colleges. The children come from Chintalapudi and other villages in Andhra Pradesh and there is a much greater demand than can be met by the Home.

Education

The children are provided with all of their educational equipment such as notebooks and pens, etc and have any fees paid at the schools or colleges that they attend. The elementary and high school children are also provided with after-school tutors to help them understand their school work and homework. Other children in the village are invited to join with the Liberty children at the Home for extra tuition, at no cost to their parents. The Home, from our charity funding, provides some of the village children with notebooks, pens, etc and with clothing to enable them to attend school.

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March 2012

Self-supporting project

The Home is dependent upon the funds that are sent from the UK from our charity. Financial markets can be very unsettled, resulting in variations in the exchange rate, which can make the Home vulnerable when the exchange rates fall. Therefore, to give some security, the charity is working with the Home to locally develop a means of income. The Home has approximately 4 acres of farm land and we have previously worked with the Home to utilise this for their benefit. The land has been used for growing crops, housing a dairy farm, leasing to local farmers and raising chickens. Each use has presented its own problems and whilst we have gained valuable experience, none of the projects have been economically sustainable for a long term. The extreme climate conditions, crop and animal diseases and unreliable labour have played major parts in these results together with difficulties in obtaining rent from those who have leased the land. The current project is growing palm oil trees to produce cooking oil for sale.

Helping Chintalapudi village residents

Many people in the village are poor and when funds permit, we try to help both children and adults, close to the Home, with the greatest need. This has also included provision of items to the village schools that the Liberty children attend.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

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March 2012

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year		To avoid confusion in the following summary, the term “the charity” refers to the English registered charity Liberty Children’s Home and the term “the Home” refers to the actual Liberty Children’s Home in India. The charity “Liberty Children’s Home” was started on 1stDecember 2009 and attained registered status at the Charity Commission of England in July 2010. The charity was started to provide financial support for an Indian registered charity having the name of Abundant Life Ministries, run by a Pastor Hezekiah, in a village called Chintalapudi. Abundant Life Ministries runs a children’s home, called Liberty Children’s Home and also provides help to residents in the village. The Indian charity submits requests to the English charity, for funds to maintain the Home and carry on its work. The English charity considers the requests and issues grants where it is deemed suitable. This report refers to all the young people supported by the Home as “children”. This does not necessarily mean that they are immature, as some are late teens or early twenties, but relates to the Home being a “family home” and not an “institutional home”, they being treated as sons and daughters. There were no visits to the Home during 2022. However, daily contact with Pastor Hezekiah was maintained. This was by phone, WhatsApp and Skype. We have therefore managed to keep up-to-date with all of the needs of the children. We have continued to hold a minimum of weekly and monthly Skype meeting with Pastor Hezekiah, for him to inform us of the Home’s expenses and give him the opportunity to justify them. Funds have only been transferred once we were fully satisfied. We are confident that the funds are being used for their designated purpose. The Home- children For some children, with one or both parents living, the Home is a foster home and for those children without either parent it is an orphanage. Nevertheless, no matter what their situation, the Home provides a secure place to live in a healthy environment. Usually through each year, some of the children will leave for various reasons, including an improvement in family circumstances, their nearest relatives have moved away or they may have to care for a sick parent or grandparent. We have to make the decision as to how many children we can support at the Home, in June. The reason for this month, is that, for a child to move from their village, they require a school transfer certificate which normally can only be obtained at the start of the academic year in June. The Home has dormitories large enough to accept up to 60 children, depending upon the number of boys and girls. The demand for places at the Home is great, but the number is restricted by the funds available for their daily needs – sufficient food, decent clothing and provision of school books and medical care. Each summer, in May or June, the Government insist that the children are given the opportunity to return to their villages for a short break. Sometimes this results in the children not returning to the Home. This is for various reasons, including having to look after sick parents and break up of marriages. Although, happily, sometimes the child’s parent or relative has managed to sort their lives out and find that they can now look after their child. By the end of June, the Home knew which children were not returning and the decision was made to provide for 55 children. This number comprised of 16 girls and 39 boys.

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March 2012

Section D Achievements and erformance p

Once again this year, the Home has been a place of safety, providing care and protection for the children. All of the children, of all ages, have been supplied with all their clothes, food and medical care. Two resident cooks are employed to provide the children with 2 or 3 meals each day, depending upon whether it is a school day, as they receive a midday meal at school. The general health of the children is good although they have suffered with normal seasonal colds and fevers. We have continued to fund the hygiene regime that was introduced for Covid, which includes the provision of hand sanitizer and liquid soap, together with regular disinfectant of the washing and toilet areas.

We have managed to provide finance to the Home so that they can continue to celebrate each child’s birthday, with a new set of clothes and a cake. The children really look forward to this and it also means that the cost of purchasing one set of new clothes is spread through the year.

They all receive their second set of clothes at Christmas. Joining with New Year, this is the largest event of the year. We provided a relatives evening before Christmas Day, when the children’s parents or nearest relative, are invited to the Home. The children put on a concert in the evening and they all shared a meal together. On Christmas Day and New Years Day they had special meals with evenings of fireworks.

As stated in our “summary of main activities”, the Home will commit to supporting a child through to at least obtaining their first job. Although for various reasons, as previously mentioned, very few of the of the children stay to achieve this. However, at the start of this year there were 5 boys in college, training to obtain qualifications which should eventually help them obtain a good job:

1) Two boys (A Raj Kumar & B Raj Kumar) completed their final year in college, training to be medical technicians and took up jobs in hospitals..
2) One boy (Venu) entered his final year in college, training to be a medical technician
3) One boy (Visampali) entered his second year in college, training to be a nurse.
4) One boy (Vijay) entered his second year in college, on a 4 year course in computer engineering.

These children are living away in college hostels and the Charity pays for all their course, exam and lodging fees, as well as clothing, books, other personal items and travel between the Home and the college.

The Home – building, grounds and facilities

The Home, which was constructed in 2007, has no major building problems. However, the buildings and services have required maintenance and some equipment replacement, producing a bill for the year of just under £7000. This included repairs and clearing up after a major storm, with high winds, hit the Home.

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March 2012

Section D Achievements and erformance p

Self-supporting project - Farm

The farm, which is planted with palm oil trees’ did produce some fruit this year, which was sold, but it was only a small amount. These have been growing well but do require some expenditure on fertilisers and labour to periodically clear the ground of weeds, trim the palms and spray them. The palms will still take a number of years to produce significant quantities.

Helping Chintalapudi village residents

The Home is close to the centre of Chintalapudi and through the efforts of Pastor Hezekiah, representing Abundant Life Ministries, adults and children in the village are being helped. Not only does this benefit the villagers but it creates a supportive community for the Home and satisfies Indian government inspectors that Abundant Life Ministries is a “Social” charity. Once again, we have managed to provide the following support:

1) Two tutors are provided for the children at the Home, after school each day, to help them with any problems they may have in understanding their day’s lessons. The children, in the part of the village close to the Home, can come and benefit from this free of charge.

2) This year we again funded notebooks, which were given to some of the poorest children in the village to enable them to complete their primary school lessons

3) The Charity’s main objective is to support the Home, but we also have a concern for the people of the village. This year we have again helped over 25 of the neglected old women and men in the village, buying the women saris or fleeces and provided the men with a towel and lunghi.

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March 2012

Section D Achievements and erformance p

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March 2012

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`CHARITY COMMISSION`
`FOR ENGLAND AND WALES`	`Liberty Children's`	`Home`	`1136713`
	`Receipts and payments accounts`				`CCI6a`
	`For the period` `from`	`01/12/2022`	`To`	`30/11!2023`
`Section AReceipts-and payments`
	`Unrestricted`	`Restricted`	`Endowment`
	`funds`	`funds`	`funds`	`Total funds`	`Last year`
	`to the nearest`	`to the nearest £`	`to the nearest £`	`to the nearest £`	`to the nearest £`
`Al Receipts`
`Direct donations`	`24,982`			`24,982`
`Donations for items`	`9,144`			`9,144`
`HMRC Gift Aid Reclaim`
`Half marathon sponsorship`	`1,180`			`1,180`
`Sub total (Gross``income for` `AR)`	`35,306`			`35,306`
`A2 Asset and investment sales,`
`(see table).`
`Sub total`
`Total receipts`	`35,306`			`35,306``I`	`42,425`
`A3 Payments`
`Currency transfers to India`	`39,230`			`39,230`	`41,791`
`Bank transfer/commission charges`				`319`	`276`
	`39,549`			`39,549`	`42,067`
`A4 Asset and investment`
`purchases, (see table)`
`Sub total`
`Total payments`	`39,549`			`39,549`	`42,067`
`Net of receipts/(payments)`	`4,243`
`A5 Transfers between funds`
`A6 Cash funds last year end`	`30,514`
`Cash funds this year end`	`26,271`

		Unrestricted	Restricted	Endowment
		funds	funds	funds
		to nearest £	to nearest £	to nearest £
BI Cash funds	Current Account 50000795	26,022
	Cash	246
	*Total cash funds*	26,270
	(agree balances with receipts and payments
	account(s))
		Unrestricted	Restricted	Endowment
		funds	funds	funds
		to nearest £	to nearest £	to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets	Unclaimed Gift Aid 06/04/22 - 05/04/23
	Unclaimed GASDS 06/04/22 - 05/04/23
	Unclaimed Gift Aid 06/04/23 - 30/11/23
	Unclaimed GASDS 06/04/23 - 30/11/23
		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional
B3 Investment assets
		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional
B4 Assets retained for the
charity's own use
		Fund to which	Amount due	When due
		liability relates	(optional)	optional)
B5 Liabilities
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees	Signature	Print	Name	Date of approval
	N41'