Trustees Annual Report 1[st ] January 2020 to 31[st ] December 2020
The Trustees present their annual report along with the receipts and payments statement of the charity for the financial year ending 31 December 2020. Change 1’s Life is a charity registered with the charity commission; 1159172.
Mission Statement
For the public benefit, the relief and assistance of people in need in Sub-Saharan Africa who are the victims of poverty and natural disaster or catastrophe by supplying them with food, water, clothes, medical aid, and education and to further such other purpose which may be charitable according to the law of England and Wales as the trustees see fit from time to time.
Activities and Projects
Children are at the heart of the charities work and we aim to ensure that underprivileged children have access to education, medical assistance, and a safe environment to live in, play and grow. This is achieved by the implementation of sustainable development projects across sub-Saharan Africa for education, food security, entrepreneurship, and health in less privileged communities.
• Educational Projects
The charity runs weekly voluntarily classes to help facilitate people’s integration in society through language, communication skills, mathematics and basic (see link below).
http://www.change1slife.co.uk/education-program/4587169805
• Textile Project
This project aims to ensure that people (especially children) have the access to the right clothing all year round as this will prevent people from becoming ill due to inadequate projection from weather conditions particularly in the winter. The charity ships 1to 3 40ft container from the United Kingdom to Africa
yearly, full of donations who help aid those in need and this is done through the help with our international partners and donors (watch video below).
https://youtu.be/G7KbO98tR7I
Project Light
The Light project provides substantial short, medium, and long-term solutions to Africa’s energy crisis. We provide the fight a light to less privileged communities in Angola, through our solar Helix which are lightweight portable and eco-friendly solar powered lights (watch video below).
https://youtu.be/-Zu8RIuh-6A
How we work
The charity delivers its aims by implementing well-structured, adequate, and sustainable projects in the various countries it operates in Africa with the support of regular donors within the UK and beyond. The charity has established local teams lead by local volunteers who represent and carry out the charity’s mission together with the trustees who run the charity voluntarily and travel to Africa on regular basis to work with the teams. Moreover, we build strong networks and partnerships with private and public sectors bodies who facilitate our work and help us achieve our objectives.
Voluntary help and gifts in kind
The trustees are extremely grateful to all the people that believe in our work and have helped the charity by volunteering their times carrying out fundraising activities, in particular those who work with us across sub-Saharan Africa helping to implement and maintaining our projects. Although monetary donations still scarce, the public and local business have generously provided gifts in kind, mainly donations of clothing and other materials which is detrimental to our objectives and without them we wouldn’t be able to carry out all the work we do.
What we did: Activities and Achievements
In the face of the current pandemic of COVID-19, we carried out a series of humanitarian actions such as distribution of first aid food kit and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to less privileged communities that could not afford to stay home and we shipped a 40ft container full of donations from the United Kingdom to Luanda, Angola. Our activities during this year managed to mitigate the negative impact of imposed restrictions by local government and increased people awareness and preventive measure. We assisted more than 2.000 families through the distribution basic need equipment and food during the lockdown. Furthermore, we
managed to launch a project with the help of Mckinsey Company namely “Lavatórios Kids” (Kids washing basins) that aims to promote the inclusion of children in the prevention process against COVID-19 and all diseases whose main route of transmission is hand hygiene. The objective was to transform recycle material into a washing basin designed in cartoons to convey the message of the practice of washing hands by illustrating the practice of hand hygiene, as well as all other prevention measures and create a local solution to a global problem. The project has won an award for best impactful innovation during in 2020.
https://youtu.be/vaFslKdexmw https://youtu.be/b4Pf2lAkIYU https://youtu.be/zQxs9keDeuI https://youtu.be/FOqIsDSxk5Q
Financial Review
Due to the ongoing pandemic, much of the donations received this year was material rather than financial as we runed a national foodbank in Angola to assist less privileged families who could not afford to stay home. During the year, funds have been raised from a particular donor (McKinsey Company) and few singular regular donors and the total amount raised was £2791.99 (two thousand, seven hundred and nineteen one and nineteen nine cent). Income was used to launch a project that provided handwashing basin for children to be able to return to school which has become an important pillar to the fight against Covid-19 in Africa through the pandemic, ship a container full of donations from the UK-Angola and run emergency programs to help less privileged communities in Africa during the peak of the pandemic.
At this moment in time Change 1’s Life is unable to hold reserves which are extremely important for the smooth running of the charity. However, due to the lack of monetary funds and the fact that the trustees do fund majority of the charity’s activities, Change 1’s Life is unable to hold much at this moment in time. Due to the lack of fundraising by the public and combined with the fact that the charity does not sell any of the material donations it receives, the charity’s financial position remains an ongoing concern despite the positive signs over the last years. The trustees try their hardest to raise funds and help by personally donating when needed.
Even though income were lower than expenses, 2020 has turned out to be the best year of the charity so far based on impact. The charity managed to increase the number of global volunteers and maintain all its projects in Africa while designing new projects such as the Digital and Ecological villages. Moreover, the charity managed to establish stronger institutional partnership and stronger credibility and popularity
globally which will be a boost for the charity’s financial and social impact growth from now on.
Plans for the future
Establish new long-term partnerships internationally and locally while growing the number of donors and beneficiaries. As we managed to achieve beyond our expectation some of the plans from 2019 and COVID-19 turned out to be a boost to our cause, we now plan to start implementing the first phase of our Digital and Ecological Villages by 2021 and have an operational and well-structured headquarters in Luanda (Angola) to ensure that the cycle of our work is smooth and able to respond to the needs of our beneficiaries all the time. We also plan to create a Change 1’s Life App to connect all parts of the charity, facilitate the process of donating and reduce the amount of time we spend doing hand labour. Moreover, we plan to ship five containers full of donations to Africa in 2021 and reach the financial donations beyond £8000. Our main goal for the next five years is to become the leading global charity operating for the betterment of Africa.
Objective, Structure and Governance
Our legal Objectives;
Change 1’s Life is an international charity with no political or religious ties, established in 2014. It is run as a charity incorporated organisation, registered with the charity commission. Change 1’s Life describes its charity objectives as being.
“To relief poverty and financial hardship in sub-Saharan Africa by providing goods and services which they could not otherwise afford through lack of means”
Our charity commission regulatory number is 1159172 .
Trustee and organisational structure
The constitution requires at least 3 trustees to be appointed, Trustees serve until they resign, or their term ends without renewal. All our trustees have helped start the charity and are not remunerated for their trusteeship. All our trustees are unpaid.
Trustees
Trustees are responsible for the in law for the smooth running of the charity. E Angelo S Sousa F Sousa
Trustees are provided with information about the charity law and given an extensive formal induction to the charities work. Al trustees are appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting, new trustees are appointed by the board of trustees, interviewed, and only appointed if they have the necessary skills and commitment towards the charity’s objectives.
Each trustee takes responsibility for monitoring the activity of an operational area and have regular quarterly meetings with the board to report actions and review.
Chief Executive
The chief executive is responsible for the smooth running of the charity and manages it along with its volunteers on behalf of the trustees. Our chief executive Mr E Angelo is an experienced academic and founder of the charity who has be leading the charity exceptionally.
Approved by the Trustees and signed on behalf by:
E Angelo 18/11/2021