2022-03-31-accounts - Across Borders

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.


Trustees' Annual Report					for theperiod
From	Period start date			To	Period end date
	01	April	2021		31	March	2022

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Across Borders

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any) 1170882

Charity's principal address 20 Ringlet Drive, East Leake Loughborough Leicestershire Postcode LE12 6XU

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Name of person (or Dates acted if not for whole Trustee name Office (if any) body) entitled to appoint year trustee (if any) 1 Fiona Cameron Chair 2 Rosie Watt Secretary 3 Temitope Yusuf Treasurer 4 Emma Goldie 5 Wafa Sulieman 6 Abuzar Abagna 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution

(eg. trust deed, constitution)

Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted

(eg. trust, association, company)

Trustee selection methods

Other trustees

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

Across Borders works in partnership with the University of Nottingham and You may choose to include St Andrew’s Refugee Services in Cairo. additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Section C Objectives and activities

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Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)	(1) To advance the human rights of and relieve poverty of migrants and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa (Across Borders engages with refugee and migrant service providers operating in the MENA region, which we define as Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen.) (2) in particular but not exclusively by working in partnership with organisations that provide advice, training and assistance in the Middle East and North Africa, including but not limited to St Andrews Refugee Services. (3) To advance education and promote racial harmony for the public benefit by providing information, sharing best practice and raising awareness on issues relating to migration and refugees.
	Welcoming its third cohort of students in 2021, the Remote Legal Clinic project continues its important activities to support St Andrew’s Refugee Services’ (StARS) Refugee Legal Aid Department (RLAD) to meet the demands for legal support representation with UNHCR processes. Law students from Nottingham University volunteering at the university’s Human Rights Law Clinic are trained in International Refugee Law and legal frameworks and protection mechanisms relevant to the Egyptian context and are then supported by RLAD to assist on cases. As the only legal aid provider in Egypt, increasing RLAD’s casework capacity in this way makes a critical difference. Students’ involvement in the project has shaped their career direction and equipped them to be more work-ready. The main purpose of the resettlement project is to provide accurate information about the life in the UK, such information include education, employment, service providers etc, thereby, the newcomer refugees from Egypt should guide by this information to integrate easily into UK culture. In the first 6 months we prepared the pilot by conducting focus groups with a group of 12 individuals who had experience of resettlement from Cairo to London. We then used this information to develop our policies and procedures for the pilot, developed an M&E framework for monitoring progress and devised the core activities. In January 2022 we had our mentee training. Training was delivered where possible by individuals who also had experience of migration and included subjects around Community Connection, safeguarding, employment and education, welfare and benefits, health system and case management. Altogether we completed 6 training sessions of 2 hours long with 12 volunteer community mentors. In February 2022 we received our first 33 referrals from StARS and allocated them to mentors. We started on the interpreting project during this year which is a free Introduction to Community Interpreting course done online for a 6–8-week period. We are targeting those with lived experience of forced migration, that may have found themselves for others or are considering interpreting as a career.

Summary of the objects of the
charity set out in its governing
document
Summary of the main activities
undertaken for the public
benefit in relation to these
objects (include within this
section the statutory
declaration that trustees have
had regard to the guidance
issued by the Charity
Commission on public benefit)

(1) To advance the human rights of and relieve poverty of migrants
and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa (Across Borders
engages with refugee and migrant service providers operating in the
MENA region, which we define as Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank
and Gaza, and Yemen.)
(2) in particular but not exclusively by working in partnership with
organisations that provide advice, training and assistance in the Middle
East and North Africa, including but not limited to St Andrews Refugee
Services.
(3) To advance education and promote racial harmony for the public
benefit by providing information, sharing best practice and raising
awareness on issues relating to migration and refugees.

Welcoming its third cohort of students in 2021, the Remote Legal Clinic
project continues its important activities to support St Andrew’s Refugee
Services’ (StARS) Refugee Legal Aid Department (RLAD) to meet the
demands for legal support representation with UNHCR processes. Law
students from Nottingham University volunteering at the university’s
Human Rights Law Clinic are trained in International Refugee Law and
legal frameworks and protection mechanisms relevant to the Egyptian
context and are then supported by RLAD to assist on cases. As the only
legal aid provider in Egypt, increasing RLAD’s casework capacity in this
way makes a critical difference. Students’ involvement in the project has
shaped their career direction and equipped them to be more work-ready.
The main purpose of the resettlement project is to provide accurate
information about the life in the UK, such information include education,
employment, service providers etc, thereby, the newcomer refugees from
Egypt should guide by this information to integrate easily into UK culture.
In the first 6 months we prepared the pilot by conducting focus groups with
a group of 12 individuals who had experience of resettlement from Cairo
to London. We then used this information to develop our policies and
procedures for the pilot, developed an M&E framework for monitoring
progress and devised the core activities. In January 2022 we had our
mentee training. Training was delivered where possible by individuals who
also had experience of migration and included subjects around
Community Connection, safeguarding, employment and education,
welfare and benefits, health system and case management. Altogether we
completed 6 training sessions of 2 hours long with 12 volunteer community
mentors. In February 2022 we received our first 33 referrals from StARS
and allocated them to mentors.
We started on the interpreting project during this year which is a free
Introduction to Community Interpreting course done online for a 6–8-week
period. We are targeting those with lived experience of forced migration,
that may have found themselves for others or are considering interpreting
as a career.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

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You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

Section D Achievements and performance

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Section D Achievements and erformance p

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Please see below

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the

charity’s policy on reserves

Across borders has a policy in which three months of running costs for the charity’s activities should be held in the case of the charity winding down.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

A grant was received from the National Lottery Awards for All, and another from the Matrix fund.

Other funds have been raised through individual donations.

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

Full name(s) Fiona Cameron

Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair etc)

Date : 17 December 2022

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Trustees' Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

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Trustees’ Annual Report

Fiona Cameron – Chair Rosie Watt – Secretary Temitope Yusuf – Treasurer Emma Goldie Wafa Suleiman Abuzar Abagna

Report from the Chair

Across Borders was founded in December 2016 to promote refugee rights using refugee perspectives to support programming for refugees so that people can meaningfully access their rights and entitlements. We do this through capacity building, supporting refugee-led organisations and sharing good practice across borders.

The objectives of the charity are as follows:

(1) To advance the human rights of and relieve poverty of migrants and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa (Across Borders engages with refugee and migrant service providers operating in the MENA region, which we define as Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen.) (2) In particular, but not exclusively by working in partnership with organisations provide advice, training and assistance in the Middle East and North Africa, including but not limited to St Andrew’s Refugee Services. (3) To advance education and promote racial harmony for public benefit by providing information, sharing best practice and raising awareness on issues relating to migration and refugees

This year started with …

Remote Legal Clinic

Introduction

What’s happened so far?

Refugee Status Determination-focused activities at RLAD resumed in 2021 however the impact of COVID-19 restrictions continued to affect the workflow due to the lack of large-scale scheduling of interviews. An unprecedented spike in workload related to first instance negative decisions in late 2021 caused a further disruption to workflow requiring a focus on this emergent need to rapidly appeal a number of cases. Since the students’ training had been diversified this year to include resettlement modules this supported them being able to pick up protection related work instead through this period.

The 2020 cohort finished up their work on the project in June 2021 which included a student providing a reflection for Refugee Week 2021 on their work with RLAD. In September four students received training to test and enhance knowledge on principles of international refugee law and the procedures for implementing the law in Egypt. This included an overview of UNHCR Egypt’s RSD processing modalities, and explanation of RLAD’s policies and processes for RSD services; familiarisation with source country conditions via country-of-origin TAR 8 March 2012

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information sessions; increasing the understanding of the protection environment for refugees in Egypt, UNHCR’s resettlement criteria and processing and the protection interventions that RLAD can take. Using case studies which focused on credibility assessment, RSD legal submissions, Resettlement and Protection referrals and ethical considerations, the students gained knowledge and drafting skills.

Dedicated resources to support the students and manage the workflow has been a key enabler for the project. The students are provided with detailed instruction about their weekly assignment and written feedback together with remote supervision which offers an opportunity to consolidate the training and access real time advice on cases.

A monitoring framework has been developed to support a project evaluation and track progress on set targets. At the midpoint of the project, 4 cases (20% of target) receiving RSD legal representation from RLAD were supported through the drafting of legal submissions while 1 case (10% of the target) receiving resettlement legal representation from RLAD was supported through the drafting of external resettlement forms; and 4 (10%) cases receiving protection counselling and interventions from StARS were supported through the drafting of expedited processing requests and protection referrals.

What’s next?

As well as continuing casework, during the final part of the project an evaluation will be completed to explore the effectiveness of the project for the various stakeholders involved including refugees in Cairo, RLAD and the Law Department at the University of Nottingham and the students. Using the evaluation’s recommendations, Across Borders will be able to develop the project to ensure ongoing alignment with available resources, interests and needs of the stakeholders. It will also position Across Borders to consider scaling the project to expand to other universities.

The Real Resettlement Project

Introduction : Resettlement is now a key part of the UK immigration system. However, refugee resettlement is not always successful and much of this is predicated on the refugees’ understanding of what they can expect when they get in the UK. The main purpose of the resettlement project is to provide accurate information about the life in the UK, such information include education, employment, service providers etc, thereby, the newcomer refugees from Egypt should guide by this information to integrate easily into UK culture.

What’s happened so far?

This year has been a big year for the Real Resettlement Project as the pilot has gotten underway. In the first half of the year we employed as consultant/s Abuzar and Wafa to run the pilot, both of whom have experience of being resettled to the UK from Egypt.

In the first 6 months we prepared the pilot by conducting focus groups with a group of 12 individuals who had experience of resettlement from Cairo to London. We then used this information to develop our policies and procedures for the pilot, developed an M&E framework for monitoring progress and devised the core activities.

In November 2022 we advertised for mentees for the pilot using our social media, volunteer websites and through word of mouth. We successfully recruited 37 mentees who all have experienced some kind of forced migration and come from Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Yemen.

Alongside the above, we held meetings with our partner in Cairo, StARS and developed referral pathways and a referral form for people being resettled to the UK. This could be used by StARS staff and community-based organisations in Cairo to refer to individuals being resettled to the UK.

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In January 2022 we had our mentee training. Training was delivered where possible by individuals who also had experience of migration and included subjects around Community Connection, safeguarding, employment and education, welfare and benefits, health system and case management. Altogether we completed 6 training sessions of 2 hours long with 12 volunteer community mentors.

In February 2022 we received our first 33 referrals from StARS and allocated them to mentors. Since then, Wafa and Abuzar have provided space for bimonthly phone calls and group supervision for mentors and mentees. Overall we have conducted 197 phone calls with 37 of mentees and their families in Cairo. Key issues raised and discussed include: concerns around children’s education in the UK, concerns about English language and finding work, uncertainty around the welfare and health system in the UK and overall uncertainty linked to the process of pre-

flight/flight information. Our mentees have been able to provide this info to mentors to ensure they feel supported and safe.

Mentors have also provided mentees with emotional support.

Some feedback from mentors includes:

We are glad to be in a situation where we help people and give them useful information that can help them to be prepared when they arrive in the UK.
The program has helped me a lot to build my skills in various ways such as case management, communication with mentees.
At the start of the program I was not confident enough to do this work but the training that we had has helped me a lot to be able to do communication and then when we started doing a phone call I became more confident.
The mentees were so happy for our conversations with them and they always say our support and emotional support they get from us give them hope and make them relief from day to day hard life.

What’s next?

We are in the process of developing M&E indicators and would like to carry out a mid-term evaluation.
- We will put out another call for volunteers in summer.

Fundraising for StARS

Introduction: One of the reasons Across Borders was set up was to give an easy way for people in the UK to donate to StARS, and during COVID we set up a fundraising appeal for the organisation.

What’s happened so far?

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In March 2020 when the COVID pandemic began, we started an emergency fundraiser for StARS which remained open throughout that year. We raised just under £10,000 in unrestricted funding which went towards StARS COVID programmes, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

In the last two years, StARS has witnessed a heightened sense of desperation amongst the displaced communities in Egypt. The economic downfall caused by COVID-19 in conjunction with limited access to vital services has resulted in an increase in homelessness, food insecurity, and limited access to lifesaving medical care. In March 2022, the Egyptian Pound depreciated by more than 16 percent against the US dollar. Furthermore, the Egyptian Central Bank reported an inflation rate of 8.8 percent, a record high in the last three years. The currency depreciation and soaring inflation rates were results from the crises in Ukraine. Egypt has already reported an increase in the price of wheat, and subsequently bread due to the countries’ dependence on Russian and Ukrainian wheat imports. The sharp increase in food prices will exacerbate the existing financial

pressures brought on by COVID-19 in refugee communities. Furthermore, price increases for necessities caused by inflation rates could potentially push more refugees further into poverty. Already, UNHCR reported in their Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM) report that 65 percent of surveyed respondents stated food was the most frequent expense. Throughout the pandemic, including the most recent reporting period, StARS has continued to provide community-centred services to the most vulnerable refugee populations within Greater Cairo. StARS has worked to bridge the gap in the provision of vital services while

UNHCR continues to operate at a limited capacity. StARS’ Unaccompanied Children and Youth, Psychosocial and Refugee Legal Aid Departments play an integral role in supporting displaced adults, families, and unaccompanied children and youth in Cairo

The money went to fund the fantastic emergency work that StARS did, and enabled them to continue to support thousands of vulnerable refugees in Cairo. You can read more about their stories on our website.

What’s next?

We continue to collect money for StARS through one off donations and regular giving. Every penny we raise goes directly to StARS programming. You can gift aid your donation and you can donate through our website here.

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Communications

We have been building on our online engagement and used our social media channels to raise awareness of the work we are doing with our partner organisations. We have three main social media platforms which we use:

Instagram: @acrossborders_uk Facebook: Across Borders Twitter: @acrossbordersuk

We understand that social media can be powerful in helping to reach more people and extend the reach of our work as well. We want to continue to use the platforms for fundraising and awareness raising purposes.

Plans for 2022/2023

We will continue on the work of our three projects: resettlement project, legal project, and the interpreting project. We secured £9,650 from the National Lottery which will be used from June 2022 - May 2023 for the resettlement project. We would like to raise more funds to support all Across Borders’ activities.

The interpreting project is done in partnership with Voices in Refuge (www.voicesinrefuge.com), and we are

working with universities on the legal project.

If you are interested in volunteering for the organisation or becoming a trustee, please contact us on info@acrossborders.org.uk.

If you would like to donate to StARS, or to Across Borders please go to https://www.acrossborders.org.uk/donate.

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ACCOUNTS

Across Borders 1170882

ec	eipts andpayments accounts	eipts andpayments accounts	eipts andpayments accounts			CC16a
m	01-Apr-21	To		31-Mar-22

Receipts and payments accounts

For the period from

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 250 0 - - - - 250 - - - 250	Restricted funds to the nearest £ 4,500 9,650 3,281 - - - - 17,431 - - - 17,431	Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - -	Total funds to the nearest £ 4,500 9,650 3,530 0 - - - - 17,680 - - - 17,680	Last year to the nearest £
Matrix
National Lottery					10,000
Individual donations	250				9,718
Other	0				81
	-				-
	-				-
	-				-
	-				-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	250				19,799

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts*
	250	17,431	-	17,680	19,799

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A3 Payments	- - - - - - - - - - - - - -	10,019 4,500 1,400 20 444 5,500 1,150 345 170 144 144 20 33 23,889	- - - - - - - -	10,019 4,500 1,400 20 444 5,500 1,150 345 170 144 144 20 33 23,889
Donation to StARS	-	10,019	-	10,019
Matrix Fund to StARS	-	4,500	-	4,500	-
Souter Trust Fund to StARS	-	1,400		1,400	114
Bank charges	-	20		20	202
Volunteer expenses	-	444	-	444	-
Consultancy fees	-	5,500	-	5,500	-
Trainer Fees	-	1,150	-	1,150	-
Mobile costs	-	345		345
Email costs	-	170		170
Website costs	-	144	-	144	-
Zoom licence	-	144		144
Advertising	-	20		20
Misc	-	33	-	33	-
*Sub total*	-	23,889	-	23,889	316

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)

		-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
	*Sub total*	-	-	-	-	-

	*Total payments*	-	23,889	-	23,889	316

	*Net of receipts/(payments)*	250	- 6,458	-	- 6,209	19,483
A5	Transfers between funds	-	-	-	-	-
A6	Cash funds last year end	-	-	-	-	-
	*Cash funds this year end*	250	- 6,458	-	- 6,209	19,483

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

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Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets	Details Cash in Bank Cash in PayPal account *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Details Details	Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 13,435 5 - 13,440 Agreement Error Unrestricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs	Restricted funds to nearest £ - - Agreement Error Restricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) -	Endowment funds to nearest £
				-
				-
				-
				-
				OK
				Endowment funds to nearest £
				-
				-
				-
				-
				-
				-
				Current value (optional)
				-
				-
				-
				-
				-
				Current value (optional)
			-	-

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B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use

B5 Liabilities

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

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			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
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			-		-
	Fund to which	Amount due		When due
Details	liability relates	(optional)		(optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-

Date of approval

Print Name

Signature

17 December 2022

Fiona Cameron

Independent Examiner: Rachel Chiu

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