Trustees’ Annual Report
01 September 2021 to 31 August 2022
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Thomas Edwards
27 June 2023
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
Version History
| Date | Version | Comments | Author(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27/06/2023 | #01 | For Submission | TE |
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
Page of Contents
| Page of Contents | |
|---|---|
| Version History | 1 |
| Page of Contents | 2 |
| 1. Administrative Details | 3 |
| 2. Structure, Governance and Management | 3 |
| 3. The Report | 3 |
| 4. Objectives and Activities | 4 |
| 4.1. Objectives | 4 |
| 4.2. Activities | 5 |
| 5. Achievements and Performance | 6 |
| 5.1. Access to Water | 6 |
| 5.2. Improved Sanitation | 6 |
| 5.3. Student Research Trip | 6 |
| 5.4. Incoming Strategy | 6 |
| 6. Financial Review | 7 |
| 7. Declarations | 7 |
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
1. Administrative Details
Charity Name Cameroon Catalyst Registered Charity Number 1155758 27 Hawker Close Longbridge Charity Principal Address Birmingham B31 2GU
Trustee Name Dates Acted
Laura McFadzean Chairperson (until 31 August 2022, Trustee thereafter) Thomas Edwards Trustee and Chairperson (from 01 September 2022) Andy Hopkins Treasurer Pat Mballa Trustee and Co-Founder Claire Gott Trustee and Co-Founder Sebastian Denner Trustee (from 15 February 2022)
2. Structure, Governance and Management
Governing Document Constitution, latest version enacted March 2016
Charity Constitution Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
Trustee Selection Elected by charity members at AGM
3. The Report
This Trustee’s Annual Report accompanies the accounts submitted by Cameroon Catalyst to the Charity Commission, covering the 12-month accounting period from 01 September 2021 to 31 August 2022. It highlights the objectives of the charity, the activities undertaken and the achievements made in the period reported.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
4. Objectives and Activities
4.1. Objectives
The object of Cameroon Catalyst is to empower village communities across east Cameroon, West Africa and improve living conditions and wellbeing, especially through the provision of water, education, health care, affordable housing, renewable energy, and microbusinesses.
Cameroon Catalyst is a student driven international development charity promoting sustainable development in rural Cameroon. We bring together students and specialists to deliver essential infrastructure projects in some of the least developed communities in the country. We were co-founded in 2009 by a team of civil engineering students at the University of Southampton in partnership with a native Cameroonian living in the UK.
Our vision is for rural communities in Cameroon to possess the autonomy and opportunity to achieve their own sustainable development towards a fulfilling, healthy and prosperous future. Our mission is to act as a catalyst for sustainable change in rural Cameroon by delivering needs-assessed infrastructure which remove development barriers and empowers local people to engage with their own sustainable development.
We are driven by teams of dedicated students at the University of Southampton, the University of Birmingham and Imperial College London. Our student volunteers hold a vital role in our work and are responsible for the design and fundraising for our projects. Our student teams combine a diverse range of technical and non-technical degree programmes, drawing from engineering, natural and social sciences and languages.
We are governed by a Board of Trustees who inform the charity’s direction and managed day-to-day by a senior committee of industry professionals. We are supported by an advisory board of individuals and organisations who specialise in each of our focus areas and priorities. We are grateful to receive ongoing corporate patronage from engineering professional services firm WSP who contribute to our project funding. We are also proud of our long term technical advisory relationship with humanitarian architectural design charity Article 25 who play a vital role in the delivery of our projects.
Our work is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The goals and their targets help to define our priorities and provide us with the confidence that our solutions act towards the sustainable change we hope to catalyse.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
4.2. Activities
To ensure we are most effective in achieving our purpose, we conduct our work through four focus areas. Within each focus area we define what we hope to achieve, what we do to achieve this, and the impact we have. Our focus areas were chosen to reflect what is most important to us as a charity and structure our approach irrespective of our current priority.
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Project Delivery: We deliver essential needs-assessed infrastructure projects to some of the least developed communities in Eastern Cameroon.
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Community Engagement: We involve local communities throughout the project delivery lifecycle to ensure our solutions consider the cultural, religious, economic and political setting.
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Student Development: We support our students to become future civil society leaders and sustainability thinkers.
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Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: We aspire to partner and share our best practice and lessons learned with the wider industry.
Our first programme of works between 2009 and 2014 prioritised the village of Bambouti. Over five years we delivered five independent projects addressing five interconnected development needs, including a Medical Centre, Mechanical Workshop, School Classrooms, a Solar Electrification Hub and Improved Housing.
In 2013, following the successful delivery of our programme of works in Bambouti, we conducted a full assessment of the development needs in the wider Eastern Region of Cameroon. Our assessment identified that a lack of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) Infrastructure was the biggest barrier to sustainable development.
Since 2014 we have been developing our response to the presented WaSH needs across the Eastern Region. Our WaSH programme combines infrastructure for water provision and sanitation. To date we have delivered seven clean water wells, a ventilated improved pit latrine and a rainwater harvesting and storage system. The later two of which were delivered during the reporting period.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
5. Achievements and Performance
5.1. Access to Water
The student team at Imperial College London worked hard to install their first pilot rainwater storage project in Bambouti, which utilises the roof of the January Hope Medical Centre, Cameroon Catalyst's first ever project. They are now developing strategies to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of this project to improve future installations.
As a continuation of our water storage research, the team are also collaborating with the Southampton student chapter to explore water storage facilities that can increase the reliability of hand-dug wells.
5.2. Improved Sanitation
The Birmingham student chapter completed the design of their pilot latrine project which was constructed in the village of Petit Bello to include hygienic hand washing facilities.
The team have also started research for a larger septic tank project for the village of Tongo which aims to address the need for sanitation at the village market.
5.3. Student Research Trip
With a portfolio of ten Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) projects, ensuring good maintenance and continuing to evaluate their effectiveness is critical to ongoing success.
Earlier in 2022 we welcomed Sebastian Denner to the Trustee Board and the senior committee as our Maintenance & Evaluation Manager to coordinate our approach in design and delivery. Sebastian joined this year’s students on their first field trip to Cameroon in three years, to catch up on our site investigation research. The team visited all WaSH projects completed to date and recommenced our site analysis of over ten villages across the Eastern region to better understand the WaSH needs and therefore identify where Cameroon Catalyst should focus its efforts as part of our new strategy.
5.4. Incoming Strategy
During 2021 a working group of Trustees wrote the charity’s 2022-24 Strategy; agreeing the next steps for the charity following the successful completion of our 2017-21 Business Plan. Our new strategy seeks to reinvigorate our aims and set a
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2021/22
Cameroon Catalyst
clear path forwards for Cameroon Catalyst. The overarching strategic objectives are contained within the table below.
| Project Delivery | ●Continue to deliver WaSH projects. ●Develop a combined solution of WaSH facilities. ●Update our approach to project delivery. |
|---|---|
| Community Engagement |
●Formalise our approach to Community Engagement, identifying key pre and post handover engagement opportunities and structured data capture techniques. |
| Student Development |
●Establish a Student Development Framework inline with the current Student Chapter Guide. ●Signpost external training opportunities. |
| Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing |
●Identify and realise collaboration opportunities. ●Establish an internal training and knowledge sharing platform. ●Reestablish our network of collaboration partners. ●Identify and attend knowledge sharing events. |
6. Financial Review
Reserves Policy Cameroon Catalyst endeavours to hold reserves
to help cover the next year of charitable activity and provide contingency. The current cash reserve is £27,794.
7. Declarations
Signed on behalf of the Trustees of Cameroon Catalyst.
| Name | Thomas Edwards | Position | Chairperson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 27/06/2023 | Signed |
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www.camerooncatalyst.org info@camerooncatalyst.org Registered Charity Number: 1155758
| Cameroon Catalyst | Cameroon Catalyst | Cameroon Catalyst | Cameroon Catalyst | Cameroon Catalyst | 1155758 | 1155758 | 1155758 | CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
1/9/2021 | To | 31/08/2022 | ||||||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||||||
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
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| Voluntary - Sponsorship Voluntary - Other Donations Fundraising Activities Grant Income Gift Aid |
- 7,500- |
- -- |
- 7,500- |
- -- |
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| - 1,280- |
- -- |
- 1,280- |
- 15,926- |
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| - 2,843- |
- -- |
- 2,843- |
- 2,739- |
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| - 2,000- |
- -- |
- 2,000- |
- | ||||||
| - -- |
- -- |
- 209- |
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| - -- |
- -- |
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- -- |
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| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | - 11,623- |
- 2,000- |
- -- |
- 13,623- |
- 18,874- |
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| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
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| - -- |
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| Sub total | - -- |
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| Total receipts - 11,623- - 2,000- - -- - 13,623- - 18,874- A3 Payments Charitable Activities (Cameroon): Well Construction - 6,415- - -- - -- - 6,415- - 5,972- |
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| Charitable Activities (Cameroon): Well Construction |
- 6,415- |
- 5,972- |
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A2 Asset and investment sales, (see
table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 11,623 2,000 - 13,623 18,874
A3 Payments
Charitable Activities (Cameroon): Well
Construction 6,415 - - 6,415 5,972
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
6/28/2023
1
| Charitable Activities (Cameroon): Trip Support | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 3,588- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 3,588- | - | -- | |||||||||||
| Charitable Activities (UK): Student support | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | |||||||||||||
| Bank Fees | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 177- | ||||||||||||
| Insurance | - | 2,241- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 2,241- | - | 3,092- | ||||||||||
| Cost of Raising funds | - | 304- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 304- | - | 280- | ||||||||||
| Effect of currency change | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 1- | ||||||||||||
| - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | |||||||||||
| - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | |||||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | 12,548- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 12,548- | - | 9,522- |
| A4 Asset and investment | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| purchases, (see table) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | |||||||||||||
| - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | |||||||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | ||||||||||||
| **Total payments ** | - | 12,548- | - | -- | - | -- | - | 12,548- | - | 9,522- | ||||||||||
| **Net of receipts/(payments) ** | - | 925- | - | 2,000- | - | -- | - | 1,075- | - | 9,352- | ||||||||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | 6,170- | - | 6,170- | - | -- | - | -- | - | -- | ||||||||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | - | 19,549- | - | 7,170- | - | -- | - | 26,719- | - | 17,367- | ||||||||||
| **Cash funds this year end ** | - | 24,794- | - | 3,000- | - | -- | - | 27,794- | - | 26,719- |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Unrestricted | Restricted funds | Restricted funds | Endowment | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Categories | Details | funds | funds | |||||||||
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||||||||||
| B1 | Cash | funds | Bank Current Account: Main UK account | - | 22,582- | - | 2,000- | - | -- | |||
| Bank Current Account: Uni. Southampton | - | 863- | - | -- | - | -- | ||||||
| Bank Current Account: Uni. Birmingham | - | 1,079- | ||||||||||
| Bank Current Account: Uni. ICL | - | -- | - | 1,000- | - | -- |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
6/28/2023
2
| Cash held in Justgiving | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash Held in Hand | - 270- |
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| B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account (s)) Details Details |
- 24,794- |
- 3,000- |
- -- |
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| OK | |||||||
| Unrestricted funds to nearest £ - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset |
Restricted funds to nearest £ - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- Cost (optional) - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
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Cost (optional) - -- - -- - -- - -- |
(optional) |
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CCXX R3 accounts (SS)
6/28/2023
3
B5 Liabilities
Signed by one trustee on behalf of all the trustees
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| Fund to which | Amount due | When due | ||||||||
| Details | liability relates | (optional) | (optional) | |||||||
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| Signature | Name | Date of approval | ||||||||
| Andy Hopkins Treasurer |
27/06/2023 |
CCXX R4 accounts (SS)
6/28/2023
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