2020-12-31-accounts

Report and Financial Statements

For the Period Ended 31 December 2020

Charity number 1153638 Company number 08534364

Trustee Report for the Period ended 31st December 2020 ................................................................... 3 Consolidated Income Statement ............................................................................................................ 8 Consolidated Balance Sheet.................................................................................................................... 9 Our Finances Notes to the Accounts .................................................................................................... 10 Trustee Declaration ............................................................................................................................... 11 Independent Examiner’s Report. .......................................................................................................... 12

Trustee Report for the Period ended 31st December 2020

2020 was a unique year for Xavier Project, as it was for most people in the world as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. It was also the second year of our 2019 – 2021 strategic plan, planning period.

At the beginning of the year we continued our localisation strategy building on strong foundations built in 2019. We developed and delivered more modules of our capacity strengthening and sharing course with our key refugee led organisation (RLO) partners, as well as identifying and partnering with an additional four partners bringing the total of partners to eleven RLOs.

In mid-March COVID19 reached East Africa and severe measures were put in place to restrict the spread of the virus. In both Kenya and Uganda these measures were largely effective in stemming the spread of the virus, at least in the medium term, but had damaging effects on the economy and other aspects of society, including humanitarian assistance. In all areas of Kenya and Uganda hosting refugees there were strict lockdowns imposed.

This was a great challenge for refugees as before COVID19, all refugees in Uganda and Kenya depended on work or economic activity to get by. COVID19 is threatening this. Economic activity has been suppressed under lockdowns and budget cuts have reduced food distribution. Refugees in East Africa, already living in a state of crisis, are now wholly occupied by the provision of basic human needs for themselves and their dependents.

Despite local leaders being directly affected by COVID19 in just the same way, they are playing a prominent role in leading the response in their communities at a time when other forms of humanitarian response have been limited. In 2020 we focused our energy even more on supporting these leaders to reach the most vulnerable and set ambitious visions for their communities. We increased the number of RLO partners to eleven and delivered modules of our capacity strengthening and sharing course with all of them, with some completing the first eight core modules. The capacity strengthening and sharing course (CSSC) is a vital aspect of our partnership but not the only way in which we have supported our RLO partners. We have helped them to fundraise for their work by linking them to third party donors, helping them to mobilise resources locally and in some cases by providing core funding ourselves. We have entered consortiums with RLOs to complete projects with pooled funding or with Xavier Project as a lead grant recipient. Most importantly, we have established long term partnerships and played a role as mentors and collaborators in various unstructured ways.

An evaluation of our work has shown that our RLO Capacity Strengthening and Sharing Course has enabled refugee leaders to increase their confidence in strategic planning from 1.6/5 to 3.8/5, and MEAL from 2.3 to 4.1. Out of 35 leaders interviewed, 34 stated that the course had helped them to better take ownership of decisions that affected their lives. 26/35 said they had an increased control over humanitarian funding. The evaluation also showed that our RLO partners were able to demonstrate greater positive outcomes for vulnerable populations through their activities as a result of our support. Of 165 participants interviewed across Uganda and Kenya, 94.1% described the learning centres as very welcoming. 69% found courses helped them to set personal goals better, 74% better understood the market opportunities available to them, 65% were able to increase their household income and 37% had been able to start a sustainable business after completing RLO-run courses. This was despite the fact that many respondents were not engaged in enterprise focused courses. By adapting the courses in response to these findings we expect to see these results improve in the next two years, as detailed in the logframe. RLOs have also set up sustainable enterprises due to activities outlined in this project, such as one RLO who now cover 45% of their monthly overheads with revenues from a solar powered egg incubator which was installed only six months ago.

Despite actors in refugee communities being directly affected by COVID19, they are playing a prominent role in leading the aid response for their communities. The onus of action has been on RLOs since the flow of international aid has reduced, and other humanitarian workers have had to pull out of the context. A good example of this in 2020 was the way in which all of our partners pivoted their work during COVID19 to reach the most vulnerable with the provision of basic needs such as food, water and sanitary equipment. This distribution was led by the RLOs who identified the most vulnerable and in most cases procured the items that would go into the packages. This meant that over 6700 refugees were offered some relief from their biggest burdens at a time when they could not work or access other support, as a result of the hard work of our RLO partners and our donors.

Provisions that ensure that the most basic needs of human survival are met become a priority during times like mid-2020 for refugees. However, education is also an urgent priority. Evidence suggests that the COVID-19 crisis leaves the most marginalized children and youth—especially those in vulnerable situations—even further behind their less vulnerable peers. Before the COVID-19 crisis, 258 million children were already denied their right to quality education; millions more are now at risk of having this right disrupted and denied. Along with our RLO partners we also ensured that the network of students we have built up over many years, most of whom extremely vulnerable, were able to continue studying. One of the ways we did this as Xavier Project staff was to develop and record over 400 podcasts based on the secondary school curriculum, each 3 – 7 minutes long. These podcasts have now been distributed to over 5000 students, mostly of secondary age, as well as out of school youth and young adults. Across Kenya and Uganda we supported the 373 students we had been directly supporting through school with alternative means of education, through remote learning as well as learning online and with other forms of technology.

The partners we worked with each had many of their own initiatives to support the communities with basic needs, education and livelihoods activities – too many to list here. Xavier Project provided guidance in many of these activities, and in other activities played a more direct role in supporting implementation. Below some of these are captured per location.

Kakuma

In Kakuma we partnered with four refugee led organisations to deliver life-skills and ICT courses to young refugees. We were able to reach a total of 3003 participants. 2577 (1212F, 1365M) through our life skills course & 426 participants (178F, 248M) through our ICT course. Through this project we also began working with two groups representing the host community. In addition, 109 parents and community leaders in Kakuma completed a course run by Xavier Project to promote the social and emotional learning of children aged 4 – 8 years. The course gives parents an introduction into the social and emotional development of their children and empowers them to become advocates for the social and emotional learning of their children in formal educational institutions. 40 parents have joined an advocacy group to promote social and emotional learning of children in schools. In Kakuma we also supported our RLO partner Solidarity Initiative for Refugees to set up a digital hub with 3D printers and a furnace to manufacture products locally from various materials. 50 refugees have completed training in the use of 3D printers and furnaces.

Kampala

Our main partnership in Kampala was with Bondeko although we had early stage interactions with various other RLOs. Bondeko are a well-established refugee led NGO and we conducted many activities with them successfully in 2020. Bondeko completed three of the CSSC modules in person and an additional five modules via the podcasts that were developed by the Xavier Project team. In addition to the provision of basic needs Bondeko supported 10 refugees women with grants from a donor called Omprakash to start small businesses, and they supported 60 other women with resources of income generating. Despite COVID19 Bondeko were able to expand their own local income generating activities, especially the sale of environmentally friendly briquettes for cooking, of which they sold 716kg. They also distributed 513 energy saving stoves and briquettes to vulnerable members of their community. Another development was Bondeko taking over the day to day running of Xavier Project’s library for refugee children in Kampala. This was an exciting step as Xavier Project has directly run the library since 2013 and now refugee leaders will have creative control over the direction of the library and the educational support delivered to refugees. The library catered to the needs of the 111 students we continue to support through formal school. Although the library was closed for much of the year under lockdown, we were able to support these children with educational resources remotely. In Kampala we also launched a three year partnership with Comic Relief reaching 1200 refugee children with disabilities and supporting them with personalised education opportunities. Of this total 400 will be in Kampala and the initial mapping exercise began in 2020.

Rwamwanja

Rwamwanja is another location for the project to support the education of children with disabilities. The project is underway in partnership with our main RLO partner in Rwamwanja, Tomorrow Vijana. Tomorrow Vijana reached an estimated 4000 listeners by broadcasting some of the podcasts developed by our team over the radio. Tomorrow Vijana have also been supporting our farm project, in which we trained 300 local farmers, including refugees. Over the period of the training year, seasonal income increased for farmers by 91% (£125 – 243), total product yield per acre increased by 17.9%. Sales prices increased by 11% for maize and 83% for beans. This was put down partly to farmers having better access to markets and a stronger selling power. Tomorrow Vijana also launched an addition to their social business portfolio, with a solar powered egg incubator. This project enabled them to generate over £500 in the first 5 months, a total which goes a long way in supporting their day-to-day running costs. When it came to the distribution of basic needs provisions, Tomorrow Vijana targeted their support towards a community of 50 families affected by albinism. All albino refugees in Uganda are hosted in Rwamwanja and Tomorrow Vijana have been

the main source of support to this community who are affected by unique health issues as well as stigma and discrimination.Despite their learning centre being closed for most of the year due to COVID19, Tomorrow Vijana managed to support 50 adult refugees with English and Literacy courses and throughout the pandemic Tomorrow Vijana has also been regualrly spending 1 hour with 25 students per week (5-6 per day) at their own homes to focus on English language, literacy and revision of various school subjects. These children are mostly from secondary school.

Imvepi

Imvepi is the third location of our project with Comic Relief to reach 1200 children with disabilities, especially children with cerebral palsy and autism. The project has been launched and stands alongside our work with 35 refugees of secondary school age who are accessing GCSEs online. At the beginning of the year these students were studying in our learning hub in Imvepi which unfortunately had to close for most of the year due to lockdown restrictions. This put a temporary end to the project that enabled 310 students to access Kitkit learning on tablets in our learning centre. However, 50 students were supported with remote learning educational materials during the lockdown, and 500 youth were supported with podcasts. We continued to collaborate with community leaders in Imvepi such as Community Alliance for Youth Empowerment(CAYE) and Community Action for Transformation(CAFOT) and 2020 saw us able to renovate an unused property into an office, kindly offered by the Office of the Prime Minister.

Kitengela

Kitengela is one of two locations selected with a new donor for Xavier Project, Education Cannot Wait. We are carrying our this work in partnership with Save the Children and Humanity and Inclusion. In 2020 we began partnering with 14 schools to prepare for the reopening of learning after the COVID19 lockdown, including seven in Kitengela. 300 students around Kitengela are being supported by the mobile library project included in this programme. Six students have also been studying for their GCSEs online in Kitengela and 160 are being recruited for an accelerated education programme to fast track students who have been out of school back into formal education. We have built our partnership with RLO Tenda Wema, who completed the five core modules of the CSSC and reached 647 families with basic needs provisions.

Nairobi

The Education Cannot Wait project has been a major milestone for both our RLO partners in Nairobi, L’Afrikana and Youth Voices Community this year as they have been involved in running the project in their learning centres. As with in Kitengela there are three major components of the project namely mobile library, in hub learning and outreach activities that are currently being run by L’Afrikana and Youth Voices Community (YVC) through their community workers. YVC are a new up and coming RLO and in 2020 they completed their registration. It is exciting that many of the leaders in YVC are graduates of Xavier Project’s secondary sponsorship programme from 2015. Some of them went on to become employees from 2016 – 2019 and have now branched off to start their own independent initiative. Meanwhile, we continued our strong partnership with L’Afrikana in Kawangware. L’Afrikana facilitated 24 students to access GCSEs online in their learning centre. Midway through 2020, L’Afrikana moved their offices to be located in the centre that had previously been run by Xavier Project, so that Xavier Project has fully transitioned control of this hub to community leaders. It was exciting to see L’Afrikana leverage funding from third party donors, particularly to expand their basic needs distribution. During 2020 they completed more modules of the CSSC, and undertook training to help them manage donor funding efficiently and diligently.

Advocacy

2020 was a transformative year for Xavier Project’s advocacy. First and foremost we were able to reach wide and relevant audiences and engage in important discussions around localisation and the

importance of refugee leaders having greater control over decisions and resources that affect their communities. We joined a networked of like-minded NGOs who all work with refugee leaders particularly in the area of capacity. This group with organisations representing many regions of the world meets online once a month. We were given a platform to discuss our work in advocacy and shifting power structures on a webinar series run by the Global Refugee Led Network and the the Refugee Studies Centre of Oxford University, attended by over 500 participants. We were founding members of the localisation workstream within the Kenya Country Directors Forum for International NGOs. We became active members of the Charter4Change movement, particularly within the Uganda chapter. More specific to education, we co-founded and co-chaired the localisation task team of the Inter-agency Network for Education and Emergencies (INEE), of which the majority of founding members are RLOs. We joined the localisation workstream of the Education in Emergencies working group in Uganda and until November we co-chaired the Advocacy Working Group of INEE. More broadly, we continued to advocate on livelihoods and education within agency working groups. To reach a wider audience online we launched a blog series on our website for which the majority of our team members contributed opinion pieces. Partly as a result of this work, in addition to many other factors, including COVID19, funding crises and the Black Lives Matter movements, we are seeing fast moving changes in the sector and this will have a benefit on movements to recognise and support refugee leaders. Numerous leads that have come out of this suggest that 2021 will be a busy year in this regard.

Donor Support

It is encouraging to see that in 2020, 21,838 refugees and vulnerable hosting community members were supported in 2020 as a result of Xavier Project’s work, whether by direct implementation or as a direct result of the support we were able to provide to our community partners. This would not have been possible without the generous support we received from our donor community. We are extremely grateful to all our donors, from institutional donors, to private foundation, community fundraisers and individuals who in many cases sacrifice much needed personal funds to support our work.This has been an especially generous gift in 2020, when the world has been plunged into uncertainty as a result of the global pandemic. We hope that from this report you will feel convinced that being a part of this cause is worth the sacrifice you make. We are ever grateful to you for entrusting Xavier Project to use these resources as best as we can.

Consolidated Income Statement

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Consolidated Income Statement (GBP)
2020 2019
Total Unrestricted Restricted Total Unrestricted Restricted
Income
Donations and Legacies 640,865 199,279 441,585 701,097 195,473 505,624
Income from Charitable Activities 0 0 - 52,422 52,422 -
Income from Other Activities 13,875 13,875 - 1,649 1,640 9
- -
Intercompany transfers (0) (0) (21) (21)
Total Income 654,740 213,155 441,585 755,147 249,535 505,611
Expenses
Costs of raising funds 42,975 42,975 - 42,021 42,020 0
Expenditure on charitable activities 558,447 105,297 453,150 696,583 203,505 493,077
General & Administrative costs 8,415 8,415 - 3,304 3,304 -
Total Expenses 609,836 156,687 453,150 741,907 248,829 493,078
Net Income(Expenses) and Net
44,904 56,468 (11,565) 13,240 706 12,534
Movement in Funds for Year
Reconciliation of Funds
Total Funds B/F 70,672 70,672 54,594 54,594
Total Funds C/F 115,576 127,140 (11,565) 67,834 55,300 12,534
Other comprehensive income:
FX Impact on B/S Net Assets (8,801) (8,801) 2,958 2,958
FX Impact on P&L - -
Total FX Impact: (8,801) (8,801) - 2,958 2,958 -
Total Funds C/F 106,775 118,339 (11,565) 70,792 58,258 12,534
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Consolidated Balance Sheet

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Consolidated Balance Sheet (GBP)
2020 2019
Total Total
Fixed Assets
PPE- Land
Land 36,000 37,800
Accumulated Dep
PPE- Land Total 36,000 37,800
PPE- Furniture
Cost 3,681 1,649
Accumulated Dep (778) (737)
PPE- Furniture Total 2,904 913
PPE-Computer
Cost 12,693 11,640
Accumulated Dep (9,483) (7,924)
PPE-Computer Total 3,210 3,717
PPE-Motor Vehicle
Cost 22,620 24,426
Accumulated Dep (14,838) (13,468)
PPE-Motor Vehicle Total 7,782 10,957
Fixed Assets Total: 49,896 53,387
Current Assets
Cash and Cash Equivalents 156,259 90,598
Cash in Transit - -
Receivables 4,506
Other Current Assets 5,659 4,701
Current Assets Total: 166,424 95,298
Current Liabilities
Payables 6,423 31,102
Deferred Income 95,946 40,657
- -
Intercompany
Staff Loans - 1,310
Other Current Liability 7,177 4,824
Current Liabilities total: 109,545 77,893
Total Net Assets 106,775 70,792
The Funds of the Charity:
Unrestrictec Income Fund 118,339 58,258
Restricted Income Fund (11,565) 12,534
Total Charity Funds 106,775 70,792
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Our Finances Notes to the Accounts

Accounting basis

These financial statements have been prepared on an accruals basis.

Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP March 2005).

Incoming resources

All incoming resources are included in the Consolidated Income Statement when the charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.

Resources expended

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes VAT which is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates.

Corporation Tax

The charity is exempt from taxation in respect of Income and Capital Gains under section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 and Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extend that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes.

Trustee remuneration

Trustees received no remuneration.

Fund accounting

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.

Trust constitution

The Governing Document is the Articles of Association made on 17th May 2013. New Trustees are appointed by the existing Trustees.

Policy on reserves

The charity aims to have unrestricted funds of between £20,000 and £50,000 on deposit at all times to meet unforeseen expenses that may occur in meeting its aims, and to bridge any temporary gaps in income.

Deferred Income

The deferred income is income that was received in 2020 for a program commencing in 2021. This program has now commenced.

Financial Audit

The Xavier Project Financial statements have been audited by Geoffe & Associates in Kenya and Richard Charles & Partners in Uganda, who have both issued an unqualified audit opinion.

Trustee Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature

Full name: CELIA PAGE

Position: CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Date: 19/05/2021

Independent Examiner’s Report.

I report on the accounts of Xavier Project for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Respective Responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the charities act 2011(the charities act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

• Examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act.

• To follow the procedures laid down in the general directions given by the charity Commission (under section 145(5) (b) of the charities Act, and

• State whether particular matters have come to my attention

Basis of the Independent Examiner’s Statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with general directions given by the charity commission. An examination includes review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanation from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would required an audit, consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a “true and fair” view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent Examiners Statements

In connection with my examination with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

1. Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements

(i) to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities act; and (ii) to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the charities act have not been met; or

1. To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable to proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Neil Grogan, ACA

12[th] May 2021