2024-03-31-accounts - Compassion For Communities

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Introduction

Compassion for Communities (C4C) entered the financial year April 2023 – March 2024 with a renewed focus on regeneration, restructuring and fundraising. We sought to forge new partnerships with organisations and individuals (in the UK and in Zimbabwe), to support our efforts in facilitating sustainable development, economic empowerment of our beneficiary communities as well as advancing the Christian faith.

Relaunch Event Sunday 23 April 2023- £540.50 Raised

The relaunch of the organisation was accompanied by the recruitment of Trustees to strengthen the organisation governance alongside accessing training programmes offered by the charities commission, namely:

Safeguarding in an International Context
Understanding charity structures
Faith Charity Trustees: Taking Care of your Funds.

Other fundraising events were organised throughout the year to supplement the donations coming through the Stewardship Services online platform. Altogether, over £3000 has been raised towards the Greenhouse project. It is hoped that the greenhouse will be a reality within the 2024-2025 financial year.

Three local churches have, between them made cash donations to the charity, promoted coffee mornings on their premises and offered their community centre as the registered address for the charity as well a free venue for meetings and events.

Zimbabwe Focus

In May 2023, C4C undertook a Monitoring and Evaluation mission to assess the progress on the two gardens the organisation had supported preCovid 19.

The garden in Dibutibu, near Victoria Falls was assessed to have deteriorated and lost it’s community focus. There was no evidence of community participation in the running of the garden. It was decided that C4C would terminate their support for the garden until it had reverted back to the original community focus of the preCovid 19 era. C4C recommended that Intuba, the US-based charity who had supported the garden together with C4C, would oversee the refocusing of

the garden as they had more resources and manpower to do so.

Ekukhanyeni Nutrition Garden in Lower Gweru was found to be thriving with evidence of good management by a dynamic committee who had managed to keep the community focused on the project throughout the Covid-19 era.

Ekukhanyeni Nutrition Garden – 19[th] May,

2023.

The Transition: Subsistence to Commercial Horticulture

Following consultations with the gardeners on the next development steps, the aspiration for increased

profitability was expressed. A proposal to further explore the idea of Greenhouse horticulture which had been suggested previously, was received with renewed enthusiasm. However, as this was a novel idea it was necessary to arrange tours to centres where Greenhouse horticulture had been established.

Through the support of the local Agriculture Extension Officer, the garden was referred to a training centre which specialises in Greenhouse Farming. Representatives from the garden attended a workshop and tour of a functioning greenhouse at the centre. The workshop and the tour were an eye opener for the gardeners who were seeing a greenhouse for the first time.

Gardeners at MASO training centre in Gweru - 9 June, 2023

Ekukhanyeni Nutrition Garden in the Press – 26 June, 2023

Through the efforts of one prominent journalist who went to primary school with the founder of C4C, the progress of the garden and the aspiration for stepping up to commercial horticulture featured prominently in a

national newspaper in the period 26th June – 02[nd] of July, 2023. The publication brought great pride to the gardeners, the wider community and the international supporters of C4C.

The publicity generated by the article put the garden on the map and was instrumental in forging new

relationships with statutory institutions and government officials who saw the potential community development impact that could accrue from the increased yields and profitability from the Greenhouse initiative.

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Local University Visits the Garden- 5[th] October, 2023

Midlands State University (MSU), has a stated aspiration to engage rural communities to support them towards

sustainable economic development, promoting climate change resilience and grassroots food security. Following a presentation of the garden project to the department of Agronomy and Horticulture, the university sent a team to tour the garden. The tour resulted in the university advising the garden to form themselves into a legal entity to facilitate official recognition which could attract more technical support from the university. That could be in the form of student attachments and research programs.

Cooperative Formation Consultations – 21 February, 2024

Following enquiries to the relevant government departments, it was decided that a Cooperative was the ideal legal entity for the garden. A Cooperative Formation Committee was established to facilitate the consultations with the gardeners.

Membership of the committee was drawn from C4C Zimbabwe board members, Garden Management Committee members and independent individuals not associated with the board nor the garden. Given the volume of material to be taken in towards cooperative formation, several training sessions and workshops were to be organised subsequently.

Advancing the Christian Faith – Sundays 15 May – 25 June 2023.

Rural Church near Kwekwe 15[th] May, 2023 City Church- Harare 28[th] May, 2023

House Church in Gweru – 18[th] May 2023 Urban Church- Masvingo 25[th] June, 2023

Advancing the Christian faith in the 2023-2024 reporting year was more pronounced in Zimbabwe than in the UK. Relationships fostered by our Chair of Trustees and UK church leaders resulted in requests to visit their mission outposts to carry out evaluation and monitoring exercises while ministering the gospel to the communities. Relationships of trust and respect have been established with the respective organisations.

On the same trip our Chair of Trustees represented Churches in Communities International, (the organisation that C4C is a member), holding preliminary meetings with church leaders ahead of a planned conference to launch a Zimbabwe chapter of Churches

in Communities International. As a result of the meetings a network of mutual support and cooperation between the church leaders has been established. There’s no doubt that, indirectly the Christian faith is enhanced by such cooperation between church leaders.

Summary of Key Successes

Recruitment of Trustees in the UK and in Zimbabwe.
Monitoring and Evaluation mission to Zimbabwe.
Relationship building with supporting organisations in the UK.
Raised profile for the garden in Zimbabwe.
Attraction of interest from statutory institutions which has the potential to translate into significant support for the garden.
Raising more than £3000 for the Greenhouse project.
Developing relationships with other organisations in the UK and in Zimbabwe.

COMPASSION FOR COMMUNITIES (Registered charity, number 1169275)

Financial statements for the year ended 31 MARCH 2024

Page	Contents
2	Trustees’ annual report
4	Receipts & payments account
5	Statement of assets &liabilities
6	Notes to the accounts

COMPASSION FOR COMMUNITIES

Trustees’ annual report

For the year ended 31 MARCH 2024

Full name: COMPASSION FOR COMMUNITIES

Registered charity number: 1169275

Official address

22 Pine Hill Close Rise Park Nottingham NG5 9DA

Management Committee members

DR JOSEPH ZULU FROM 16 September 2016……...........................TILL PRESENT REV TAPIWAMUNASHE NDUNAFROM 16 September 2016………TILL May 2023

MR JOHN THOMAS FAHY MR JULLIAN BOND MRS PEARL PUGH MRS SILMARA GALE MR GIBSON BHUNU

Bankers

NATWEST BANK

Governance and management

Our organisation is managed by the Board of Trustees in accordance to our constitution which was adopted on the 21 November 2015 and amended for compliance with charity commission registration standards on 16 September 2016.

Aims and objectives

To promote sustainable development for the benefit of the public by: a. The relief of poverty and the improvement of conditions of life in socially and economically disadvantaged communities.
b. The promotion of sustainable means of achieving economic growth and regeneration.

c. To advance the education of the public in subjects relating to sustainable development and to promote study and research in such subjects provided that the useful results of such study are disseminated to the public at large. This will include links between schools and other educational establishments around the world.
To advance the Christian faith through the establishment of places of worship that will both promote religion and the sustainable development aims of the charity.

Summary of the main achievements during the period

In the period 01 April 2023- 31 March 2024, Compassion for Communities (C4C) emerged from a period of dormancy to relaunch, restructure its leadership and focus on fundraising towards the installation a 10x50m Greenhouse at Ekukhanyeni Nutrition Garden in Zimbabwe.

A Monitoring and Evaluation visit to the projects in Zimbabwe was carried in May 2023, by our Chair of Trustees. That mission informed the decision to discontinue support to Dibutibu Garden near Victoria Falls and focus solely on the aspiration of transitioning Ekukhanyeni Nutrition Garden from subsistence to commercial horticulture through the installation of a Greenhouse and turning part of the garden membership into a Cooperative to manage the project as a commercial enterprise and legal entity.

Within the 2023-2024 reporting period, Compassion for Communities recruited 5 new Trustees with wide experience in business leadership, religious charity and community organisation governance, academic research and church leadership.

A total of more than £3000 was raised through fundraising events in partnership with local churches.

In Zimbabwe, C4C also recruited a team of trustees and engaged stakeholders such as the local university in the Midlands, a local newspaper, government departments and local Agriculture Extension Workers and Agricultural training organisations.

Initiatives towards the registration of C4C Zimbabwe were also initiated.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signed _________ Date

___ Name_ , Chair

COMPASSION FOR COMMUNITIES Receipts &payments account For the year ended 31 MARCH 2024

Receipts - £3908

Receipts

Restricted Income Other receipts(Fundraising) Total receipts	2023-24 3870 38 3908	2022-23 0 582 582

Payments – £1205

As at 01 April 2023

Bank; Current a/c	979
Petty cash	0
Total	979
As at 31 March 2024
Bank; Current acc		4326
Petty Cash	0
Bank and cash at the end of the period4326

COMPASSION FOR COMMUNITIES

Statement of assets and liabilities As at 31/03/24

	£
Cash assets	4326
Other assets

	Current Value
2022-2023
1x Chest Freezer (Asset Transfer)	65	82
1 x Set of Chafng Dishes	83
104
*Total*	*148*

Total Cash Assets + Other Assets = £4474

Liabilities - None

These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:

Signed _____ Dated ____ Name_ , Treasurer