**Trustees' Annual Report 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
Fiona Cameron
Temitope Yusuf – Treasurer (resigned 31 March 2025) Rosie Watt – Secretary (resigned 31 March 2025)
Emma Goldie Wafa Suleiman Abuzar Abagna Tamla Willie - (started 1 March 2025)
## **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 organizations and sharing good practice across borders.
The objectives of the charity are as follows:
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.)
In particular, but not exclusively by working in partnership with organisations providing advice, training and assistance in the Middle East and North Africa, including but not limited to St Andrew’s Refugee Services.
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.
We would like to thank our funders this year in particular the National Lottery Awards for All who allowed us to pivot in the face of circumstance and start a new project. We also express gratitude to our trustees, our volunteers, our partners - in particular, StARS, and Voices in Refuge, and our clients.
Fiona Cameron, Chair of Trustees
**Remote Legal Clinic Project**
The Sudanese war broke out in April 2023, and led to a huge increase in numbers approaching the office of our partner organization, StARS in Egypt. This severely impacted their capacity to work on anything other than Refugee Status Determination for new arrivals. As a result of this, the project was paused at the end of FY 2023/24. After reviewing the situation in mid-2024, the decision was made to close the project until or unless the context in Egypt changes significantly.
## **Refugees for refugees Project**
We continued the ‘Refugees for Refugees’ project which aims to support clients in the UK to integrate and access services easily and fairly. The goals of the project are to train displaced people to support their communities, provide supervision to support volunteers to deliver mentoring services to their mentees; and through professional development opportunities, support volunteers to gain employment opportunities.
- During the reporting period, between April 2024 and March 2025, the project’s activities included:
- Delivered a focus group with refugees and asylum seekers, including volunteers, project participants, and members of refugee communities, to identify the needs and how to address gaps in existing services.
- We created a project manual detailing all project procedures, including instructions for service delivery which can be utilised by volunteers.
- Delivered volunteer training; 7 volunteers completed a 4-day training course covering core topics including: Introduction to Across Borders and Refugees 4 Refugees Project; Life in the UK - Challenges and differences, Connecting with community in the UK; Safeguarding, Confidentiality and Professional Boundaries; and Project Manual, Case Management and Communication with Mentees.
- Conducted outreach with refugee organizations and
community groups to inform about the project and establish referral pathways.
- Supported volunteers to deliver befriending services to mentees through group supervision and reflective practice sessions.
Initially, the project was designed with the intention to support newly arrived asylum seekers during their asylum journey, and newly recognised refugees. However, through delivering focus groups, we learnt that some members of refugee communities had integration support needs even after residing in the UK for long periods of time. Consequently, during the year we opted to extend the scope of the project to include anyone with a background of displacement who wanted support to integrate into their communities.
## **Community Interpreting Project**
In partnership with Voices in Refuge (www.voicesinrefuge.com), Across Borders undertook two training courses online. 27 individuals participated from all over the world. The training is designed for those who already find themselves interpreting in refugee contexts and provides the basic theoretical concepts such
as the cardinal rules of interpreting as well as sessions areas such as safeguarding, and practice sessions. The interpreting training not only equips individuals with the tools to provide safeguarding services within their communities but also equips people with new skills.
## **Fundraising for StARS**
St Andrews Refugee Services (StARS) is a charity based in Cairo, Egypt that we have been fundraising for. We also partnered with them on the remote legal clinic and real resettlement projects. The war in Sudan and cuts to funding has significantly affected them in 2024-2025 and we are happy to be able to help them in however small a way. This year we were able to donate £ 7290.94 to StARS.
We have a handful of regular donors who give monthly towards the work done by StARS. Funds raised are passed on based on the wishes of the donors.
We are grateful to donors and supporters who continue to give generously. We intend to continue to collect donations for StARS through one-off donations and regular giving. Donors can gift aid their donation when donating through our website here. They can also indicate if the donation is for us, Across Borders, or for StARS.
## **Plans for 2025/2026**
After a difficult year last year, Across Borders has reinvigorated itself in the year 2024/2025 and piloted its new project By Refugees for Refugees. This year, we hope to expand the project significantly, and are currently focused on working geographically in Bristol. We want to recruit new volunteers and increase the number of clients we work with.
As well as putting on new interpreting courses online we are also planning to run an in-person training in Bristol this summer with our long-term partners Voices in Refuge.
We have two great new board members - Tamla Willie and Rosie Pope who we hope will bring new energy and enthusiasm to the 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
**Financials**
|||**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**Across Borders**|**1170882**|**1170882**||**CC1**
**6a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||||||||||||
|||**Receipts and payments accounts**|||||||||||||
|||**For the period**
**from**||||1-Apr-24|||**To**||31-Mar-25||||
||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||
|**Section**
**A**
**Receipts and**
**payments**|||||||||||||||
|||**Unrest**
**ricted**
**funds**||||**Restric**
**ted**
**funds**|||**Endow**
**ment**
**funds**|||**Total**
**funds**||**Last**
**year**|
|||**to the**
**nearest**
**£**||||**to the**
**nearest £**|||**to the**
**nearest**
**£**|||**to the**
**nearest £**||**to the**
**nearest**
**£**|
|**A1 Receipts**|||||||||||||||
|National Lottery||||||||||||**-**||**10000**|
|Individual
donations||||||**6,611**||||||**6,611**||**1,558**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross_
_income for AR)_||||||**6,611**||||||**6,611**||**11,558**|
||||||||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and**
**investment**
**sales,**
**(see**
**table).**|||||||||||||||
||||**-**||||**-**|||**-**||**-**||-|
||||**-**||||**-**|||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|||**-**||||**-**|||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||||||||
|**_Total receipts_**||||||**6,611**||||||**6,611**||**11,558**|
||||||||||||||||
|**A3 Payments**|||||||||||||||
|Donation
to
StARS||||||**£7,290.94**||||**-**||**7290.94**||**-**|
|Consultancy
fees||||**£5,000.00**|**£5,000.00**|||**-**||**5000**||**6,756**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Mobile costs||||**£66.00**||||**-**||**66**||**102**|
|Insurance||||||||**-**||**0**||**352**|
|Email costs||||**£172.80**||||**-**||**172.8**||**132**|
|Website costs||||**£132.48**||||**-**||**132.48**||**173**|
|Zoom licence||||**£155.88**||||**-**||**155.88**||**144**|
|Fundraising
costs||||||||**-**||**0**||**71**|
|**_Sub total_**||||**12,818**||||**-**||**12,818**||**7,730**|
||||||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and**
**investment**
**purchases, (see**
**table)**|||||||||||||
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**||-|
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**||-|
|**_Sub total_**||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**||-|
||||||||||||||
|**_Total payments_**||||**12,818**|||**-**|||**12,818**||**7,730**|
||||||||||||||
|**_Net of_**
**_receipts/(payme_**
**_nts)_**||||**-6,208**|||**-**|||**-6,208**||**3,827**|
|**A5 Transfers**
**between funds**|**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**A6 Cash funds**
**last year end**|**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||**-**|
|**_Cash funds this_**
**_year end_**||||**-6,208**|||**-**|||**-6,208**||**3,827**|
||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||
|**Section**
**B**
**Statement **
**of**
**assets**
**and**
**liabilities at the**
**end of the**
**period**|||||||||||||
|**Categories**|**Details**||||||**Unrest**
**ricted**
**funds**|||**Restrict**
**ed**
**funds**||**Endow**
**ment**
**funds**|
||||||||**to**
**nearest**|||**to nearest**
**£**||**to**
**nearest**|
|||||**£**||||||||**£**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**B1 Cash funds**||Cash in Bank||||||**4,275**||||**-**|
||||||**-**|||||||**-**|
|||**_Total cash fund_**_s_||||||**4,275**||||**-**|
|||(agree balances with receipts and
payments account(s))||OK||||OK||||OK|
|||||**Unrest**
**ricted**
**funds**||||**Restrict**
**ed**
**funds**||||**Endow**
**ment**
**funds**|
|||**Details**||**to**
**nearest**
**£**||||**to nearest**
**£**||||**to**
**nearest**
**£**|
|**B2**
**Other**
**monetary**
**assets**|||||**-**|||**-**||||**-**|
||||||**-**|||**-**||||**-**|
||||||**-**|||**-**||||**-**|
||||||**-**|||**-**||||**-**|
||||||**-**|||**-**||||**-**|
||||||**-**|||**-**||||**-**|
||||||||||||||
|||**Details**||**Fund to**
**which**
**asset**
**belongs**||||**Cost**
**(optional)**||||**Current**
**value**
**(optional**
**)**|
|**B3 Investment**
**assets**||||||||**-**||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**||||**-**|
||||||||||||||
|||**Details**||**Fund to**
**which**
**asset**
**belongs**||||**Cost**
**(optional)**||||**Current**
**value**
**(optional**
**)**|
|**B4**
**Assets**||||||||**-**||||**-**|
**----- Start of picture text -----**
- -
- -
- -
retained for the - -
charity’s own
use - -
- -
- -
- -
SHE
Fund to When
Amount
which due
Details due
liability (optional
(optional)
relates )
-
-
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
Signed by one or Date of
two trustees on
Signature Print Name approva
behalf of all the
l
trustees
Fiona Cameron 24/01/26
SEGE
**----- End of picture text -----**
**Independent examiner's report on the accounts**
## **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report**
|**Report to the trustees**
**On accounts for the year**
**ended**
**Set out on pages**|Charity Name
Across Borders|Charity Name
Across Borders|Charity Name
Across Borders|
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
||March 2025|**Charity no**
**(if any)**|1170882|
|||||
||(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**31/03/2025**.|||
|**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** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have **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:
- 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._
|**Signed:**
**Name:**
**Relevant professional**
**qualification(s) or body (if**
**any):**|T. Yusuf|28 Jan 2026|
|---|---|---|
||||
||Temi Yusuf||
||||
||||
**Address:** 55 Belleville Drive Nottingham NG5 5PG
## **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 examiner wishes to disclose** .