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2024-04-08-accounts

Annual report 2023-2024

Registered Charity 1154462 www.justsmallchange.org.uk @justsmallchange hellojustsmallchange@gmail.com

Increasing impact through synergy

Goat rearing to improve livelihoods

Village Savings and Loan Associations to encourage resilience and enable small businesses

Village Health Teams to improve health awareness, spread good hygiene practice and reduce disease

Cooking skills and training in child nutrition to tackle child malnourishment and stunting

Training in regenerative agriculture to improve crop yields, food supplies and income

Our mission:

to enable the very poor to build sustainable pathways out of poverty. Through projects which strengthen livelihoods and improve health, we aim to unlock the personal and economic potential of the poorest families and communities. Through training and support, our projects empower the very poor to achieve a life free from extreme poverty, with dignity and purpose.

Since 2011, we have been working in sub-Saharan Africa.

We are currently working in Budaka District, Eastern Uganda.

Although the Ugandan economy is now growing, challenges at home and abroad mean that almost half the population still live below the UN poverty line of $2.15, with many more in danger of falling into this group. The population is growing fast, almost 7 in ten Ugandans are under 25. The World Bank reported in December 2023 that Uganda’s youth is held back by lack of access to education and by poor health and malnutrition.

Around three quarters of the population survive by subsistence farming. An increasingly unpredictable climate has lowered crop yields, leading to food shortages and deepening poverty. Food prices are rising, increasing child malnutrition and stunting. Many families cannot pay school or medical bills.

Our programmes link together to tackle these challenges. Two focus directly on improving the livelihoods of the poorest. Saving groups enable many of their members to start or expand small businesses, while goat rearing groups provide a reliable income stream for the most deprived households. Both programmes enable beneficiaries to feed and educate their families and sustainably raise their living standards. The increased respect from the community which often results gives members greater self-esteem. Many women report improved relationships at home and in the community and many flourish in leadership positions for the first time.

A third programme tackles lack of access to health services by training village volunteer health teams (VHTs), who advise their communities on health and hygiene practices as well as on ante- and post-natal care. By teaching their neighbours how to lead healthier lives, VHTs reduce medical costs and improve quality of life.

New this year, a community cooking programme, also involving our VHTs, tackles child malnourishment by teaching caregivers of small children the basics of child nutrition and demonstrating how to cook nutritious meals from cheap and locally available foods.

Finally and also new for us this year is a programme which trains communities in regenerative farming methods, to increase households’ food supplies and help tackle the challenges of climate change.

Our work follows the recommendations of the World Bank:

Poor and vulnerable households can be supported through…. livelihood programs designed to reduce negative coping strategies such as reducing food intake, selling productive assets, and pulling children out of school. In the longer term, these programs can help households increase income, build assets, and develop resilience. World Bank Uganda Economic Update Dec 2023

It also supports these United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

One of our VSLA groups

Why work with us:

We work directly with over one thousand households in Budaka, and indirectly with many more. Meet the people of Budaka:

90% of Savings Group members and all the beneficiaries of the goat programmes are women.

32% of our participants are single heads of household, struggling alone to provide for their families. One in five is a widow. All households live in deep poverty.

Houses are made of brick or mud, with a thatched or sheet metal roof. Three in ten households have no access to a latrine, and one in five has no local source of safe water.

Four in ten households live in a single room, while a further four out of ten have only 2 rooms.

Average household size is 8 but can be as high as 27. In a typical household there will be two under-fives and three older children at school. One in five households has more than 10 members. In our goat programme, 16% of households include orphans, who may be grandchildren or children of relatives or of neighbours.

Three in ten of our programme participants find every day is a struggle to provide for their family’s needs, with a further third struggling most days to do this. One in six households frequently have ‘hungry’ days when they don’t eat. A third of the remaining households only eat once a day. Four out of five households cannot afford meat, fish or eggs, so just eat carbohydrates with vegetables.

Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA)

This is a simple but powerful programme which increases household income and resilience. It helps members to work together, combining their small savings so that members can borrow and then repay with interest. Many borrowers use their loans to set up a micro business to boost the family income, as most households survive on subsistence farming and very little else. Others borrow to manage schooling costs for their children, or for emergency medical expenses.

Everyone benefits from earning interest on their savings. Associations are selfselecting and choose their own officers; members trust and support each other, vetting would-be borrowers and advising on each other’s business ideas. Cash is kept in a strong-box with three key holders, chosen by the group. After twelve months, members’ savings are returned to them with a pro-rata share of the interest earned. This relatively large sum enables each member to choose how to manage the many demands she faces in managing the household and family. The following month the whole cycle starts again.

All members of new associations receive training in money management and basic business skills. Additional training is given to the group’s officers. Ongoing supervision and support is provided for two years.

A training session for two VSLA groups.

Building on the eight VSLA set up in our first year, a further nine associations were trained and launched in 2023-24, spread more widely within Budaka District. Here’s what had been achieved by April 2024, benefitting over 600 families!

----- Start of picture text -----
17 groups - Average
Average
over 600 interest
loan size
members in earned
£15
total £2.3 4
Average 450 women
savings per took small
member
loans
£13
----- End of picture text -----

VSLA members often speak about the importance of the friendship and support they find in their savings group. Homesteads are widely scattered in rural Budaka, so the weekly meetings have added an important new social dimension to the lives of many members and increased their sense of wellbeing and their self-esteem. The success of all the VSLA has led to huge demand for further groups so in response, we have funded a further 15 groups so far in 24-25, with 11 more planned before the end of this period. This will bring the total number of savings group members to around 1500.

Here are some of our VSLA members:

More ladies from our VSLAs share their stories:

Before, I was covered in dirt, digging in the bushes, working in gardens, everyone despised me. But since I joined the savings group I am a respected woman in the community (Mother with six children)

Before the savings group came, I was not a respected woman in the community. I was despised and I had little hope. But when I was able to borrow a little money, I bought a few kilos of broken rice and sold it by the cupful. Each time I sold out I reinvested the profit and now my stock is fifty kilos! (Single mother of four children)

I borrowed money to buy some piglets and feed and now I am rearing pigs. When new piglets are born, I will sell some to repay the loan. The savings group is happy to lend to me because they see the new piglets arriving! Before I just used to gossip but now, looking after the pigs, I am so busy all the time (widow with 7 dependents)

After training, I saved hard and bought a few shoes to sell. I went around the villages and sold them all. My business has grown; My shoe stock is worth over (£65), I am so delighted. (Single mum, seven children,)

I feel so positive since the savings group came. I’ve been going out looking for any work I can get so when we meet, I have a little money to add to my savings. Soon I will be able to borrow and set

up a business. I will build it up over time and earn income from outside the village (Young mother of six)

Joining the group woke me up. Before I wasn’t doing anything, I didn’t realise what was possible if you save. After the training, I saved and I borrowed and now I run a small café. With the profit I have been able to rent some land where I am growing crops to eat and to sell. (Young mother of five)

I feel so positive since the savings group came. It has created a community, I have friends here now, we all support each other. I have borrowed to start a business. Life is improving and I am a changed person. (Single mother of three) The children couldn’t take their school exams because I was not able to pay the fees. But I borrowed, so they sat their exams. Now I am managing to earn some money to repay the loan, and I am saving too. I am hoping to buy a cow, so I can sell her calf each year, to pay for the children’s education. (Grandmother supporting six children)

Before I joined the savings group I was not happy at all. I felt I didn’t’ belong. I borrowed money and was able to start a little business so now I have a way to earn money and I feel it’s possible to move on in my life and make things better. We are all able to help each other. Things are looking up (Mother with five children)

Goat rearing to improve livelihoods

This programme is aimed at the poorest families, to improve income, welfare and diet. Goats are relatively easy to raise and can thrive even during food and water shortages. They breed twice a year and often produce twins.

Each group has 30 beneficiaries who each receive a nanny goat of the local breed. The programme also provides a buck goat from a stronger breed (Boer). Through cross-breeding, the size and strength of kids can be improved, increasing their value. Beneficiaries can earn income from small-scale goatrearing. The goats also provide useful manure for vegetable gardens, improving families’ diets and often also providing an income through sale of vegetables.

The project provides a buck shed, built on stilts for safety, and a trained local buck keeper who supports the beneficiaries in their care of their goats. The bucks are rotated between groups to prevent inbreeding.

Each beneficiary is enrolled in a Village Savings and Loan Association, so they are able to save and to borrow. The programme is designed to grow sustainably too. After weaning, each beneficiary must return her first born female cross bred kid to the buck keeper, to be gifted to another needy family.

During 2023-24, five goat groups were set up, building upon the four established in our first year. By June 2024, 124 kids had been born and 27 new beneficiaries had received a young cross-bred nanny goat.

Mother of five children: I am so grateful to have received a goat. She has given birth to 2 kids. I was able to sell one and I used some of the money to buy some turkeys, which have also produced, so now I have two goats and ten turkeys! I am so excited about what I have achieved because of the goat.

Single mother of 7: My goat produced two kids. I will return one to the project and will sell the other to pay school fees. The best thing is that my goat will have kids every year which will help me to sustain my children’s education.

Widow: We truly appreciate the generosity of the people who have sent us these goats…..now we have hope.

Mother with seven children:

Before I had my goat people did not value me much, but when we learned to use goat manure, I began to grow different kinds of vegetables in my garden. Now lots of women come to ask me for advice about growing and this makes me very happy.

Widow with 8 dependents: I have never been able to grow maize before, the soil is so poor. But now with the manure from my goat, the maize is growing well, I am hopeful of a good crop.

Elderly widow with 7 dependents: I’m so happy. The community and our neighbours see us differently now. We have sources of income now and some of us do business, so we are no longer dependent on other people. Before we were despised but now people admire us as they see we are doing well.

Widow, five children: I collect all the manure from my goat and put it in my vegetable garden. Now I can grow enough vegetables for my whole family and even have some left over to sell! I am putting the extra money from this into my savings.

Mother of 5 children: Our house has no garden. When I am able to sell one of my kids, I will rent a garden to grow food to feed our family.

Community Healthcare

Lyama’s VHTs attending a training session

In Uganda, the most common illnesses are communicable diseases such as malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, respiratory diseases and diarrhoea. Improvements in health awareness and healthcare can make a huge contribution to reducing illness and improving families’ wellbeing and living standards.

Yet healthcare provision for the poor is very sparse, especially in rural communities, where there is often little understanding of basic hygiene and of how to avoid transmission of disease. Village Health Teams (VHT) provide a crucial link between communities and local Health Centres. VHT members are volunteers who complete a one-year Government healthcare training programme, delivered by health ministry staff. The volunteers work within their villages, teaching their neighbours about hygiene and basic health maintenance, pre- and post-natal care and care of infants. They help with Government health programmes in the community, such as vaccinations, and make referrals to Health Centres which provide oversight and supervision.

Before 2022, there were no active VHTs in Lyama, one of the sub-counties of Budaka District. An understaffed local Health Centre provided basic health and maternity services to the local population of 24,000. Having trained 17 new volunteers in our first year, JSC’s Community Healthcare programme trained a further 48 in 2023-24, bringing the total number of Voluntary Health Team

members in Lyama to 65. Each newly trained VHT received a graduation package including a VHT record book, an umbrella, gumboots, heavy-duty gloves, a T-shirt, an identification card and a qualification certificate.

Six further Continuing Professional Development (CPD) trainings have also taken place to improve the skills of all 66 volunteers. Topics covered included malaria, the impact of HIV on mental health, dealing with mental health emergencies, basic first aid and water source management and improvement.

Reports from the Lyama Health Centre show that, since the VHTs started work in their communities, uptake of immunisations and ante- and post-natal care services have increased, as well as referrals for malaria cases. VHTs have also been very active in educating their communities on the importance of having a latrine, maintaining good housing conditions, having a drying rack, a hand washing facility, a refuse pit, and a bath shelter. This has led to a significant reduction in the number of cases of diarrhoea and other hygiene-related illnesses among children under the age of five.

‘I am glad to be a VHT because I have ‘The topics I talk about most are learned skills to uplift the health clean water, immunisation of infants, standards of people in my and how to access ante-natal care at community’ the local clinic’

Nutrition programme

New for us this year, this programme aims sustainably to reduce malnutrition among the under 5s by teaching their caregivers how to cook nutritious meals from the foods they grow. The most malnourished children in a village are identified, and their caregivers invited, with their children, to join a twelveday cooking programme run by trained local nutritionists. As the children respond to their improved diet, they gain appetite, energy and weight, so the caregivers see the benefits of what they are learning. The local VHTs, who also take part, monitor the children’s growth and support the families for a further twelve months. The VHTs and caregivers spread their knowledge among family, friends and neighbours, so that more children and families benefit.

JSCs first nutrition programme ran in March 2024 in the remote villages of Bugema and Buwenda, in Lyama, helped by some of the newly qualified VHTs. 45 malnourished infants were identified, and their 26 caregivers brought the children to be weighed and measured. They then all took part in the twelve day programme. All the children made gains in weight and energy, with five mothers reporting that before the programme their babies were not able to sit up or interact with others, but that they were able to do this at the end of the twelve days. The local VHTs will continue to monitor the children’s growth and support the caregivers until March 2025.

Staff from the Lyama Health Centre also attended and are very encouraged to have found an effective way to tackle this widespread problem.

Agricultural training

Two main factors have made subsistence farming more difficult in recent years: unpredictable weather patterns caused by climate change and soil degradation caused by poor cultivation methods. Early in 24-25, it was decided to provide training in small scale regenerative farming methods to all the communities which host our VSLA groups. This training aims to restore soil integrity, reduce pests, increase crop yields and widen the variety of crops

grown, leading to better biodiversity, better nutrition and more income from crop sales. Training includes the noplough method of planting, mulching, irrigation management and composting. A demonstration garden is planted by participants, who then see the results of these methods within the half year growing season and go on to apply them in their own gardens.

Above, a group is learning about how to plan crop spacing to increase yields.

Below, a village community is learning about mulching techniques

So far in 2024-25, agricultural training has been provided to seven communities, with almost 800 people taking part and giving very positive feedback. More training is planned for the near future.

Plans for 2024-25

Volunteer Health Team members in Lyama

A growing goat group: these new members are delighted to receive a female kid goat gifted by another group member

Just Small Change www.justsmallchange.org.uk info@justsmallchange.org.uk Charity number 1154462 38, Orchard Way, Stratford upon Avon CV37 9QE

Can you help? With your support, we can do more. We have no costs in the UK.

Your full donation, plus any gift aid, will be spent on one of our programmes. Whatever you can spare will make a difference to the lives of the very poor.

£60 will provide a nanny goat to a very poor family £25 will provide a reference book and bag for a Village Health Team volunteer £11 will provide a goat keeper or VHT volunteer with gumboots and a t-shirt £4.50 will provide an umbrella for a VHT volunteer £2.10 will provide a VHT volunteer with a pair of heavy-duty gloves

Every pound helps….it’s Just Small Change! You can write to us at the address above, or give online :

We have accounts with both CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) and Stewardship.org. It’s possible to donate online through either of these organisations, via the links on our website.

Online banking with HSBC: Account name: Just Small Change Account no. 32134314 Sort Code 40-43-19 HSBC Bank, Chapel St, Stratford upon Avon.

If you wish to gift aid your donation, please email us at the address above so we can send you a gift aid form.

Thank you for your support!

Outputs April 2023 to March 2024

What has been achieved with your donations in the period:

Methodology

Baseline data is collected from each client when they join. Data on the progress of each project is collected half-yearly. This report is based on data available up to end March 2024.

We and everyone involved in our programmes in Budaka thank you for your support.

Two VSLA groups celebrating their success

Reserves Policy

We are a very small charity. Therefore, even though we have a stable and generous base of regular supporters, our income fluctuates considerably from year to year, as it is disproportionately affected by grant and gift inflows, which are by their nature unpredictable. To safeguard the charity from unexpected fluctuations in income, it is our policy to hold as reserves at the start of each year sufficient funds to cover the whole year’s planned activities. As the charity’s activities expand, this means that the level of reserves held at the start of each financial year increases likewise. The level of unrestricted reserves at the year-end was above the amount required to fund the 20242025 programmes, due to the residual impact of curtailment of activities in Kenya during the pandemic.

Risk Management

Principal risks and uncertainties:

Liquidity risk: the Trustees’ policy is to have funds in place at the start of the financial year to cover all planned expenditure for that year.

Funding risk: fundraising, particularly from private individuals, may dip due to the cost of living crisis. We monitor income closely so that we can seek to mitigate any losses. In our reserves, in addition to keeping funds to meet our other 2024-25 commitments, we have designated a sum to cover our largest planned 2024-25 commitment, which is advanced training for health workers.

Operational risk: we are constantly working to improve reporting and recording processes for project operations and for financial management. We liaise with our implementing partner on a weekly basis throughout the year by email and Zoom. We visit our projects annually (at the trustees’ expense) to monitor progress, check records and audit spending. We are confident of the integrity and professionalism of our partners in Mbale, Uganda.

Charity details and governance

Just Small Change was established with the UK Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 5 November 2013. Our charity number is 1154462.

Charity’s principal address:38 Orchard Way, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 9QE

The activities of Just Small Change are managed and overseen by the trustees, all of whom were in post for the entire year:

The power to appoint additional or replacement trustees rests with the existing trustees

Public benefit

The work of Just Small Change provides the following identifiable benefits: Just Small Change establishes savings and loans associations (VSLA) and goat rearing groups as well as training community health volunteers to raise standards of health and hygiene in their neighbourhoods. Beneficiaries are also trained in sustainable agriculture and in child nutrition. Members of our goat and VSLA programmes can for the first time access a safe place to save. Many take small loans to invest in an income generating activity or to help them manage better the many demands on their small resources. All savers benefit from the interest earned by the savings pot. Incomes generated and knowledge gained from all these programmes enable beneficiaries to better feed and educate their families, manage external shocks and sustainably raise their living standards, improving economic resilience. Their increased standing in the community gives beneficiaries greater agency and confidence, with many women reporting improved relationships at home and in the community and some taking up leadership positions for the first time. In choosing our projects, all trustees have had regard to the guidance on public benefit issued by the Charity Commission.

Financial Review

Income from donations and grants held up very well during the year, but despite this, the total raised was 20% less than in 2022-23 because a single large gift received in 2022-23 raised the comparative figure for that year. Overall receipts fell by slightly more (22.5%) due to a fall in gift aid received.

Our accounts have been independently examined by HL Barnes (Chartered Accountants). Their report and a full copy of the accounts is presented separately. A summary of income and spending is included below.

Year to Year to
Annual Accounts to year ending 8 April 08.04.2024 08.04.2023
Receipts
Donations and grants 29915 37571
Gift Aid 3080 5678
Paypal charity sales income 748 459
Donation from trustees for bank charges 233 158
Total receipts 33976 43867
Payments
Charitable activities 37239 35317
Bank charges 244 164
Purchases of materials 92 -
Total payments 37575 35482
Net of receipts/(payments) (3599) 8385
Transfers between funds - -
Cash funds last year end 67281 58896
Cash funds this year end 63682 67281
of which: held at bank 57926 62181
held in Paypal account 5756 5100
Total 63682 67281
Notes to accounts:

  1. It is the Trustees’ policy that funding for each year’s planned project activities must be in place at the start of that financial year.

  2. A designated reserve of £17,415 has been created to fund health worker training planned for 2024-5.

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