(Registered charity no. 1169251)
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT AND RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
CONTENTS
| Legal and Administrative information | 1 |
|---|---|
| Trustees' Report | 2 |
| Independent Examiner's Report | 9 |
| Receipts and Payments Accounts | 10 |
| Statement of Assets and Liabilities | 11 |
| TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE | |
|---|---|
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT |
|
| FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025 | |
| Trustees | Minna Maaria Jarvenpaa (Chair) |
| Kristina Hemon | |
| Susan Meirion Owen | |
| Charity Reg. No. | 1169251 |
| Working name | TIP |
| Registered Office | Wilding Way |
| Birkenhead | |
| Prenton | |
| Merseyside | |
| CH43 7RA | |
| Webstie | www.tools4innerpeace.org |
| Independent Examiner | Charles Ssempijja, FCA |
| NfP Accountants Ltd | |
| 3rdFloor, 86-90 Paul Street | |
| London | |
| EC2A 4NE | |
| Bankers | Barclays Bank Plc |
| 1 Churchill Place | |
| London | |
| E14 5HP |
1
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
The trustees present their annual report and financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 December 2025. Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, and they comply with current statutory requirements and the charity's governing document. The Trustees’ Annual Report has been prepared in compliance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102). The financial statements have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, taking advantage of provisions available for smaller charities.
OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT
Charitable objects
-
To promote, develop, nurture and protect mental, physical and emotional health of individuals, for the public benefit, focusing in particular but not exclusively and without limitation, on people working in conflict zones around the world, as well as civilian victims of war, and children and youth suffering from transgenerational trauma, by the provision of yoga and associated or other services such as, without any limitation whatsoever, training, counselling and support.
-
To provide public education and training in the therapeutic use of yoga to alleviate trauma and mental suffering.
Activities
The charity offers yoga as a means of coping with stress and trauma. The charity's primary beneficiaries include refugees and other disadvantaged and marginalised people, such as homeless street youth.
Statement of public benefit
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.
The Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity’s aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. The Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.
2
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE: REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR
In 2025, Tools for Inner Peace continued expanding our reach in making trauma-informed yoga available to refugees, conflict survivors, homeless street youth and vulnerable populations in the UK, Lebanon and Sierra Leone. Our focus remained on empowering trauma survivors to manage their own healing while training community members to share yoga's transformative tools with others.
In the UK, we maintained our eighth consecutive year of refugee programming in Merseyside/Liverpool, started up a refugee yoga class in Sheffield, and hosted our second annual refugee yoga retreat bringing together 17 participants in the Peak District. In Lebanon, our trained community teachers responded to crisis by offering trauma yoga to women and children displaced by bombardment in the South of Lebanon, while maintaining classes for Syrian refugee women in the Bekaa valley. In Sierra Leone, the YAMA team dramatically expanded their street youth outreach, conducting biweekly sessions across 7 communities and reaching approximately 600 participants, while Tools for Inner Peace supported through training and providing medical check-ups and hygiene kits. We sent a third YAMA team member to India for advanced training, strengthening the team’s foundation in classical yoga. Through these efforts, we continued empowering trauma survivors to manage their own healing while training community members to share yoga's transformative tools with others in their communities.
United Kingdom
Our regular yoga sessions in deprived areas in Merseyside, where Lynn Mooney (Lalitatirth) faithfully offers three weekly classes at various venues, as well as in Sheffield and in Coventry have offered a safe space for refugees. These yoga classes help to relieve stress and trauma, and to advance mental and physical health among the participating refugees and asylum seekers. Here is how one of our participants described the impact of the yoga sessions on her wellbeing: “Yoga has greatly improved my flexibility and strength while also helping me manage stress. I feel more relaxed and focused throughout the day, and my posture has improved significantly. The breathing exercises have also helped me sleep better and stay calm in stressful situations. Overall, yoga has had a positive impact on both my physical and mental wellbeing.” - Refugee yoga participant, Liverpool
In the Merseyside/Liverpool area, our work is taking place for the eighth year running. Since the Daresbury hotel in Merseyside no longer functions as a temporary accommodation for refugees, all our classes are now held in
3
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
community or yoga spaces, often in collaboration with refugee support associations.
In June, Tools for Inner Peace organised our second annual refugee yoga retreat at Lockerbrook Farm in the Peak District, bringing together 17 refugees for a weekend in nature. A mix of cultures, ages and backgrounds came together and embraced the yoga practices that were shared. The closing fire ceremony was rounded off with an impromptu world tour of song and dance, with plenty of African rhythms. The group of participants would be keen to keep coming together in the future to experience yogic lifestyle along with the simple, powerful practices of classical yoga that we teach.
Our aim for these refugee yoga weekends is to build connections among refugees and grow a community around the shared experience of yoga and wellbeing. Eventually we would hope to train a group of community yoga teachers in the UK, like we have done in Lebanon.
Classes and training in the UK in 2025 were funded by the Scurrah Wainwright Charity, Sported Foundation, John Younger Trust, Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services and the National Lottery Community Fund. Refugee Women Connect continued as our key partner in Liverpool.
Lebanon
Several of the community yoga teachers we trained in Lebanon in 2022-23 have been giving classes for refugees in the Bekaa valley and Lebanese women and children displaced by war to Beirut from the South of Lebanon.
In Bekaa valley in the East, two of our trainees, Amani Abd Al Rahman and Roza Khalaf herself a refugee from Syria, have continued to offer yoga classes to Syrian refugee women suffering from poor mental health. One of the participants had the following to say about her experience with the classes:
“I enjoy yoga classes as they lift me up physically and mentally. It feels like the only hour in my day that I have just for myself, away from all responsibilities, as if I am in another world, just taking care of me.” - Refugee yoga participant, Bekaa valley
Natali Massoud (Nadagiri) and Rima Hammoud put their heart and energy into offering yoga at a safe space in a Beirut yoga centre during the heaviest days of bombardment in the South of Lebanon. Here is how Roula Taher, manager of the yoga centre and also one of the community yoga teachers trained by Tools for Inner Peace, describes their work during this period.
4
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
“At first we started to offer some simple trauma yoga practices to displaced women. Yoga nidra helped them to get rid of their fears and worries, to be more relaxed, more open. Then we started working with kids. We started with a small group, and then the group grew bigger and sometimes we had 30 kids.”
Natali Massoud was also sharing yoga - and clowning - with displaced children in her hometown of Tripoli. These children and their families were living in schools that had been turned into temporary accommodation for people fleeing areas under attack.
In spring 2025, while there was a lull in airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Rima Hammoud started offering free yoga sessions for trauma recovery in her hometown of Nabatiye. Rima managed to give 12 yoga sessions before the bombings picked up again and destroyed the venue where she was offering yoga. She hopes to resume the classes in the future.
Our classes in Lebanon were financed out of community contributions, as well as generous individual donations.
Sierra Leone
The aim of our yoga outreach work in Sierra Leone has been to help generate new healthy habits and improve mental and physical health at the margins of society. Many of the participants sleep rough, smoke kush, a highly addictive street drug, and neglect their hygiene and nutritional needs. In addition to yoga sessions, we have been offering them a warm healthy meal after each session and a monthly medical check-up. We have also started periodically distributing hygiene kits with soap, hand towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb and underpants. Participants report significant benefits from the yoga practice, both for their physical and mental wellbeing.
The teaching is done by a local YAMA team, led by Samuel Michael Kamara and Babardee Samura whom we sponsored for a two-month Yogic Studies course in India in 2023. With their team of three other yoga teachers, they have successfully conducted outreach in 7 different ghetto communities, offering biweekly sessions in each community and reaching as many as 600 street youth over the past year. The YAMA team has been receiving ongoing training from Minna Jarvenpaa (Mantramala),and were supported by her in developing a progressive curriculum for the year-long cycle of yoga sessions. With constant teaching practice, offering on average four sessions a week, the YAMA team’s teaching has become solid and sessions are well organised.
5
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
We sent a further member of the YAMA team, Alimamy Jalloh, for the twomonth Yogic Studies course in India in November-December 2025. With three of its members trained in India, the YAMA team has a core group that is wellversed in the foundations of classical yoga.
Tools for Inner Peace work in Sierra Leone, to train YAMA, and to support the medical check-ups and hygiene kits for street youth, was financed from grants from the MPM Charitable Trust, the Souter Charitable Trust, as well as generous individual donations. Much of YAMA’s day-to-day outreach work to the slums was funded through a Being grant that YAMA bid for in partnership with the Global Youth Network for Empowerment and Development. As the Being project winds down, we are seeking to identify another Sierra Leonean institutional base for YAMA’s work.
Organisational matters
At the end of 2025, trustees of Tools for Inner Peace were Kristina Hemon (secretary), Minna Jarvenpaa (chair) and Susan Owen (treasurer). Kerry Gallagher was Safeguarding Lead to ensure implementation and monitoring of our Children and Vulnerable Adults Safeguarding Policy, with Minna Jarvenpaa as the trustee focal point for safeguarding.
Our trustee meetings are enriched by the lived experience of Zena Takieddine from Syria. She has not yet been fully onboarded as a trustee due to complications related to documentation from her place of origin. A key aim for the coming year is to continue to bring on board other trustees and volunteers with personal experience of the UK asylum system, as well as people who originate from the other communities for which Tools for Inner Peace is providing training.
6
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
FINANCIAL REVIEW
The Charity achieved net receipts for the year of £15,549 (2024 - £34,010), details of which are shown in the Receipts and Payments Accounts below.
Total receipts in 2025 included a total of £1,657 in contributions from individual donors around the world, £500 in payments for trainings, as well as £13,045 in new grant funds from the Scurrah Wainwright Charity, MPM Charitable Trust, Sported Foundation, John Younger Trust, Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services, and Big Give Trust, with £347 in Gift Aid.
The total value of payments amounted to £27,276 (2024 - £29,742). These included payments of yoga teachers’ and retreat facilitators’ stipends, travel costs, purchase of yoga mats, accommodation, food and transport expenses for retreats, as well as web hosting costs and other administrative expenses.
Cash at bank at the end of the financial year was £15,022 (2024 – £26,750), of which £12,770 were unrestricted funds.
Fundraising has become increasingly difficult in the current climate of the cost of living crisis. For the first time in our 10-year history, we have had to dip in to our unrestricted reserves to cover project costs. To rectify matters and turn around our fundraising record, we have brought on board Maria Marga, an experienced and enthusiastic fundraising volunteer, who has been bid-writing for us since September 2025.
Reserves policy
The aim is to maintain 2-6 months of unrestricted reserves, to ensure that Tools for Inner Peace can continue to carry on its activities in the event of financial difficulties.
Going concern
The Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.
7
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Constitution and governing document
Tools for Inner Peace is a registered charity, number 1169251, constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and was registered with the Charity Commission on 19 September 2016. The charity is also referred to by its working name, TIP.
The charity is governed under its Constitution logged with the Charity Commission on 19 September 2016. The governance of the charity is the responsibility of the Trustees.
The charity currently has no staff. The day-to-day management of the charity is delegated to one trustee who acts as a managing trustee.
Method of appointment or election of Board of Trustees
Trustees are elected and co-opted under the terms of the charity’s constitution. Regular reviews are held to identify gaps within the knowledge and expertise of the Board of Trustees and appointments are made where required to strengthen the Board.
When it is necessary to appoint new Trustees, due to either a Trustee stepping down or a gap of expertise in the board is identified, recruitment will initially begin through the networks of the board and management team. Applicants will be reviewed by Trustees and the successful applicant will be invited to attend a Trustee meeting. Following this, on the provision that the board are satisfied and the applicant still wishes to join the Trustee board, they will be appointed.
No other person or external organisation is entitled to appoint any Trustees of the charity. The Trustees who served during the period and after the year end are shown on page 1.
Policies adopted for the induction and training of Trustees
The charity provides new trustees with an induction pack and mentoring from the Chair. The charity has limited resources for formal training of the trustee body. However, on-going training opportunities are announced to Trustees when these become available pro bono.
8
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
Related party relationships
The charity has no related party connections with other organisations. The Trustees consider that members of the board and their close connections to be the only related parties of the charity. During 2025, one trustee received payments amounting to £2,461 in reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses made on behalf of the charity (2024 – one trustee was reimbursed a total of £1,521 while another received £87).
Remuneration policy for key management personnel
The Trustees consider the Board of Trustees and the managing trustee as comprising the key management personnel of the charity in charge of directing and controlling the charity and running and operating the charity on a day-today basis. All Trustees give of their time freely and no trustee remuneration was paid in the year.
Trustees are required to disclose all relevant interests and to withdraw from decisions where a conflict of interest arises.
Risk management
The Trustees fully accept their responsibilities for ensuring that the major risks to which the Charity is exposed are identified, and that there are systems and procedures in place to mitigate those risks.
APPROVAL OF THE REPORT
2 March 2026 This report was approved by the Board of Trustees on ……………………………………….. and signed on its behalf by:
………………………………………………………. Susan M Owen Trustee
9
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of Tools for Inner Peace On accounts for the year 31 December 2025 Charity no 1169251 ended (if any) Set out on pages appended (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 December 2025 . Responsibilities and basis of As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
-
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my
-
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S attention ( ~~other than that disclosed below )~~ in connection with the examination which _STATEMENT*_ gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: ● accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the 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.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Date: 09 March 2026 Name: Charles Ssempijja Relevant professional FCA, ICAEW qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: NfP Accountants Ltd, 3[rd] Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE
9
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
| Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | 1169251 | 1169251 | CC16a | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts andpayments accounts | |||||||||
| For the period from |
01/01/2025 | To | 31/12/2025 | ||||||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||||||
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds |
Endowment funds |
Total funds | Last year | |||||
| to the nearest £ |
to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | |||||
| A1 Receipts | |||||||||
| Grants | - | 13,045 | - | 13,045 | 26,800 | ||||
| Individual donations | 1,657 | - | - | 1,657 | 5,945 | ||||
| Trainingand workshops | 500 | - | - | 500 | 1,000 | ||||
| Gift Aid | 347 | - | - | 347 | 266 | ||||
| Miscellaneous | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
2,504 | 13,045 | - | 15,549 | 34,011 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Total receipts | 2,504 | 13,045 | - | 15,549 | 34,011 | ||||
| A3 Payments | |||||||||
Stipends foryoga teachers and |
2,515 | 13,317 | - | 15,832 | 18,046 | ||||
| Administrative costs | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Purchase ofgoods | - | 1,051 | - | 1,051 | 222 | ||||
| Purchase of services | - | 1,002 | - | 1,002 | 1,964 | ||||
| Workshopcosts(venue,food,etc) | 31 | 3,613 | - | 3,644 | 5,752 | ||||
| Travel and transport costs | 2,628 | 2,400 | - | 5,028 | 2,652 | ||||
| Independent examination | 720 | - | - | 720 | 720 | ||||
| Internet services and web hosting | - | - | - | - | 386 | ||||
| Sundryexpenses | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| **Sub total ** | 5,894 | 21,383 | - | 27,277 | 29,742 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Totalpayments | 5,894 | 21,383 | - | 27,277 | 29,742 | ||||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | (3,390) | (8,338) | 0 | (11,728) | 4,269 | ||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 16,161 | 10,589 | - | 26,750 | 22,481 | ||||
| Cash funds thisyear end | 12,771 | 2,251 | - | 15,021 | 26,750 | ||||
10
TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE
RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2025
| Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | Tools for Inner Peace | 1169251 | 1169251 | CC16a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts andpayments accounts | |||||||
| For the period from |
01/01/2025 | To | 31/12/2025 | ||||
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |||||||
| Categories | Details | Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds |
Endowment funds |
|||
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | |||||
| B1 Cash funds | Cash at bank | 12,771 | 2,251 | - | |||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| Total cash funds | 12,771 | 2,251 | - | ||||
| (agree balances w ith receipts and payments account(s)) |
OK | OK | OK | ||||
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds |
Endowment funds |
|||||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||||
| B2 Other monetary assets | - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| Current value (optional) |
|||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | |||||
| B3 Investment assets | - | - | |||||
| - | - | ||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
||||
| B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
- | - | |||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| When due (optional) |
|||||||
| Details | Fund to which liability relates |
Amount due (optional) |
|||||
| B5 Liabilities | Independent examination | 720 | |||||
| - |
2 March 2026
The accounts were authorised by the board on ………………………………… and signed on behalf of the Trustees by:-
Susan M Owen Trustee
11