The Hands up Project Charity Commission Report April 2024 to April 2025
In our last Hands Up Project report, we spoke of the devastating effect of the happenings of 7 October 23 and the effect on our operations in Gaza and the West Bank. We adapted quickly and in 24/25 achieved a huge range of projects to enable the continuation of our activities with the most vulnerable children and their parents.
We determined that raising awareness had to be our priority and we did this through exhibitions, such as an extension of the Moon Tell Me Truth – the book that we talked about in our last report. This is a book of poetry and art written by the children in Gaza, many of whom were falling daily.
There were live link ups with the children. Each launch would involve Nick Bilbrough, our Innovations Director, coming to a venue such as Norwich, Edinburgh, Ireland, London, and Bristol. He would link children in the vicinity – often through a school – to the poets in Gaza and they would talk, recite poetry and exchange a ‘show and tell’ activity.
Stories Alive is a book written by Nick Bilbrough. It is story telling material for children.
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From this, Ashraf Kuhail, our lead teacher, wrote Stories Reborn. He set up five schools in peoples homes in Gaza where teachers would use the materials and methods from the book to bring to life the stories. In Nick’s words;
“They do it because education, and particularly English language education, has always been hugely valued by the people of Gaza. Don’t let the many detractors around the world convince you otherwise!
I wrote the British Council Palestine publication - Stories Alive because I wanted to create something that could draw on the motivating and memorable value of stories, whilst at the same time activating areas of grammar and vocabulary from the Palestinian English curriculum.
I’m proud of the fact that it’s probably been used more than anything else I’ve ever written, and I’m especially proud of the great work that Ashraf is doing with it now by providing a makeshift school for local children in his own home.”
The Hands Up Plays took place in Marylebone Theatre. Peter Oswald, the Playwright, says of this play that he wrote;
“I have written before …that in my view these are exemplary modern plays, with a clarity and urgency contemporary writers everywhere should look to. Working with these plays is like handling some strange substance that’s fallen to earth in a meteorite. What exactly is it? Will it explode? If you breathe it, what will happen to you? Can the human heart cope with it? I am very happy to say the experiment is underway..”
We launched a new poetry competition in October 2024. We asked children in Gaza, West Bank, and Taiwan to write poems inspired by two paintings – one by Leila el Hej Abed (of Moon Tell the Truth fame).
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The process of talking around a painting, produced a great number of poems from the children who were living a new normal in genocidal conditions, displaced and starving. These moving poems and paintings resulted in a book Oh Big Blue.
Liz Clowes, Trustee for Hands Up Project says; “There was a noticeable difference in tone between Moon tell me Truth and Oh Big Blue – the former contained hope and aspiration – the latter brought sadness and despair into play. Both books were so moving.”
Many people were fleeing Gaza at this point and with so many Palestinian children in Cairo, who had no access to education or healthcare, the Chairman of Trustees, Donna Campbell, rented a flat in Cairo for a new school for these children. The Cairo School started with just five children and one teacher, and by April 2025 there were five Palestinian teachers, one coordinator and thirty nine children. All of this is funded and led by the Hands Up Project.
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The Hands Up Project
Receipts and payments accounts For the period 01/04/2024 31/03/2025 To from ~~e e e~~
CC16a
~~PO~~ 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 | |||||||||||
| Donations -general | 29,705 | - | 29,705 | 19,923 | |||||||
| Donations - CAF website | 13,962 | 13,962 | 9,176 | ||||||||
| Donations - MJ Volkovitsch | - | - | - | - | 5,000 | ||||||
| Donations - International House | - | - | - | - | 500 | ||||||
| Donations - Songs Of Peace Byrne | 840 | - | - | 840 | |||||||
| Donations - Greenall Florent | 12,000 | - | - | 12,000 | 12,000 | ||||||
| Donations - National Education Union | 5,900 | - | - | 5,900 | |||||||
| Donations - Pauline Goldsmith | 1,505 | - | - | 1,505 | |||||||
| Donations - Stella Von Koskull | 5,500 | - | - | 5,500 | |||||||
| Donations - Bumblebee Auctions | 770 | - | - | 770 | |||||||
| Donations - Raffle E Hobbs | 1,753 | - | - | 1,753 | |||||||
| Donations - J&P Raeburn | 1,000 | - | - | 1,000 | |||||||
| Donations - Charity Checkout & Crowdfunding |
9,635 | - | - | 9,635 | 3,048 | ||||||
| Donations - JP Balfour - Paul | 6,000 | - | - | 6,000 | - | ||||||
| Donations - Just Giving | 9,317 | 9,317 | |||||||||
| Donations - S Cutting | 2,421 | 2,421 | |||||||||
| Donations - Michael Goodwin | 1,334 | 1,334 | |||||||||
| Donations - S Fuller | 2,000 | 2,000 | |||||||||
| Donations - M Taha | 2,000 | 2,000 | |||||||||
| Donations - anonymous | 11,000 | 11,000 | |||||||||
| Heal Palestine | 24,280 | 24,280 | |||||||||
| NEU Devon | 500 | - | - | 500 | 500 | ||||||
| NEU Staffordshire | - | - | - | 1,000 | |||||||
| Book, T shirt and CD Sales | 8,679 | - | - | 8,679 | 7,227 | ||||||
| The Totnes Pulse | - | - | - | 500 | |||||||
| Interest | 38 | - | - | 38 | 26 | ||||||
| EUgrant - - ~~——~~ |
- - |
- - |
- - |
- - |
|||||||
| Sub total(Gross income for | (Gross income for | ||||||||||
| AR) | AR) | 150,139 | - | - | 150,139 | 58,900 | |||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - - - - - - - - Sub total - - - - - ~~SSSSSE~~ |
|||||||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
150,139 ~~CO) Ce) Ce)~~ |
- - ~~CO) Ce) Ce)~~ |
150,139 | 58,900 | |||||||
| Bank charges | - | - | - | 68 | |||||||
| Zoom fees | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Sub contract labour | 99,447 | - | - | 99,447 | 38,312 | ||||||
| Wages and PAYE | - | - | - | ||||||||
| IATEFL expenses | - | - | - | 1,962 | |||||||
| Printingbooks | 6,703 | 6,703 | 7,055 | ||||||||
| PrintingT shirts | 1,130 | 1,130 | |||||||||
| Food for kids and teachers | - | 400 | |||||||||
| Talks / trainingexpenses | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Stories Alive - event costs | 5,000 | - | - | 5,000 | |||||||
| Office expenses | 1,588 | - | - | 1,588 | |||||||
| Web and IT expenses | 1,641 | - | - | 1,641 | 861 | ||||||
| Subscriptions | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Travel and tripexpenses | 4,439 | - | - | 4,439 | 3,183 | ||||||
| Project T shirts | - | - | - | 1,046 | |||||||
| Travel expenses | - | - | - | ||||||||
| IATFL and events | 4,720 | - | 4,720 | ||||||||
| Cairo School expenses | 11,125 | - | - | 11,125 | |||||||
| Hotels | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Professional fees | 360 | - | - | 360 | 360 | ||||||
| General expenses | - | - | - | 166 | |||||||
| Food and transport teachers | - | - | - | ||||||||
| Exchange rate variance | 3,818 | - | - | 3,818 | - 572 | ||||||
| Printingandpostage - other | 576 | - | - | 576 | 332 | ||||||
| Advertising | - | - | - |
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Sub total ** | 140,547 | - | - | 140,547 | 53,173 |
| **Sub total ** | - 140,547 |
- - |
- - |
- 140,547 |
- 53,173 |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A4 Asset and investment | ||||||||||
| purchases, (see table) | ||||||||||
| Mac PC | - | - | - | - | ||||||
| Phones | 3,779 | - | - | 3,779 | - | |||||
| Projectors | - | - | - | - | 2,791 | |||||
| - | - | - | - | |||||||
| **Sub total ** | 3,779 | - | - | 3,779 | 2,791 | |||||
| Total payments | 144,326 | - | - | 144,326 | 55,964 | |||||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 5,813 | - | - | 5,813 | 2,936 | |||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 22,303 | - | - | 22,303 | 19,367 | |||||
| Cash funds this year end | 28,116 | - | - | 28,116 | 22,303 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds |
Details Mac PC Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) CAF Bank Wise Euro account Santander account Details Wise US$ account Wise GB£ account Projectors Details Tablets Phones Details Signature Donna Campbell |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 178 8,736 11,854 7,344 4 |
- | ||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| 28,116 | - | ||
| Donna Campbell | Donna Campbell |
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
| Report to the trustees/ members of |
Report to the trustees/ members of |
Charity Name The Hands Up Project |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On accounts for the year | 05/04/2025 | Charity no | 1170272 | |
| ended | (if any) | |||
| Set out on pages | 1-2 | |||
| (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) | (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 05/04/2025. | ||||
| Responsibilities and | As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the | |||
| basis of 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 | 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 | have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission | |||
| under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. |
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Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
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examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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• the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report 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: M R Russell Date: 5-2-26 Name: Martin Russell Relevant professional ACCA qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: Acland House
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21 Victoria Park Road
Exeter
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the None examiner wishes to disclose .
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