2023-12-31-accounts - East Africa Character Development Trust

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EAST AFRICA CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TRUST

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2023

The Trustees present their annual report and the examined financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.

1) REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Originally founded in 2013 as the East Africa Cricket Foundation, the charity’s name was changed in 2014 to the East Africa Cricket & Educational Foundation and finally to the East Africa Character Development Trust (EACDT) in 2017 to reflect more substantively the emphasis on character development in the charity’s activities.

The charity is registered as a Charitable Trust with (Registered No: 1153030), and is subject to regulation by, the UK Charity Commission.

Registered address

Until 8 April 2023, EACDT’s principal office and registered address was 24 Eastwick Crescent, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire WD3 8YJ. However, following the death of Simon Prodger (see below), this changed to: 37 Roman Lane, Southwater, West Sussex, RH13 9AF.

Trustees

Those who served as Trustees during the year were:

Chris Newson (Chairman), Emily Burness, Julian Ince, David Hardisty, Roger Johnson, and Simon Prodger

Most unfortunately, Simon Prodger, our “Executive Trustee”, providing leadership to and oversight of the operational team in Kenya, died suddenly and unexpectedly on 8 April, 2023. At a subsequent trustee meeting on 20 April 2023, Emily Burness, David Hardisty, and Roger Johnson were elected Trustees. No one person has taken over Simon Prodger’s role as Executive Trustee, but each of the above Trustees has taken on part of that role.

Bankers

The Charity’s bankers are Barclays PLC, Business Centre, Sutton, Surrey and Barclays’s affiliate, ABSA Bank Kenya Ltd in Kenya.

External Examiner

The Charity’s external examiner is:

GMBC LLP, Marine House 151 Western Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3LH 2) MISSION AND ACTIVITIES Mission EACDT’s stated mission is to provide vital Life Skills to disadvantaged East African children to enable them to elevate the quality of their lives and futures. Our Vision is of a world where all young East Africans can become positive contributors to Society . In other words, we support young East Africans , regardless of background and disadvantage, so they can succeed in all aspects of their lives.

At the heart of EACDT’s mission is an ambition to help those young people with whom EACDT engages to reach their potential at school, at home, in their communities and ultimately in the workplace. It aims

to achieve these outcomes by delivering a Character Education Programme that has resulted from research by Drs Martin Seligman and Angela Duckworth, two eminent psychologists in the USA; from research into the “ Knowledge is Power Programme ” in the USA, an educational movement in which Character Education is placed at the heart of its 200 schools; and from research into the work of the Jubilee Centre at Birmingham University, the global leaders in Character Education.

Activities

The EACDT Programme

The EACDT Programme recognises that, if young people are to make sense of their personal and working lives, they need to have the skills, values and attitudes that will truly make a difference to their futures - and that matter more than academic qualifications. EACDT has taken the seven specific character traits identified by Drs Seligman Duckworth to be best predictors of personal and professional success - Enthusiasm; Perseverance; Self-control; Optimism; Gratitude; Social Intelligence; and Curiosity – and incorporated them into a programme that it operates in a number of schools in economically deprived areas of Nairobi, Kenya.

EACDT’s programme uses cricket as a method of delivery, recognising that competitive team sports are an ideal vehicle through which to develop character, and that cricket has particular attributes that make it ideal for this purpose.

The Need

Like other East African countries, Kenya contains many places of desperate poverty and deprivation. In most Kenyan schools, sports provision is inadequate because of financial constraints and because the benefits of sport are under-appreciated. In almost every Kenyan school the concept of Character Education is alien, although the Government expects its schools to provide Life Skills education – but without providing them with any resources to do this.

The Trustees recognise that competitive sport should also play an important part within the broad life of schools and that it is an ideal tool through which to build character. They believe that, if you build good character among young people, they will be able to make the maximum us of their skills, education and opportunities in their futures.

2023 Activities

EACDT’s Character Development programme operated in 2023 in 10 schools, engaging up to 5,648 young Kenyans (of whom 49 percent were girls) a week throughout the academic year, predominantly in primary education. A further 286 youngsters a week, of whom 121 were girls, participated in our Community Programme. The Charity’s schools programme continues to excite the children involved in it, continues to impress the teachers in the schools in which it is run and continues to demonstrate that it affects positively the behaviour, performance and conduct of the children who take part in it. The Trustees remain greatly encouraged by all they see on the ground in Kenya and the feedback they receive from the schools involved.

Towards the end of 2021 a parallel Community Programme was instituted, funded generously by Sir Rod Aldridge and his family. The purpose of the Community Programme is to include and involve those in the communities adjacent to the schools in which we operate, so that parents and community leaders are able to reinforce the seven key personality traits during the time that young people spend out of school. It also enables the large number of youngsters who are unable to go to a secondary school because their parent(s) or guardian(s) don’t have the means to pay their school fees (primary, but not secondary, school education is paid for by the Kenya government) to continue in our programme.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Bound by its Trust Deed, EACDT, as a registered charity, is governed by a Board of Trustees.

The Trustees meet at least three times each year, and on any other occasions as judged necessary, to review progress and determine matters of governance, strategy and policy. All meetings were virtual in 2023.

As noted below, EACDT operates in Kenya through a locally established charitable trust, the Foundation for Youth Cricket and Education in Kenya Charitable Trust (FYCEK). FYCEK has its own board of Trustees. It was decided two years ago that it would improve the governance of both entities if Trustee meetings were held jointly. This has proved successful and continues to be the case.

The Trustees identify any need for new trustees by reference to the charity’s plans and to any vacancies on the Trustee Board, and use their contacts to identify candidates. Information, including a CV, reputation, and a summary of appropriate skills and experience is then provided to the Trustee Board who, if satisfied that the candidate is a suitable person to join the Board, issue a written invitation.

Until Simon Prodger’s death, EACDT Trustees largely delegated day-to-day management of its programme to him as the Executive Trustee and its Programme Director in Kenya. This has had to change, and Simon’s responsibilities have been divided between the remaining and the new trustees who have been appointed in 2023.

EACDT works in partnership with FYCEK, which the Trustees formed specifically to provide a vehicle through which contracts and payments can be made to support EADCT’s activities in Kenya, and to provide a vehicle better able to raise funds in Kenya. FYCEK employs 16 Kenyans engaged in delivering and supporting EACDT’s activities in Kenya.

FYCEK’s Trustees in 2023 included two of EACDT’s Trustees, namely Simon Prodger until his death, and Julian Ince, the latter resident in Kenya and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. One other FYCEK trustee resident in Kenya is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Certified Accountants of the UK. Strong controls surround the spending of money in Kenya, most of which is for the salaries of the coaches and the administrators. The appointment of Trustees of FYCEK is subject to approval by the Trustees of EACDT.

EACDT Trustees are confident they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.

Safeguarding

EACDT, together with FYCEK, has developed safeguarding policies that reflect the circumstances in which it operates and ensures they are compliant with both the UK Charity Commission’s requirements and Kenyan standards. These policies are put into effect by the coaches in the schools in which EACDT/FYCEK operates.

STRATEGIC REPORT

Performance review

2023 has seen a continuation of our established programme in schools in which we have been working for some time. We also continued with our community-based programme, started in 2021, with the financial and active support of Sir Rod Aldridge and his family. The objective of this programme is to reach and connect more broadly with children and teenagers outside the education system and with members of the local unofficial settlement communities close to the schools in which we work.

Fundraising continues to be a major challenge. We are grateful to the Aldridge family for their support of the Community Programme. We are also grateful for the continued assistance that COSARAF provides, although 2024 is the last in which we shall receive any funding from them. We continue with fundraising efforts in the UK and hope to be able to find willing supporters.

We have set ourselves ambitious fundraising targets for 2024, as we are very keen to reopen two hubs, comprising 3 schools each, that we have had to close in recent years for lack of funding. We are

therefore taking steps in 2024 to diversify our funding through the engagement of companies and individuals in Kenya. As part of this strategy, the Programme Director, David Waters MBE, has taken on the full time responsibility of Fundraising Director, and his deputy, a very capable Kenyan, Collins Odhiambo, has become the full time Programme Director. The Trustees will review the success of these changes towards the end of 2024 in charting the way forward.

The support of and duty of care we owe to our Kenya staff has continued to be a priority. We continually receive positive feedback from them, and have been able to provide them with pay increases to reflect the changes in costs of living in Kenya, particularly during a recent period when the Pound to Kenya Shilling exchange rate dropped significantly, affecting the local cost of living.

Financial review

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose the financial position of the Charity and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 1993. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and for taking reasonable steps to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities. The Trustees believe they have strong controls in place in Kenya that provide significant comfort that money received is well-secured and that money spent is subject to proper scrutiny, approval, authorisation and accounting.

The Trustees prepare financial statements for each financial year in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act. Because donations total less than £250,000, the Trustees are only required to prepare a Receipts and Payments account, which they supplement with some explanatory notes.

As can be seen from the Receipts and Payments account for the 12 months to 31 December 2023, receipts exceeded payments by £8,554 (2022 payments exceed receipts by £22,508). As a result, reserves increased to £44,528. While receipts were more or less constant at £123,401 (2022 £125,377), payments fell from £147,884 to £114,847, reflecting, in the main, reduced costs of senior people. The Trustees are aware that reserves are not at the level they desire, and continue to monitor very carefully the Charity’s ability to continue all its programmes.

Future plans

Future plans depend to a considerable extent on the levels of funding the charity is able to raise. Funding has moved on from its historic reliance on the support of one private family foundation, and strategies to raise funds in the UK and in Kenya are proving challenging to implement. Future plans, which include reopening hubs that have been closed in the last two years, developing new hubs and expanding the Community Programme, have been developed for 2024, and our success with fundraising will determine whether these expansion plans can be put into effect.

A long-term aim of the Charity is to embed itself into the core Kenyan curriculum as defined by the Ministry of Education, enabling it to operate with a mandate and approval from the Government. This task was continued during 2023, but depends to a great extent on developing relationships with key people. This is made more difficult when senior staff change, as has happened post the 2022 general election and change of government.

Principal risks and uncertainties

A significant risk of operating in East Africa is the political and business environment, which, we discovered in 2017 after a cancelled general election, in 2020 and 2021 with the effects of the Covid19 pandemic on schools and businesses, and in 2023 with a foreign exchange crisis, severe devaluation of the currency and corresponding business uncertainty. The cancelled general election in 2017 and the subsequent 60 days of uncertainty and volatility led to the complete drying up of discussions with Kenya businesses as part of our local funding strategy. The Covid pandemic led to significant losses of business, shut-downs, extreme hardship amongst the neediest communities and, again, difficulties with engaging potential Kenyan donors. The result of the general election in August 2022 led to changes in senior positions in the Ministry of Education, hampering our ability to pursue our aim of embedding our

schools programme into the Kenya curriculum and, in 2023, to a large fall in the value of the Kenya shilling as Kenya’s foreign loans had to be reorganised and rescheduled.

There is a great deal that can and does influence the environment in which EACDT operates that it cannot control itself, a key element of which is future funding. Essential to the future of the charity, the Trustees believe, is establishing effective means of funding and corporate engagement within Kenya itself. The Trustees believe this will be the principle means of funding the charity in the years to come, as support for overseas projects in the UK is becoming less appealing to donors, and corporate engagement increasingly focuses on local delivery. We continue to search for sponsors in Kenya.

We rely on a small group of Kenyan citizens and residents for our operations in the country, and the Programme Director (a Kenya citizen) is the key person within this group. Replacing him would be challenging.

Signed on behalf of all trustees

Signature:

Name: Christopher Blandford-Newson Position: Chairman of Board of Trustees Date: 23 July 2024

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Charity Name EAST AFRICA CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TRUST	Charity Name EAST AFRICA CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TRUST	Charity Name EAST AFRICA CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TRUST

31 December 2023	Charity no (if any)	1153030

3 - 4 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:	Graham Hole	15 August 2024

	GMBC LLP CHARTERED TAX ADVISERS AND ACCOUNTANTS



	MARINE HOUSE, 151 WESTERN ROAD
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October 2018

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

October 2018

IER