2021-12-31-accounts - A Little Bit Of Hope

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Trustees’ Report and Accounts for the year ending 31 December 2021

Nurturing hope in the Butaleja District of Uganda by enabling people to overcome the hurdles that prevent them reaching their full potential.

Registered charity no. 1162178

Introduction to a little bit of HOPE

a little bit of HOPE’s vision is to nurture hope in the Butaleja District of Uganda by enabling people to overcome the hurdles that prevent them reaching their full potential.

The objects of a little bit of HOPE are, for the public benefit:

! To provide grants to charities, other organisations and individuals in the Butaleja district of Uganda in fulfilment of the following charitable purposes:
! the advancement of education;
! the advancement of health and/or saving of lives; and
! the relief and/or prevention of poverty; and
! The advancement of education in the United Kingdom in particular as regard issues concerning the relief and/or prevention of poverty.

Money raised by a little bit of HOPE in the UK was given to a little bit of HOPE (Uganda), a registered NonGovernmental Organisation in Uganda, registration number 10219, to fund a wide range of grassroots development programmes in line with the objects of a little bit of HOPE. Our key activities are to raise awareness and funds, and to ensure that money raised is spent effectively.

Our programmes are divided into four main areas:

! Education: including school farms, community library, reusable sanitary towels, and scholarships.
! Health, water and sanitation: including health education programmes, pit latrine construction and borehole fixing.
! Business and innovation: including apprenticeships and supporting vulnerable groups with incomegenerating activities and savings groups.
! Vulnerable households: including the support of vulnerable women’s groups and widows.

In 2022 we plan to re-organise the way our programmes are divided into three categories rather than four: Education, Water & Sanitation and Livelihoods. This is reflected on our website.

Our work is guided by a number of ‘approach' statements. They are:

! We focus our resources on the poorest of the poor
! We endeavour to promote sustainability, not dependency
! We only fund projects initiated and led by local people
! We take monitoring and evaluation seriously
! We account for every penny we spend
! We support people of all faiths, because our work is founded on Christian principles.

We confirm the trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.

Highlights from 2021

Part-way through 2021, Uganda was put into lockdown again as the COVID-19 virus started to spread more rapidly than it did in the country in 2020. As a result of this and schools therefore being closed, the focus of some of our programmes shifted slightly although most continued as planned.

We celebrated our ten year anniversary at the end of 2021 and marked the occasion in the UK with an online event and fundraising appeal. Celebrations were held in Uganda in March 2022.

School Farms

Our school farm project continued to provide meals and hands-on agricultural education for children across Butaleja. This year the number of schools involved in the project grew to 47. The project helps children overcome one of the hurdles they face when accessing education - lack of school lunch. When the district was put into lockdown, our Agricultural Officer helped ensure the farms were still maintained with local teachers and pupils. Crops were harvested and stored until schools opened again.

Re-usable Menstrual Pads

The re-usable menstrual pads (RUMPS) production centre that was set up in 2020 continued to be a vital place for girls to access pads whilst schools were closed for some of the year. 2,869 pads were produced there during the year. We also donated 1,245 pads to vulnerable women and girls in the district when it wasn’t possible to carry out training as usual.

“I am so happy for the gifts of pads I have received, I had no hope during this lock down to access any of these. My parents used to buy me sanitary towels when school was on but from the time schools were closed due to Covid-19, I have been using rags for my periods. My parents said that what mattered was buying food and other necessities rather than pads.”

Community Led Total Sanitation

Through our home improvement campaign, the village of Bufumi was declared ‘open-defecation-free’ by district officials, which means that at least 90% of the households there have access to a good quality latrine. When we started working with the village, only 34% of households had latrines, and many were not in a good condition. This figure has now risen to 97%. The village members have worked together to achieve this status, which, as well as building latrines, involved creating hand washing facilities, rubbish pits and constructing drying racks for utensils.

Borehole Repairs

In 2021 we repaired 16 boreholes, providing clean and safe drinking water for 18,465 people. 20 villages were trained in sustainable water source management and empowered to set up water user committees. These committees help prevent their boreholes from breaking down again by encouraging community-wide ownership of the boreholes, where village members can contribute towards ongoing maintenance of their borehole.

Apprenticeships

28 young women and mothers were partnered with experienced local tradespeople and trained in hairdressing or tailoring. They all completed their training which will enable them to earn a living and find employment or set up their own small business.

Vulnerable Households

Our work with vulnerable women was as important as ever this year and there was a focus on agricultural support, particularly with some of the challenging weather conditions during the year. 58 vulnerable community members were provided with a variety of seeds, along with technical support and training, to help ensure successful harvests.

Reference and administrative details

Registered Charity (England and Wales) No. 1162178 Registered Office: 100 Mile End Lane Stockport SK2 6BP Trustees: Malcolm Bebb David Elton (Treasurer) Isobel Elton (resigned 10/02/22) Hannah Green (appointed 17/05/21) Phil Green (Chair) Eliza Reger Amy Smyth Amy Spooner (appointed 24/02/22) Bankers: The Co-operative Bank P.O. Box 101 1 Balloon Street Manchester M60 4EP Independent Examiners: Stewardship 1 Lamb’s Passage London EC1Y 8AB

Structure, governance and management

a little bit of HOPE was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 12th June 2015*. Trustees are appointed by existing trustees. The day-to-day activities – for example, communications, fundraising, and administration have been shared between the trustees.

In 2021, Trustees decided to employ a part-time UK Development Manager to manage the day-to-day activities of the charity, with the aim for us to increase our annual income to £100,000. This position was advertised externally in October 2021 and received a number of applications. After an application and interview process and Trustee agreement, a (now former) Trustee was appointed to the role in December 2021, to start in February 2022.

One of the trustees' main responsibilities is to monitor how monies we grant to a little bit of HOPE (Uganda) is spent. The treasurer receives detailed monthly finance updates, the chair of trustees talks regularly both the director and chairperson of a little bit of HOPE (Uganda), trustees each have one or two projects that they specifically oversee – including receiving quarterly reports. No visits to the area were possible during the year, due to COVID-19 restrictions. However Phil Green visited Butaleja in early 2022 to join the 10th Anniversary celebrations with the team and community there.

a little bit of HOPE has a Safeguarding Committee to ensure our safeguarding policies and procedures are of a high standard. The Committee regularly reviews the safeguarding policies and procedures of a little bit of HOPE (Uganda). We are members of Thirtyone:eight – an independent safeguarding charity which helps individuals and organisations protect vulnerable people from abuse. Both a little bit of HOPE and a little bit of HOPE (Uganda) use their international safeguarding audit tool to review all procedures relating to safeguarding and develop action plans to ensure continual learning and improvement.

*Previously a little bit of HOPE was a registered trust (1147623) – following the transfer of assets, the trust has been closed and removed from the Charity Commission’s register of charities.

Financial Review

Reserves policy

Our current reserves policy is to retain a minimum of £4,000 in unrestricted reserves at all times. The charity ended 2021 with a cash balance of £17,763. Of this, £3,209 was restricted, leaving £10,554 in unrestricted free reserves and thus £4,000 designated as reserves.

Income

Our total income in 2021 was £48,845. The majority of our income comes from individuals and churches. During 2021 we also received income from trusts and foundations that we had applied to for funding.

Expenditure

Our total expenditure in 2021 was £48,762. 95.9% of this went to fund the work of a little bit of HOPE (Uganda). This calculation excludes that expenditure restricted for fundraising - as a result of income we received in 2017 specifically to enable fundraising from trusts and foundations.

End of year balance

Our total end of year cash balance was £17,763. (2020: £17,680)

Independent Examination

As our total charitable income exceeded the threshold of £25,000, our accounts are subject to an independent examination.

Declaration

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees.

Signatures: DAVID ELTON PHILIP GREEN Full names: David Elton Philip Green Position: Trustee – Treasurer Trustee – Chairperson Date: 15/08/2022 15/08/2022

Independent Examiner’s Report

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of A little bit of Hope ('the charity') for the year ended 31 December 2021 on pages 1 to 5 and 7 to 9 following.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect: 1. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; or

the accounts do not accord with the accounting records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

JAIMÉE YOUNG

Jaimée Young

Stewardship 1 Lamb's Passage LONDON EC1Y 8AB

Date: 17 August 2022

Detailed summary of accounts

Money brought forward from previous years

	2021	2020
	£	£
Reserves	4,000	4,000
Restricted funds	9,033	11,188
General funds	4,647	3,450
Total	17,680	18,638

Income

		2021			2020
	General	Restricted	Total	General	Restricted	Total
	£	£	£	£	£	£
Regular giving	19,971	6,602	26,573	21,130	7,052	28,362
Single donations	17,496	1,275	18,771	7,924	16,441	24,365
Trusts	3,500	-	3,500	-	5,772	5,772
Gift aid	-	-	-	1,995	673	2,668
Total	40,967	7,877	48,845	31,230	29,938	61,168

Expenditure

----- Start of picture text -----
2021 2020
General Restricted Total General Restricted Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
Grants given to a
little bit of HOPE 33,158 11,707 44,865 28,617 28,814 57,431
(Uganda)
Professional fees 1,902 - 1,902 1,417 - 1,417
Fundraiser - 1,995 1,995 - 3,279 3,279
Total 35,060 13,702 48,762 30,034 32,093 62,127
----- End of picture text -----

Summary of restricted funds

	Brought forward £	Income £	Allocated Expenditure £	Carried forward £
Covid-19 appeal	-	500	500	-
Education (general)	-	840	840	-
Education (school farms)	-	4,250	4,250	-
Education (RUMPS)	4,733	24	4,145	612
Health (general)	-	668	668	-
Vulnerable Households (General)	-	995	995	-
Vulnerable Households (OVCs)	-	600	308	292
Fundraiser	4,300	-	1,995	2,305
Total	9,033	7,877	13,702	3,209

Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

	2021	2020
	£	£
Cash funds
Reserves	4,000	4,000
Restricted funds	3,209	9,033
General funds	10,554	4,647
Total	17,763	17,680
Other monetary assets
Gift aid: claimed, not received	2,703	-
Gift aid: unclaimed	697	856
Total	3,400	856
Liabilities
Fee due for Independent Examination	570	540
Total	570	540

Notes to the accounts:

1. Basis of preparation of accounts

The accounts have been prepared under the receipts and payments method as permitted by s.133 Charities Act 2011 and in accordance with guidance from the Charity Commission.

2. Restricted funds

Expenditure incurred by a little bit of HOPE (Uganda) from grants received in the year has been allocated to restricted funds using an average exchange rate of 1 GBP: 4,673 UGX.

3. Trustees’ remuneration

No payments were made to trustees or persons related to them, except for reimbursement of expenses paid out on behalf of the charity.

4. Guarantees and debts outstanding

The charity has not given any guarantees and has not provided its assets as security for any liabilities.