2024-09-30-accounts

Charity Registration No. 1138333

PROJECT SRI LANKA Charitable Incorporated Organisation

DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES’ REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2024

PROJECT SRI LANKA

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Companies House Certificate of Incorporation number: 07318625 Converted to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) 5/11/18

Registered Charity number: 1138333

Registered Office:

West Acres Cottage West Acres Alnwick Northumberland NE66 2PU

Directors and Trustees

Professor Joy Annette Palmer Cooper JP (Chairman) Professor David Edward Cooper (Secretary) Mrs Alison Hilary Brown JP (Vice Chairman) Mr Michael Alan Brown

Secretary

Professor David E. Cooper

Bankers

HSBC 110 Grey Street Newcastle upon Tyne

PROJECT SRI LANKA

TRUSTEES’ REPORT 2024

The Directors and Trustees present this Report together with financial statements of Project Sri Lanka, for the year ended 30[th] September 2024

Structure, Governance and Management

The governing document is the Governing Document submitted with the application to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

The number of Trustees shall not be less than 3 but shall not be more than 12. For the period of present reporting there have been 4 Trustees and Members as named above. The Trustees have the power at any time to appoint any person who is able and willing to do so to be a Trustee. Upon his appointment as a Trustee, a person shall automatically become a Member of the CIO, subject to any maximum number not being exceeded. A person shall not be entitled to act as a Trustee until he has signed a declaration of acceptance and willingness to act in accordance with the terms of the Articles of Association.

The Trustees have accepted ultimate responsibility for directing the affairs of Project Sri Lanka and for ensuring that it is solvent, well run, and delivering the charitable outcomes for the benefit of the public for which it has been set up. All of the present Trustees are very well qualified to provide oversight of the affairs of the charity. All are long-established and successful educators and all have worked in Sri Lanka in relation to our humanitarian endeavours. Two of the Trustees are Justices of the Peace and thus have extensive training in legal matters and of working with situations that require application of justice and equity, principles of human rights, and the need to consider the welfare of children and vulnerable adults in difficult circumstances. They will ensure that any person appointed in future as a Trustee is appropriately inducted and trained to understand the nature of the charity and its operations and their responsibilities in relation to compliance, duty of prudence and duty of care.

Project Sri Lanka employs no staff. Business is managed by the Trustees in accordance with the Governing Document. The Trustees examine the major strategic, business and operational risks to which the charity is exposed and satisfy themselves that systems or procedures are in place to minimise such risks and ensure that any risks remain insignificant.

The Trustees have policies for Working with Children and Vulnerable Adults and Risk Management which are reviewed on an annual basis. The Chairman serves as Safeguarding Officer.

Objects

The CIO’s objects are specifically restricted to the following:

The advancement of education and the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, poverty or those living in socially or economically disadvantaged communities, primarily in Sri Lanka but not limited to this area, in particular but not exclusively by the following means:

• i) Providing or assisting in the provision of goods, services, resources, grants and trained volunteers; or

• ii) Providing support to schools and teachers and developing educational and environmental infrastructure; or

• iii) Providing people with the means to live and support themselves and their community for the present and the future.

These objects are clearly for the public benefit. Trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers and duties.

The charity seeks to enhance the lives of people, primarily in Sri Lanka, by providing assistance and support as detailed regardless of ethnicity or religious belief. The charity is committed to equality of opportunity, integrity, tolerance and respect for others in all of its endeavours.

Specific Objectives for 2023-24 were:

• i) Continued monitoring of the work being done as a result of the latest Global Grant from Rotary International, linking Project Sri Lanka with the Rotary Club of Kandy and the Rotary Club of Alnwick, this being dedicated to the operating theatre at Peradeniya Hospital

• ii) Continued monitoring of achievements deriving from previous Global Grants from Rotary International

• iii) Sustaining the quality of pre-school education and general usage in our community buildings by continuing training and ensuring each has a pre-school teacher where appropriate and/or a range of successful community activities.

• iv) Ensuring the continued success of the ‘sponsor a child’ scheme.

• vii) Maintaining regular contact with our Sri Lankan partners, either by Trustees’ visits

• or by virtual means in order to ensure continued success of all of our projects.

Activities and programmes delivered during the reporting period included:

• i) No Trustees have made personal visits to Sri Lanka during this reporting period, but very regular contact has been maintained through virtual means. Numerous zoom conversations and planning sessions were held in association with the Global Grant for Vocational Training as described below (v)

• ii) Regular monitoring of progress has taken place with our project which fully equipped an operating theatre dedicated to the treatment of mothers and their unborn babies and neonates in urgent need of surgical interventions. The theatre, sited in the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital, was completed in February 2023 and the first baby was born shortly after this. The lives of numerous pregnant women and their babies have been saved as a result of this project funded by Rotary International and Project Sri Lanka.

• iii) We have also monitored the progress of the project concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of cranio-facial deformities being conducted in the department of Dental and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University Hospital of Peradeniya. Funds for the project have been donated by Project Sri Lanka, the Rotary Club of Kandy and the Rotary Club of Alnwick in RIBI District 1030 and it has been the subject of a Rotary International Global Grant. Excellent progress is being made with this endeavour.

• iv) In the Reports of previous years, it was noted that Trustees had ‘officially’ handed over multiple items of equipment for paediatric oncology surgery – this being the subject of a further Global Grant in association with the Rotary Club of Kandy and the Rotary Club of

Alnwick. This project has been monitored by reports from Sri Lanka and we note the highly successful nature of it. Many more patients continue to be treated as a result of the acquisition of the donated equipment which is being put to extensive and excellent use by the surgical team.

• v) A significant new project has been achieved this year, which is the engagement of a team of 8 senior medical and dental clinicians from the UK who visited Sri Lanka for two and a half weeks in August 2024. This Vocational Training Team went to Peradeniya Teaching Hospital as volunteers to train staff there in various aspects of clinical work including maxillo-facial surgery, dental sedation, anaesthesiology, advanced life support and quality assurance of programmes. This project was funded by a Global Grant from Rotary International and grants from Rotary Districts in the UK. Project Sri Lanka Trustees were delighted to be able to associate the Charity with this work by providing funding for some of the necessary equipment.

• vi) During this year, as with the previous one, the Chairman has been in regular communication with the officer in charge of monitoring activities in many of our partnership villages and project locations in the Matara and Ratnapura Districts, this being Mr Bandula Senadeera, Head of the International Division of the organisation Sarvodaya Shramadana. Where challenges have been identified, these are being addressed, and it is noted that excellent work continues in the pre-schools we have established, despite the interruptions caused by the pandemic.

• vii) The Charity’s ‘Sponsor a Child’ scheme has continued throughout the year. Children supported through this activity continue to receive regular financial assistance for their education. In January 2024 increased annual payments were made into the children’s bank accounts.

• viii) Various presentations (by Zoom) have been given by the Chairman of the Trustees on aspects of the work of Project Sri Lanka, notably to Rotary Clubs in the North East of England Rotary District.

Achievements and performance

All of the Charity’s objectives set for the period 2023-24 were met through the programmes and activities as set out above. Alongside our continued interest in education and provision of water supplies, the Trustees have embraced several projects in the areas of health and care for those with disabilities, urgent medical and basic human needs. The Trustees remain committed to exploring and being receptive to new opportunities for community development and the provision of basic human needs.

2024 has marked the 19th anniversary of the commencement of Project Sri Lanka’s activities in Sri Lanka, activities that were originally organised under the auspices of Durham University and which later became the Charity Project Sri Lanka. Most sincere gratitude is expressed to all donors and friends of the Charity for their continued support.

Plans for future periods

Specific objectives for 2024-2025 include:

• i) Continued monitoring of the work being done as a result of the various Global Grants from Rotary International, linking Project Sri Lanka with the Rotary Club of Kandy and the Rotary Club of Alnwick, including the Vocational Training Team Grant.

• ii) Sustaining the quality of pre-school education and general usage in our community buildings by continuing training and ensuring each has a pre-school teacher where appropriate and/or a range of successful community activities.

• iii) Ensuring the continued success of the ‘sponsor a child’ scheme.

• iv) Maintaining regular contact with our Sri Lanka partners by either by Trustee visit or virtual means in order to ensure continued success of all or our projects.

Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities

The Directors and Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the accounts in accordance with the Charity Commission requirements for a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

This report was approved by the Directors and Trustees and signed on their behalf by

Professor David E. Cooper

Secretary and Trustee

Dated 7/10/2024

PROJECT SRI LANKA

Charity registration No. 1138333

Statement of income and expenditure account for the year ended 30 September 2024[1]

	Funds (to nearest £)	Last year (to nearest £)
INCOME
Donations	1070	4840
Interest on savings
account	21	20
Total Income	1091	4860
EXPENDITURE2
Grants	-	13000
Child sponsorship	344	505
Donations	500	476
Bank charges	193	249
Website costs	520	-
Printing and post	-	63
Transport, flights	-	3869
Total Expenditure	1557	18162
Net of payments	466	13302
Cash funds	39813	40279
TOTAL FUNDS3	39813	40279

Notes

1. During 2023-24 no financial activities (such as investments) took place other than receiving income and expenditure on charitable purposes. There were no gains or losses other than those shown above.

2. All the expenditure was upon charitable activities. The expenses were all incurred in connection with the administration of the charity.

3. The cash funds are constituted by two HSBC bank accounts:

Current account £38717 Savings account £1096 Project Sri Lanka has no assets (such as investments or property) other than the funds in the two bank accounts.

These accounts were prepared by Professor David E. Cooper, a Trustee and the Secretary of Project Sri Lanka. They were approved by the Trustees on November 8th 2024.

Signed on by Professor David E. Cooper on April 20th 2025.