## **Trustees Report for Prodigal Bikes - 1[st ] November 2022 to 31[st ] October 2023** ## **Legal Status:** Prodigal Bikes is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), registered on 20[th ] December 2016, registration number 1170845. It was recognised by HM Revenue and Customs as a charity for tax purposes on 23[rd ] October 2017, effective from 21[st ] December 2016. Prodigal Bikes is registered for VAT, effective from 1[st ] February 2020. ## **Board of Trustees (at 31st October 2023):** Tim Neville (Chairman) Stephen Crane Calum McFarlane Roger Allen ## **Charitable Objectives:** Our charitable objectives have slightly changed this year. The first change is to reflect our expansion into supplying bikes to people in our local area of Somerset, as well as Africa. This expansion has been driven by the large number of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in our area from Ukraine and the Middle East who need bikes. We fulfill this need by supplying bikes not suitable for use in Africa, as they need more complex maintenance not widely available there, but readily available here. The second change to our charitable objectives is to reflect the change in focus of our work with disengaged people in our local area, which has shifted predominantly to people with no criminal background. They do still have backgrounds in (often a combination of) poor Mental Health, Long Term Unemployment, Special Needs and exclusion from school. The exact wording has yet to be agreed with the Charity Commission, but our proposed wording of our revised Charitable Objectives is; 1) Improving the employability and wellbeing of disengaged people in the Somerset, Devon and Dorset area. 2) The relief of poverty by supplying bikes, spares and tools, enhancing people's lives through the provision of transportation. ## **Review of Activities and Achievements for 1[st ] November 2022 to 31[st ] October 2023:** ## **1. Income and Expenditure overview.** Our income was £33461, enough to meet our costs again but with no extra to build reserves. We were fortunate to receive significant grants for our UK work from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Coop. We received a core funding grant from the Souter Trust and a large donation from the on-line fitness equipment supplier JTX. Additionally a number of local groups supported our work this year too. We received funding for our work supplying bikes to refugees from YCST in Yeovil and Charis, a charity looking after much of the refugee resettlement work in the South West. We carried out contracted teaching work for people with Special Needs, working with the Hub, a Special Needs centre in Yeovil. In addition to this income, we sold and repaired bikes, received public donations, reclaimed VAT and Gift Aid, and held a sponsored bike ride in May 2023. 1 We are very grateful to all the above organisations, and to the general public for their kind donations and support, helping us achieve so much this last year. On the expense side, once again the container of bikes that we sent to Kenya was needlessly delayed when it arrived in Nairobi, increasing the shipping costs to £11.8K, when around £9k would be more usual. As detailed later, we are now reducing our input into Kenya, and expanding into other countries, due to the continued failure of the Kenyan government to stamp out corruption during the import of goods there. Secondly, the mezzanine floor which we built in February 2023 didn’t get grant funding as we had hoped, despite numerous applications, so had to be funded from our core funds. The benefits will come in the next few years, as we can now accommodate many more bikes at our Somerset workshop and ship them to Africa in much larger, more economic quantities. Hence our financial position was not good at the end of the reporting period, and is only now improving again in December 2023. With numerous grant applications submitted, and the next Africa shipment going to Tanzania rather than Kenya, which should be more predictable, the forecast for 2024 is much more promising. ## **2. Supply of bikes to Africa, and ongoing support of delivered bikes.** ## **Gai, Kitui County, Kenya** The new team of mechanics, Elijah and Joshua, are settling in after starting in October 2022, working alongside Mbiti. They work six days per month, and supply photos of their work each day through WhatsApp. The bikes are bought in from surrounding schools, and repaired to a reasonable standard. The loss of bikes due to neglect or theft seems to have reduced, and an understanding of the value of the bikes, and ability to maintain them, is growing in the community. One large batch of spares was delivered in December 2022 from Nairobi, and three more batches supplied by us in the UK were taken out by the Akamba Aid Fund volunteers on their trips. More spares are requested and will be supplied when funds permit. The consumption of spares is noticeably lower following the dismissal of a previous mechanic in October 2022. It appears around 200 bikes are still running and bringing many benefits to the riders. In contrast with our Malawi and Eldoret programmes, we do not receive feedback specifically about the improvement in academic achievement of the pupils with bikes, so we will pursue this next year now we have an effective team in place. The medi-bikes delivered to John Kauvi’s practice near Mwingi are being well-used and in very good condition, delivering medical aid to the surrounding area. We often receive pictures from John showing the bikes and medical equipment in use. Mbiti at Muluko School checking bikes **----- Start of picture text -----**
Joshua building a wheel
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2 ## **Chitheche / Bandawe, Malawi** A team from Hooke Court in Malawi, our partner charity, traveled out to the Bandawe / Chintheche area of Malawi in July 2023. They located all of the 130 bikes delivered so far. They tell us the teachers really benefit from the bikes, being able to visit other schools for meetings as well as reach their own schools far more easily. The students at the deaf school in Bandawe are making good progress learning how to repair the bikes. The head, Jacob, sends pictures back every few months. They are now in need of more spares. Some were taken out from the UK by the Hooke Court team in July. A parcel of brake pads was also posted out, but after three months this has not appeared in Chintheche, so it appears the best spares supply route is from a local shop which sells simple compatible bike parts. Hooke Court has been able to fund these spares as Prodigal Bikes is currently not in a position to. Overall the programme is going very well. A further visit is planned in July 2024 by a volunteer from Prodigal Bikes, Peter Bradish Ellames, who will assist in training the students, and take more spares and tools out with him. Some of the teachers with their bikes - July 2023 Bike mechanic instructor and a trainee at the Bandawe Deaf School 3 ## **Eldoret, Kenya** In January 2023 we finally loaded a container with supplies destined for three charities in and around Eldoret, western Kenya. We sent 80 bikes plus a large quantity of tools for teaching carpentry, construction, agriculture, automotive repair and bike repairs. The tools were donated Free of Charge by Tool Aid Ringwood. Once again we had problems with Kenyan customs; The import duty was paid following inspection in Mombasa. A second inspection was then deemed necessary in Nairobi, resulting in nearly £3k of additional charges. This extra charge, as mentioned above, caused significant financial difficulties for Prodigal Bikes through the remainder of 2023. However, the container did arrive in May 2023,and the contents unloaded and distributed. The first charity, AGBEL, who work with Special Needs people in the Kisumu area gave the bikes to their Special Needs people. They struggled to ride the bikes, despite also being given two tricycles, so the bikes were passed on to other able-bodied people in the area. The laptop we gave them has been well used and appreciated. The second charity, The Integrated Community Resource Group, has set up a bike workshop at their compound in Eldoret’s Huruma slum, to maintain the 30 bikes they were given. This workshop is attended by youngsters from the local area who now learn bike maintenance. They have also set up a car spraying workshop following receipt of the compressor and airbrushes donated to us by Tool Aid Ringwood. Most of the bikes were given to a nearby school to help children there reach school. The Third charity, Langas Gorofani Luo (LGL), has re-equipped three existing projects. One project teaches tailoring skills to ladies living in the Langa slum, who have been supplied with additional sewing machines. The second teaches construction skills to people in the Langas slum, and the tools we supplied have been used to teach bricklaying. Thirdly the carpentry equipment has been used to re-equip a carpentry school, again teaching people in the Langas slum. LGL have distributed the bikes toa number of people needing transport to school or employment,and we have had some wonderful feedback, with very impressive results in the academic improvement of two girls in particular. Clockwise from top left: Loading in Somerset January 2023. Using car spraying equipment to train motor mechanics, Eldoret. Two Eldoret schools with our bikes for the pupils 4 ## **Kibaha, Tanzania** Work has progressed in the UK, producing 188 bikes at the time of writing (December 2023) for the shipment of 360 bikes, now scheduled for July 2024. The bikes are all simple steel bikes which we know can be maintained in Africa with little extra support from us. Some tools and spares for this shipment have already been purchased or recovered from scrap bikes. In Tanzania, an area in one of the schools, Boko Mnemela Secondary, has been identified as a location where the container / workshop can be located. Through the first half of 2024 the bikes will be completed and a more detailed plan to hand over the bikes and set up the maintenance will be put in place. In November, 2024 PB staff and volunteers will travel out to Kibaha to distribute the bikes,set the workshop up and train the mechanics. Some of the bikes ready for dispatch to Tanzania, October 2023 5 ## **3. Work in Ex-Offenders, Long term Unemployed people and excluded school children.** The work has continued through the summer of 2023 with three groups of four students from the Hub on Wednesday mornings. They have produced 12 bikes for refugees from Ukraine and the Middle East, and have been able to travel to Frome and Bridgwater to hand the bikes over in person. Very uplifting for them. The Friday group has grown to six regular attendees with backgrounds in Offending, Special Needs, poor Mental Health, and exclusion from school. The group has formed good bonds, and we have seen significant improvements in their wellbeing as well as their technical skills. One person has moved into employment during this reporting period. We are realizing how much the friendship, fun and wellbeing at Prodigal Bikes mean for our beneficiaries, so have taken the group mountain biking at a local mountain bike centre, and had a Christmas lunch together too. Throughout all this time, The Operations Manager has been assisted by volunteers Steve Carden, David Hopkins and Tim Osborne, who have provided much support, collecting bikes, helping fundraise and assisting in the workshop. We are very grateful for their assistance. Team photo at our Somerset Workshop, May 2023, with a huge donation of tyres from Schwalbe Preparing bikes June 2023, and a day out for all our volunteers mountain biking at a local centre 6 One of our volunteers from the Hub with a bike she prepared for an Asylum Seeker ## **4. Refugees and Asylum Seekers** Back in November 2022, we realized we had more bikes suited to use by refugees here than we had recipients for in the South Somerset area. So our willingness to supply bikes to refugees and asylum seekers was communicated by us to Taunton Welcomes Refugees, a local charity, and all seven of the Somerset-wide Welcome Hubs. This information was in turn passed to the departments supporting young unaccompanied asylum seekers, who were being supported by Somerset Council’s Care system. Requests from all over Somerset for bikes soon followed. Additionally, we started to supply bikes to Asylum-seekers staying in a hotel near Bridgwater awaiting their applications being processed. Through this reporting period we have supplied around 120 bikes to them, with the recipients coming less from Ukraine and increasingly more from the Middle East, mostly Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. We supply accessories, too; helmets, mudguards, lights, cycle path maps, basic tools, to enable the riders to be able to ride safely and maintain their bikes themselves. We have seen the recipients get a number of benefits from their bikes. As well as being able to reach school, shops, appointments, friends etc, we have come to realise how important cycling is to their wellbeing, especially in helping them recover from the trauma of escaping from their country of origin. 7 Below, some of our beneficiaries around Somerset with their bikes from us this year. 8 ## **5. Future plans** ## Africa: As outlined above, we aim to send 360 bikes to Kibaha, Tanzania, in July 2024, and set up the programme in November 2024. Our partner charity, the Community Support Mission, has some land available on which a large workshop could be built in the future. This would mainly be used for teaching vocational skills to adults, like carpentry or tailoring, but in time we may also be able to supply unrestored bikes there, with local mechanics refurbishing the bikes. This would increase our bike supply rates significantly. Following the Tanzania shipment, we intend to ship a further 150 bikes to our first program in Gai, Kenya in around May 2025, then visit Gai to distribute the bikes in October 2025, The bikes will all be either single speed or easily converted to single speed, and all equipped with solid tyres, which we know will be long lasting and easily maintained there. We then intend to send another 360 bikes to re-supply and expand our programme in Malawi. They will probably be dispatched around January 2026, to arrive June 2026. Again the intention is to be in Malawi when the bikes arrive, and the bikes to be those simpler bikes we supply for Africa. Currently these three programmes are enough for Prodigal Bikes to support at its present capacity and bike production levels. There are currently no plans to resupply the charities in Eldoret, however we have put the charities there in contact with a number of other organisations to help with supply of tools. Prodigal Bikes may also supply funding for bikes to be purchased locally by LGL and ICRG, to supply to promising students who would really benefit from a bike to get to school. This is subject to funds for the bikes becoming available. ## Training work in the UK: It is impossible to predict who will arrive at our workshop in need of our training, but Prodigal Bikes is becoming more widely known, so we expect a steady stream of people joining us with a variety of needs. We’ve come to realize that a social aspect is very important alongside our bike mechanic training, so intend to continue mountain biking trips next year. ## Refugees: We expect the influx of refugees,and hence the demand for bikes around Somerset to continue. We aim to continue to supply around 100 bikes per year to individuals who need freeof-charge transportation. ## Fundraising: Now Prodigal Bikes is an established charity, we are finding people are willing to sign up to regular giving, which gives us a very valuable core of regular unrestricted income each month. We intend to attract more of this type of donation, possibly assisted by publishing and circulating a newsletter to our supporters. Our usual bike sales and repairs, gift aid and VAT reclaims, grants and public donations will continue. Kenya is now receiving 1 in 3 of our containers, which reduces our exposure to further problems with increased import duty. With all this in place, we are confident of our continued financial sustainability. 9 **Charity Accounts.** The charity’s accounts attached to this report have been prepared in line with current statutory requirements. On behalf of the trustees Tim Neville – Chair of Trustees, Prodigal Bikes. April 2024 10 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLANO AND WALES Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period from -2i Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds to the nea￿$1 Restricted funds Endowment funds Total funds Last year to th• nearg$t £ to the nearest £ lo th• ngar¢$t £ to thg noare$t £ A1 Receipts Public Donations Donations from JTX Donation from Perrott Hill School Donation from Crewkeme Rola Club Donation from Mendi Inner Wheel Donation from Wrin ton Vale Inner Wh Donation from Part 21 Donation frorn Crewkeme Inner Wh8el Donation froffl Wilcombe5 Donation frorn Tool Aid Rin Grant from Did Grant from W88sex Water Grant from National Lotte Awards 4 Al Grant from Fairfield Charitable Trust Grant from Coo Grant from Je hcolt Charitable Trust Grant from the Weinslock Fund Grant from Marsh Charitable Trust Grant from Yeovil Christian Support Grant from Souler Chariiable Trust Grant from Gilchri51 Education81 Trust Bik8 1 arts Sales and re onsor5hi from S on50red ride Teachin work wilh the Hub, Yeovil Gift Aid Reclaim VAT Reclaim Mlscellaneous 1.964 1.600 324 soo 350 34S 500 250 400 1,964 1,600 324 soo 350 345 soo 250 400 1.175 1.600 wood 1,000 2,000 1,500 7.600 5,000 283 5.800 2.000 mus 10.0110 10.000 1.108 1.108 2.000 2,000 5,000 1,171 4,808 1,230 1,640 5.000 1,171 4,808 1,230 1,961 1,080 514 386 1.353 271 271 Sub total(Gross income ft)r P8) 19,182 14.279 33,461 33,852 A2 A$$el and investment sales. see table . Sub total Total receipts 19.182 14.279 33,461 33.852 CCXX R1 accounts ISS) 1510412024 A3 Payments 81ke p3rt5 & tools- UK sour￿￿ Africa Support and Spa￿$ Container Shipping I Postage Paytnents to Operations Manager 2,116 2.667 6.057 2.0110 171 S.81)0 4,116 2,838 11,857 4.393 2.555 13.790 11,108 12,050 7,820 Support Contract for repairing bikes in Gai, Kenya Mezzannin8 Floor build Rent of workshop Public Liability Insurance VAT Payment 3,600 3,600 490 355 1.072 797 1,000 3.600 355 1.072 797 139 305 1,46T 771 Travel expenses R8P8ym8nt of loan 1.OlJO Sub total 19.639 20.079 39.718 35,808 A4 Asset and Investment purGhases. (see table) Sub total Total payments 19,639 20,079 39,718 35,808 Net of receipt￿[paYMents) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end 457 5.800 6,257 1,956 516 5,800 6,316 59 8,272 6,316 59 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds Categorlos Detalls to nearest £ to nearest £ to neare8t £ B1 Cash funds Lloyds Bank 59 Total cash funds 59 lagrep baances with I￿pts and paY￿￿ts a￿￿nI(SI) Unrestridod funds to neare$l £ Restricted funds tc* nearest £ Endowment funds to nearest £ Details B2 Other monetary assets CCXX R2 accounts ISS) 1510412024 Fund to which a$$et belon9$ Current value loptlonall Details Cost loptionall Fund to whlch o$$¢t b•lL)n9$ Cost loptlonall Current value loptlonall Details B4 Assets retalned for the charity's own use STOCK OF DONATED BICYCLES UNRESTRICTED WORKSHOP TOOLS UNRESTRICTED Fund to whleh Ilablllty relate8 Afflount duo loptlonall Ilvhen due loptlonall Details B5 Liabilities Signed by one or two Irustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name Date of approval T R Neville ICh8ir of Trusleesl 13 May 2024 CCXX R3 accounts ISS) 1510412024 ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** ## **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees** PRODIGAL BIKES **On accounts for the year** 31[ ST ] October 2023 **Charity no** 1170845 **ended (if any) Set out on pages** I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **31 / 10/ 2023** . **Responsibilities and basis** As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the **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 have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. **Independent examiner's** [The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to **statement** undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed body]]. _Delete_ [ ] _if not applicable._ I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have 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: ● the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or ● the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or ● 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._ 1 **Oct 2018** **IER** **----- Start of picture text -----**
Date: 15.4.2024
Signed:
Name: Neil Lukins
Relevant professional FCCA
qualification(s) or body (if
any):
Address: 27 GREEN STREET
HINTON ST GEORGE
SOMERSET
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## **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). 2 **Oct 2018** **IER** **Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** . 3 **Oct 2018** **IER**