## **Building Malawi Trustee Report 2022** 

## **Vision and Mission** 

Vision 

To help create a Malawi where everyone has access to libraries, sports facilities and educational facilities 

## Mission 

To contribute to access to libraries, educational and sports facilities by raising money to fund their construction, commissioning builders to build them and developing partnerships with Malawian organisations to run them. 

## **Key Objectives** 

Provide capital and management to build school facilities, libraries and sports facilities in Malawi 

Empower local people and organisations to run these facilities as sustainable projects. 

Identify and establish ways that the projects can become financially selfsufficient. 

Organise and run projects in a professional and cost efficient manner 

## **Ethos of BM** 

Small, focussed, flexible, Malawian run projects, experienced, past success, empowering, supportive, benevolent landlord, honest, professional, open & transparent, working as a team, meeting the needs of the community, small, dynamic, sustainable, successful, efficient, value for money, focus on infrastructure, all of the money donated goes to the cause and into tangible items such as libraries and schools with minimal UK running costs. 

What do we do 

Raise money through organising charity events, sponsored activities, commercial sponsorship and just giving. 

Identify projects in Malawi using a robust needs assessment. We employ Malawian builders and locally sourced materials to build infrastructure such as schools, libraries and sports facilities. Establish partnerships with Malawian organisations to run these facilities. The schools, libraries and sports facilities fund their own running costs - they 



don't depend on our continuing support. This means that they are self sustainable. 

Raise awareness of BM through the website, social media sites, email marketing and word of mouth 

Provide information to people that want to visit our projects in Malawi Encourage interested people to visit our projects 

## **Stakeholders** 

Malawi National Library Service Malawi Ascent Soccer Malawi Department of Education Malawi Department of Gender Malawi Police Force Lingadzi Academy Directors Churches Schools Teachers Malawi Lodge The Community Children and families Other NGOs Volunteers/ Visitors Beneficiaries UK Donors 

## **Our fund raising strategy** 

Colchester Blues and Rock in the Garden mini festival (average £8,000/£9000 income) Multiple just giving pages set up by fundraisers In memoriam donations Application to funding bodies (grants) – Rotary Clubs in England and Scotland, Lets Build (Norway), Turing Trust 

## **Professional and open financial management** 

The Treasurer presents accounts at our quarterly trustee meetings as well as submitting them to the Charity Commission annually. 

## **Decision making** 

4 trustees make decisions with the guidance of a larger committee where appropriate. 

There must be written confirmation from at least a trustee, the chair and the treasurer that states that they are agreed to an amount of money being 



released. This can be made in a meeting or in the case where decisions need to be made outside of a meeting, via email. 

## **Management Team Roles and Responsibilities** 

Building Malawi is operated by a UK trustee group of 5 with a further group of meeting attendees that are invited to contribute to discussions about the charity and support with fundraising. All decisions are made by a vote of the 5 trustees 

Caroline Bowden - Chair - responsible for calling meetings and ensuring due process is followed Keith Fisher - Treasurer - responsible for finances Tom Bowden - Project Manager - responsible for the implementation of projects in Malawi including communication with Malawian partners Mike Dunn - responsible for inbound charity correspondence 

Wider committee 

Des Bowden Joy Magna And others, depending on the project 

Frequency of meetings 

Quarterly (or more frequently as appropriate) 

## **Guidelines for any money that is spent** 

Full transparency 

Have a Memorandum of Understanding or contract for each donation with a set term (with review dates) Organisations we work with must demonstrate transparency of their accounts 

Organisations we work with must demonstrate aptitude and work under our ethical standards 

That none of our criteria will exclude the illiterate or very poor with no accounting skills 

To use local builders and resources 

In each project we must demonstrate an exit strategy In each project we must demonstrate a need for our involvement (needs assessment) 

Establish a method of measuring the success or failure of the project 

## **Guidelines for organisations wishing to partner with us or wishing to** 



## **donate to us** 

We do not accept money for projects that are outside our aims and objectives A memorandum of understanding should be in place for all large donations which states the intentions for the money 

Should it be the case on a building project that has been funded by a single donor that money be used outside of a builder’s contract (for example the costs of a site visit) we shall demonstrate this to the donor. We must issue a report on work done and a thank you letter 

## **How do we manage the Malawi end of the operation?** 

Tom Bowden is the Project Manager and is responsible for the delivery of projects in Malawi and he liaises regularly with our Malawian partners. 

## **Partners in Malawi** 

The National Library Service of Malawi Ascent Soccer The Ministry of Education The Ministry of Sport The Ministry of Gender Directors of Lingadzi Academy 

## **Progress 2020/21** 

A large piece of land on the outskirts of Lilongwe was purchased by the charity over a period of some years.  A library was built and some excellent quality soccer pitches were prepared as well as a hard netball court. 

The soccer pitches, shower block and classrooms are utilised by a local charitable organisation, Ascent Soccer for elite sports boys and girls. 

There are also informal soccer pitches/play areas which are heavily utilised by the local community.  Large musical events have taken place on the land, run by the local community. 

Last year a large community hall was built (a Hall for All) which has had a considerable amount of use by the local population for meetings and other events. 

In preparation for further development on the site, a perimeter wall was completed. 



Funding was provided for a tree project which was started up with a large number of trees which are now reaching maturity.  There is a local manager of the nurseries employed by Building Malawi. 

During the latter part of the year 2021 funding was provided by Let’s Build (Norway) for school buildings to be built on the site.  Four large classrooms were built using an earthbag technique which is more ecological (not requiring bricks to be fired by wood fires). 

The school was opened at the beginning of 2022 with a full compliment of teachers and half capacity of students (years 2 and 4 initially) to start off the first year.  The school will begin the academic year 2022/23 at full capacity with 4 classes and approximately 200 pupils altogether.  There is an IT room as well as a laboratory serving the school.  Furniture has been provided by funding from Rotary Clubs in UK, and IT equipment from the Turing Trust Charity (UK).  Applications have been made for the funding of laboratory equipment. 

Signed:         Caroline Bowden 

Chair Building Malawi 

Date: 26 September 2022 



## Building Malawi 

## Financial Statement 1 January 2020 to  31 December 2021 

## INCOME 

## EXPENDITURE 

|Lets Build<br>Big Foot<br>Rotary Colchester<br>Ardent<br>Dan Gascoyne<br>CAF<br>Blues & Rock<br>Ascent soccer<br>Just Giving<br>Sue Fisher<br>John Kohler<br>V Hallif<br>Other<br>Total|£      95,321<br>School building<br>£        6,000<br>School development<br>£        6,901<br>Trees<br>£        2,000<br>Water tower<br>£           853<br>HS Salary<br>£           502<br>Decoration<br>£        4,701<br>Just Giving fees<br>£        2,400<br>School inspection<br>£        1,530<br>Desks<br>£        1,000<br>Teacher Salaries<br>£             50<br>£           120<br>£           100<br>£    121,478|£     95,320<br>£     10,000<br>£          910<br>£       9,507<br>£       1,360<br>£          150<br>£          216<br>£          755<br>1090<br>5454|
|---|---|---|
|||£   124,762|
||||



|Opening balance<br>Income<br>Less expenditure<br>Closing balance|£            11,527<br>£          121,478<br>-£          124,762|
|---|---|
||£              8,243|





To the trustees of Building Malawi
I, Dan Gascoyne have undertaken an independent examination of the
following:
I have reviewed the minutes of meetings of charity trustees.
I have compared the accounts with the underlying accounting records.
I have made sure bank reconciliations and petty cash reconaliations have
been undertaken induding at the year-end and assessed.the finanaal
information relating to the year in question.
I am satisfied that proper accounting records were kept
l am satisfied that the accounts accord with the accounting records. I have
found no matters that I need to highlight in my independent examiners
repo
Signed:
Dan Gascoyne
Maitlands South
Distillery Lane
C02 8EZ
October 2022