Build on Books (BOB UK)
Trustees Annual Report For the period from 1st September 2020 to 31st August 2021
Names of the charity trustees
Chair Lori Spragg Treasurer Brid Hayward Secretary James Lee MacDonald
UK Registered charity number 1158201
Charity's principal address
Build on Books
38 Oak Tree Road, Marlow, Bucks SL7 3EE
Structure, Governance and Management
Build on Books is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and is governed by a Foundation Model Constitution dated 5 August 2014.
The Trustees who were appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the Trustees and who served during the year are:
Lori Spragg Brid Hayward James MacDonald
Recruitment of New Trustees
The current trustees come from backgrounds in business, teaching, and voluntary work. New trustees are inducted by the Chair and existing trustees. We take advice from other professionals and other organisations, as necessary. The appointment of Trustees is conducted with regard to the needs of the organisation, the suitability, and skills of the candidate and by interview of interested parties.
Organisational Structure
Build on Books (BOB UK) is an all-volunteer charity which operates mainly to relieve poverty and to aid development in Sierra Leone. The Trustees of BOB UK work in partnership with Build on Books Sierra Leone (BOB SL) which is a registered all-volunteer Community Based Organisation in Sierra Leone. Their committee is made up of local headteachers, community leaders and professionals who give their time and expertise freely. Build on Books Trustees meet regularly to discuss proposals from BOB SL and other organisations to see how we can work together on projects that help us reach our charitable aims and objectives. The trustees also coordinate and work with other charities working in similar fields to achieve our goals more effectively.
Risk Management
The trustees have a duty to identify and review risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error or harm.
Charitable Objectives and Activities
The objects of the charity, as set out in its governing document are the prevention or relief of poverty in Sierra Leone by providing grants, items and services to individuals in need and/or charities, or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty. This is achieved through initiatives in a variety of areas including education, water, sanitation, food security, health, humanitarian aid, community engagement and social mobilisation.
All Build on Books trustees have read the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and always demonstrate regard to it in planning the activities we undertake.
The charity and its trustees work in close collaboration with BOB SL and others to ensure that we respond to the needs of the beneficiaries in the most effective and sympathetic way possible. Our projects often involve input by the beneficiary communities who might volunteer to lead a project, provide land or be more hands on. All trustees are volunteers and we do not pay for staff or premises. Funds raised are therefore used to fulfil the charity’s aims and objectives.
This Year's Aims and Objectives
In 2020 – 2021, Build on Books aims to build on the success of the Peace Library at St Clement School in Kwama, which is being used around the clock by students studying and preparing for exams. We intend to build a companion Learning Centre which will allow even more students to benefit from the library as we will be offering a literacy outreach program to other local schools.
Building on the success of last year’s pilot project in adult education, the new Learning Centre will additionally deliver adult literacy, numeracy, and technical and vocational training programmes to adults living in the region who have previously missed out on education.
The new Learning Centre will have its own water tower providing safe, clean running water for the many additional learners using the Peace Library and the Technical and Vocational Learning Centre in Kwama. A computer school will be an essential addition to the new Learning Centre and this year we hope to send laptops and computers ready for the opening.
We will continue to fill the shelves of the Peace Library from floor to ceiling with books so that every child or adult using this excellent facility can find something to educate or entertain them. We will also continue sending books, furniture and other educational resources to needy schools in Sierra Leone as we have done since 2008. We will continue with teacher training to allow more teachers to complete their qualifications and obtain certification.
We aim to continue building boreholes with the help of in-country charity Willamette International.
We will continue to care for the Ebola orphans by sending clothes, shoes and school supplies and hosting their much-loved Christmas party. We will also provide them with a set of school uniforms as we do each year to help them continue their education. We also plan to pilot an Orphans’ Educational Sponsorship program to allow graduating orphans to learn to use computers and to enter tertiary education.
Should the need arise, we will raise funds to help fight disease or disaster if called upon to do so. Providing humanitarian and food aid to individuals and communities in need remains an integral part of our work.
Build on Books Achievements and Performance 2020 – 2021
Building a New Technical and Vocational Learning Centre for Kwama
Last year Build on Books opened The Peace Library in Kwama and filled it to the rafters with books on all subjects. Since then, it is being used day and evening by students from St Clement School and other schools doing homework or preparing for examinations.
With the secondary school accommodating over 2700 students, the need for reading and study space can only increase.
Likewise, there is little room for our adult literacy and numeracy classes, vocational skills training or literacy outreach, or to allow other rural schools to use the Peace Library at St Clement. The students erected a temporary classroom out of local materials like bamboo and leaves but eventually it blew down in a storm, so Build on Books was tasked with finding a more permanent and sustainable solution.
With a donation of over $80,000 from Orville's Home Appliances of Buffalo, New York, we were able to work with our implementing partners Home Leone to begin construction of a new Technical and Vocational Learning Centre this year. Home Leone is building a village
for people who wish to leave the slums of Freetown and move to new houses close to St Clement School. By working together, we can call on their expertise as builders and help give more Sierra Leoneans practical experience in quality building techniques and build something very exceptional. We want it to be large enough to
accommodate the growing body of students in the main hall for activities and assemblies, plus there will be a dedicated computer training centre.
Water, Water Everywhere!
Water is vital to life, but sadly many schools and communities in Sierra Leone still do not have access clean and safe drinking water. Some communities struggle to even dig traditional hand dug wells because their village sits on granite or another substrate which are not easy to penetrate, or which interferes with the quality or flow of the water.
Two incredibly challenging locations to drill for water are Whitestone and Kwama, but thankfully we succeeded with hard graft and determination. Whitestone sits on a bedrock of granite which is impossible to penetrate with the hand drilling our teams have been using. Fortunately, the Willamette team are using new equipment that can allow them to crack through granite, but it is still not easy. However, the need for water in the Whitestone community was urgent, so no one wanted to give up even as it seemed that the granite would go on forever! After an incredible amount of hard
work and determination, the team finally removed seven feet of granite cores to reach clean drinking water at 75 feet (nearly 23m) below the surface.
In Kwama, the team faced clay and iron deposits that made the drilling for water particularly challenging. However, the team could draw enough water to feed to storage tanks in a raised water tower using a solar-powered pump. After the team installed pipework, we could provide water to the new Learning Centre and Our Lady of Kwama Primary school. The installation of a standpipe and tap has allowed the children of Kwama to enjoy running tap water for the very first time. This water has dramatically improved hygiene at the school as the children can easily wash their hands after playing.
Another excellent water project funded this year was to provide water for Destiny Village, a unique project undertaken by UK charity Home Leone.
Home Leone are building a rural village for people who had previously lived in the slums of Kroo Bay in Freetown. Families who choose to relocate to Destiny Village are given a new house of their own, with clean running water (thanks to Build on Books), and the opportunity to learn a variety of building and other skills. Home Leone built a water tower over our borehole, and now everyone living in the village only needs to turn on a tap to have clean running water.
Laptops for Leone - Preparing Students for the Future
Build on Books has helped to transform education at St Clement Secondary School by providing science equipment, a fully stocked library, a canteen cum community centre and a sewing workshop at the school. These resources have helped the school grow and attract high-quality teachers with qualifications and skills and have supported pastoral care and improved performance in national examinations.
One of our most important goals over the last 13 years has always been to help develop a reading culture in Sierra Leone by filling libraries and schools with books on every subject. We have always listened to suggestions given by the students and teachers regarding the type of books they would like us to send and ensured they were in our shipments. In Kwama and Waterloo, we are
close to reaching our goals amongst the student population, and we are getting an increasing number of previously illiterate adults into reading. The result is that many more children are achieving the examination results necessary to attend higher education in variety of fields, from accountancy to social work to medicine. Universities now expect entrants to have some computing skills, so this is an area that we have begun to address. This year we began developing a new project to get laptops into schools and libraries and providing computer training to get students started. We collect good second-hand laptops, wipe them, and reinstall the software to send to Sierra Leone. The CODEP Library in Waterloo and the Peace Library have received the first shipment. Our plan next year is to construct a purpose-built computer centre at the new Learning Centre we are currently building in Kwama. The pilot programs have been so successful that we feel confident that we can do even more to help all students reach their full potential and prepare for the future.
Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Skills Training
The adult learning pilot project has been an immense success and the first class of illiterate adults are learning to read, improving numeracy and learning some new skills to help them earn a living.
There are many women and men living in the region around St Clement School who missed out on basic
education due to the civil war or the effects of poverty. We invited them to
join our classes which deliver adult literacy and numeracy teaching as well as technical and vocational skills training, such as sewing, food preparation and preservation, and traditional crafts such as gari tie-dyeing. The learners are also selling what they produce and using the profit to purchase additional materials and
pay their teachers. Health and nutrition, family planning, and child development are also on the curriculum. The pilot project was so successful that the teaching will continue wherever we can find space until we build the Learning Centre hopefully next year.
Bras and Drawers for Literacy & Skills
This year Papaya Lingerie Ltd donated a large quantity of brand-new bras and underwear to Build on Books. We shipped them to Emelda Moijue, Headteacher at St Clement Junior Secondary School, who distributed some of the bras and underwear to the female students. Having a gorgeous bra that fits them made the girls feel super confident. They said they felt ‘lucky and happy’ especially as the items were from the ‘factories to ourselves’ and not second or third hand.
With the donor's permission, the school also sold lingerie to help raise funds to support the Home Economics and Adult Literacy & Numeracy programs. Mrs Moijue will use the funds she raises to buy materials for home economics classes and training teachers.
The Ebola widows, who are now earning their own money by running the school meals program in Kwama. The hardworking ladies were elated to be able to buy a bra of their choice for about 70p. It is not much but with ownership comes pride and confidence. The lovely ladies will treasure their beautiful bras because they earned them
Teacher Training benefits both Teachers and Students
Since the civil war, Sierra Leone’s educational system has suffered from a shortage of qualified teachers; educated people will often volunteer in exchange for a small stipend and in-service training. This type of training does not keep them up to date with advances in education and can leave them struggling to manage large classes. Many would like to gain their official teaching qualification but cannot afford to pay the necessary college fees. Without their certification, they cannot receive a salary from the government and must rely only on a small stipend from the school, which is not sustainable. If Sierra Leone is ever to improve their education system, a greater
number of teachers must attend college for three years to hone their skills and take their place on the government payroll.
This year Build on Books has continued to help seven unqualified teachers from IYBAS Primary School, Our Lady of Kwama Primary School and St Clement Secondary School go to college. All these schools are benefitting from having bettereducated teachers; the students and teachers are happier and examinations results are greatly improved.
School Supplies and Christmas Party for Ebola Orphans
In December, Build on Books hosted our ever-popular annual Ebola Orphans Christmas Party for children who lost their parents to the Ebola epidemic of 2014. It is the highlight of the year and helps to remind them that they are not alone but part of one big family. This year we could not ship rucksacks from UK schools as most schools had to close due to Covid restrictions. Nonetheless, we sent the children boxes of school supplies, including
pens, exercise books, calculators, shoes, clothes, and Christmas goodies donated by people in Marlow. As always, the party was a great Christmas treat for the children. We also provided the orphans with the locally made school uniform they need to stay in school and continue to learn.
Educational Sponsorship for Orphans
While many of the Ebola orphans are still in junior or secondary school, some children are graduating and are ready to start the next phase of their lives. It is
wonderful to see the orphans we have helped for so long start to grow up, but it is worrying to know that they still face an uncertain future without family or the government to support them. Unfortunately, without help orphans in Sierra Leone often do not stand a chance of reaching their full potential.
Some of our orphans are ready to move on to higher education so this year we have begun to help them prepare this. The first step this is to help with their exam costs and then to send the orphans for computer training. Basic IT skills are frequently becoming a university requirement but are not usually offered in Sierra Leonean schools. We also sent the new students their own (second-hand) laptops, which will give them a good start in learning computing skills and writing essays.
Next year we will begin building up a sponsorship fund so that we can pay their fees when they receive their acceptance for university or technical college. It is the goal of Build on Books to try to give the children the opportunities they might have had if their parents had survived the Ebola epidemic and help them to reach their fullest potential.
Thousands of Books, Pens, Shoes and hundreds of Chairs
Every year Build on Books receives thousands of books and classrooms of school furniture and other valuable resources such as pens, exercise books and sports equipment from schools, individuals and companies across the UK.
This year we sent three shipments of these items to Waterloo and Kwama, where the Build on Books team distributed them to schools that desperately needed them. Schools in Sierra Leone frequently request desks and chairs because an increasing number of children are attending school now that primary education is free. The
shortage of seating means the pupils are squeezed together on overcrowded benches, which is not conducive to learning.
Covid closures in the UK meant we did not receive our usual donations from UK schools to help with shipping costs. However, we were fortunate to receive a generous grant from the Mundo Crastino Meliori charity in the Netherlands to help us continue shipping these important resources.
Along with the books, pens and furniture, we also sent boxes of shoes and football boots donated by primary schools in the UK to give to orphans and children at Rogberay Primary School and IYBAS primary school. Children at these schools tend to come from low-income families who earn only a small living from subsistence-level farming or sand mining, so new shoes are a luxury. Many children go to school barefoot, which raises the potential for injuries and parasitic diseases, which a good pair of shoes can prevent.
We also sent a much-needed freezer to the CODEP library in Waterloo to allow the manager Rosetta Kargbo buy and sell cold drinks to help pay for materials for the adult literacy classes held at the library.
Football IYBAS Primary School
Headteacher Sarah George founded IYBAS primary school in her own home to give local children a safe place to attend a primary school where they would not have to cross the main road from Freetown to the provinces. Build on Books provides IYBAS
with water, books and school furniture and has paid for the teaching staff to become fully qualified. As a result of these positive changes, many more local children have enrolled, and the school has significantly expanded. The school added new classrooms to accommodate the extra children which has left only a small playground area without enough room for organised sport.
Fortunately, there is a community land set aside for football, although very few people can afford to buy boots, balls and other equipment. This year we were fortunate to help IYBAS Primary School start their own football team called IKFC with the support of generous donors Ian & Kay Vickerage. They gave us donations to buy the initial equipment. We also sent lots of football boots donated by local parents to ensure that as many boys and girls as possible could learn to play football and have access to bigger boots as they continue to grow.
Football is now part of the school curriculum, and all children have a chance to play. The football program is positively impacting the community by encouraging parents to send their children to IYBAS rather than making them stay to help at home or go to work.
Thank you to all our donors who have made all this possible
Build on Books would like to thank all our donors and implementing partners in the UK and around the world for helping us to fight poverty in Sierra Leone. Your contributions have given children and adults the opportunity have a better life and a better education.
Financial Review
| Build on Books 1/09/2020 - 31/8/2021 Receipts Restricted IYBAS Primary School 1,104.44 Peace Library, Kwama - Student Sponsorship 130.00 Teacher Training 1,000.00 Unrestricted Other donations 11,891.05 Gift Aid 2,383.33 Total Receipts Payments Restricted IYBAS Primary School 1,104.44 Peace Library, Kwama 1,190.00 Teacher Training 1,254.30 Student Sponsorship 1,552.16 Unrestricted Ebola Orphans 2,338.79 Codep Library 612.00 Learning Centre 3,603.12 Covid Other Funding 130.00 Expenses Office expenses 441.00 Travel - Total Payments Net of Receipts (payments) 4283.01 Cash Funds Last Year End 5129.68 Cash funds this year end 9412.68 |
2234.44 14274.38 |
|---|---|
| 16508.82 5100.90 6683.91 441.00 |
|
| 12225.81 |
Statement of Charity's Policy on Reserves As we aim to reduce poverty our policy is not to hold excess funds in resee, but to use them for the purpose intended as soon as possible. However, £800 of the charity's capital is held in reserve for shipping books and other goods that we have collected during our appeals. We do not pay salaries or rent, so it is not necessary to keep a surplus. Our main sources of funds come from appeals and donations from grant making and charitable organisations, charitable clubs and individual donations. We want to thank the many groups and individuals who responded to our appeals this year and who donated funds for our work fighting poverty in Sierra Leone. Donations for Boreholes from the USA On some occasions our boreholes are funded by donors in the USA through our implementing partners Willamette International who are an US 501c3. The full funds are then used by Willamette to build the boreholes in Sierra Leone. Likewise, the building of the technical and vocational learning centre in Kwama was funded in the USA through Ouf implementing partners Home Leone USA who are also a 501 (c) This Trustees Annual Report covers the period from 1st September 2020 to 31st August 2021. The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees, report above. Lori Spragg, Chair James MacDonald, Secretary Date.. Xc>/ Lt1 12 Date. 20/ou/22 Brid Hayward, Treasurer Date. 2 0 /04/J 2
| BUILD ON BOOKS | BUILD ON BOOKS | BUILD ON BOOKS | 1158201 | 1158201 | CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the period from |
Period start date 01-Sep-20 |
To | Period end date 31-Aug-21 |
|||
| Section A Receipts and payments | ||||||
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 11,891 2,383 - - - - - - 14,274 - - - 14,274 1,190 - 254 2,339 612 - 3,603 - 1,422 130 - 441 - - - 9,991 - - - 9,991 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ 2,234 - - - - - - - 2,234 - - - 2,234 - - 1,000 - - - - 1,104 130 - - - - - - 2,234 - - - 2,234 |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Total funds to the nearest £ 14,125 2,383 - - - - - - 16,508 - - - 16,508 1,190 - 1,254 2,339 612 - 3,603 1,104 1,552 130 - 441 - - - 12,225 - - - 12,225 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| VoluntaryDonations | 11,891 | 17,616 | ||||
| Gift Aid | 2,383 | 2,974 | ||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
14,274 | 20,590 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
||||||
| - | ||||||
| - | - | |||||
| Sub total | - | - | ||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
||||||
| 20,590 | ||||||
| Peace Library | 1,190 | 3,648 | ||||
| Rogbere PrimarySchool | - | 100 | ||||
| Teacher Training | 254 | 1,232 | ||||
| Ebola Orphans | 2,339 | 1,985 | ||||
| CodepLibrary | 612 | 147 | ||||
| Covid | - | 6,139 | ||||
| LearningCentre | 3,603 | 3,936 | ||||
| IYBAS PrimarySchool | - | - | ||||
| Student Sponsorship | 1,422 | - | ||||
| Other fundiing | 130 | - | ||||
| - | - | |||||
| Office Expenses | 441 | 432 | ||||
| Travel(Physical Audit) | - | 1,516 | ||||
| - | - | |||||
| - | - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | 9,991 | 19,135 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
||||||
| - | ||||||
| - | ||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | ||||
| Total payments | ||||||
| 9,991 | 2,234 | - | 12,225 | 19,135 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
20/04/2022
1
Net of receiptsl(payments) 4.283 4,283 1.455 AS Transfers beoeTr funds A6 Ga5h funds last year end Cash lunds this year end 5,129 5.129 3,674 9.d12 9,412 S,129 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted Re5tricled Endowtnent liir4A• liinA• 10 noartyste to n•a¢èst E B1 Cash funds 9.412 Tolal cash funds 9,412 iagTtÈ bÈl8n¢eS thIelp1S and PeI5 Unie$trl¢t•d Rgstrl¢t•d Endowment Oetstls lo nearest £ lo neares1£ to nearest e Fund to which sset typlon Detailg Cost loption¥ll Cutren¢v•iuo B3 Inv•stm•nt •$$ots Fund to w*ich Curren¢v&lu• Detai15 CD$I lop¢ion¥ll 84 Assets r&tain•d for th• charity's own use Fund to whlch relates Amount due When due Details BS Liabilities Signed by one or iwo Iruslees on behalf ol all the Iruslees Signature Print Name Date of roval CCXX R2 accounts ISSI