2022-12-31-accounts - Darlington Assistance For Refugees

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DAR AGM

Chair’s Report 22 June 2022

It has been a bitter sweet year for us all.

The sudden withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in April and subsequent take-over by the Taliban led to unbelievable chaos and the loss of life. Despite seeing the hopeless situation faced by the Afghan people unfold on various media platforms, it was heart-warming to see the response of the people of the North East. Many felt the need to do something and we saw an increase in our numbers of volunteers, which has now passed. Some of these people have already made substantial contributions to how DAR is functioning. For example, Trish Abbott kindly took on the role of secretary, Yvonne Williams has built a strong mentor team and managed to allocate a mentor to almost every asylum seeker. Karen Parsons and Katie Adam have taken on co-ordinating the Ukraine Hub which is in its early stages. Shelagh Potter has taken on the Safeguarding role. Diane Toner is developing a DAR member induction programme. Danielle Kilpatrick has managed to get a football team together, found funding for entry fees and transport as well as recruiting a coach before the recent and very successful football tournament. Danielle and the team are committed to organising further practice sessions and arranging more matches.

Our language team have continued their hard work with individuals and groups. The Schools Orientation Programme has been run on a monthly basis to accommodate the new arrivals. We are so grateful to the core team who work so hard on this comprehensive 2-day programme.

Carmel College and the Salvation Army provided us with toys and hampers for refugees in Darlington. Our annual appeal for donations towards our gift bags enabled us to provide every asylum seeker with a beautiful bag of gifts; each lovingly prepared and wrapped by Janet Walker.

Six months after the evacuation of the Afghans, we were informed by the council that some Afghan families had been offered places in Darlington through the ARAP scheme. We set about researching their possible needs and it became clear that a separate drop in was required. We are grateful to St Augustine’s Church who have generously given us use of their parish centre each week. I know those of us who have been lucky enough to meet and get to know the Afghan families have been impressed with their independence and willingness to try new things.

We also experienced another surge in membership following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet again, the scenes we saw in Aleppo and Homs became replicated daily in Ukraine. We have seen again, the brutality of war and its devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people going about their daily lives, trying to do their best for their families. The public response was overwhelming. With the generous support of the people of Darlington and with help from My Lock Up and a number of transport companies we managed to collect and send medical supplies to Poland and directly to Ukraine. The Quiz night, at the Northern Echo arena was organised by our Fundraising team and aided by the wonderful Sanctuary group of students at Carmel College, raised £2600 for the British Red Cross and to support our own activities. The hosting and family reunion schemes for Ukrainians has helped many find sanctuary and safety in our country. The numbers of people coming forward to host strangers, who speak a different language, spoke volumes about how we stand together with refugees. We are trying to the respond to the needs of the Ukrainian arrivals through the Hub we have set up at The Well Methodist Church, with the generous support of The

Darlington Round Table and local business Taylor’s Pies. The Hub allows us to connect with the families and gives them a space reflect and plan their own programme.

We have been blessed to have the support of the local Ukrainian community who have worked so hard to welcome new arrivals. We are grateful in particular for Oksana, Inga and Dasha who have joined DAR as our Ukrainian interpreters.

In contrast to all this heartening news, however, we are dismayed about the brutality of the Nationalities and Borders Act. As one of our Trustees, Tresor Busaka from the Red Cross, prepared for the Justice First International Football Tournament we heard that 4 of the players had been transported to Yarlswood detention centre where they would be put on the first flight to Rwanda. We, along with many others, lobbied our MPs and voiced our opposition. We are heartened that many other community groups and faith-based groups did likewise and we were relieved about the EHCR decision to stop the flight pending a full judicial review next month.

As a small local charity, we rely exclusively on the generous voluntary contributions of our members. Thank you to Janet Walker, who stepped down as Secretary and Treasurer, for holding things together for five years. We are so pleased that she will continue to devote time to helping at the Asylum Seeker drop-in and with mentoring. A big thank you to Sally Forth who has taken on the Treasurer role. Thank you also to David Walker who made substantial contributions to our Policy and Development Plan for five years before standing down earlier this year. We are hoping to appoint a new member who has a great deal of experience in Policy and Practice for Charities. Thank you also to Chris Taylor for undertaking the very important Safeguarding role over the last four years. We welcome Shelagh Potter who is taking this on. We are grateful to Helen Taylor, who took on the Membership Secretary over 3 years ago, is moving into the fundraising team, and has also taken on the responsibility for producing quarterly newsletters to help everyone know what is going on. We are pleased that Gracie Madzongonye, another new member who has shown a keenness to take the membership secretary role on.

Finally thank you to Bishop Paul for agreeing to speak at this AGM.

Fran Wood

	Charity Name Darlington Assistance for Refugees	Charity Name Darlington Assistance for Refugees	Charity Name Darlington Assistance for Refugees	No (if any) 1170986	No (if any) 1170986	CC16a
	For the period from	Period start date	To	Period end date
		01/01/2022			31/12/2022

Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Donation 11669 Fundraising 6682 Donation for bikes for Ukrainians - Book Sales - Bus Hire - Interest 2 Other - Celebrations, Entertainment & Catering Costs - NEMP Project - Donations for use of Ukrainians - Grant from the Round Table for rent for Ukrainian hub -		Restricted funds to the nearest £ - 1589 - - - - - - 25 1000	Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - -		Total funds to the nearest £ 11669 6682 1589 - - 2 - - - 25 1000	Last year to the nearest £
Donation	11669		-		11669	7106
Fundraising	6682	-	-		6682	-
Donation for bikes for Ukrainians	-	1589	-		1589	-
Book Sales	-	-	-		-	-
Bus Hire	-	-	-		-	-
Interest	2	-	-		2	-
Other	-	-	-		-	700
Celebrations, Entertainment & Catering Costs	-	-	-		-	-
NEMP Project	-	-	-		-	-
Donations for use of Ukrainians	-	25	-		25	-
Grant from the Round Table for rent for Ukrainian hub	-	1000	-		1000	-

----- Start of picture text -----
- - - - -
Bicycle Repairs etc
- - - - -
Fostering Event
- - - - -
Laptop Project
- - - - 436
CDCF Micro Grant 27
- - - - 50
Christmas
- - - - 280
School Orientation Programme 33
- - - - 98
Afghan Refugees 4
- - - - 00
Lesvos Solidarity
- - - - -
20
18362 2614 15070
Sub total (Gross income for AR) - 976
-
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table). -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
-
20 1507
Total receipts 18362 2614 - 976 0
A3 Payments
Conversation club
80
- - - 80 -
Stationery, Printing, Office Equipment &
Postage 68 - - 68 23
----- End of picture text -----

Bus Hire	200	-	-	200	-
Insurance	108	-	-	108	108
Household Goods	10 24	-	-	1024	582
Travel Costs	200	-	-	200	-
Fundraising Expenses	386	-	-	386	-
Donation - for Ukraine from Quiz proceeds	1350	-	-	1 350	-
ICO Fees	35	-	-	35	35
Rent - St Cuthbert's Church Hall	1335		-	1 335	338
NE Regional Employee DBS checks	124	-	-	124	96
Celebrations, Entertainment & Catering Costs	299		-	299	188
Naccom membership	30			30	-
The well – Ukrainian hub rent	-	950	-	950
Afghan families	87	400	-	487	-
For as- craft items	-	-	-	-	- 54
Bikes for Ukrainians	-	918	-	918	-
Other	37			37	- 732
Bicycle / repairs /accessories	663	-	-	663	-
Emergency help e.g. food, phone top ups	130	-	-	130	77

Christmas gifts and hampers
		826	-		-		826		428
translation
		124	-		-		124		0
AS ESOL Provision Dictionaries etc.		44
		8	-		-		448	209
Craft activity material
			-		-			54
Laptop Project									39
	-		-		-	-			58
CDCF Micro Grant Covid				820			820		147 5
Carnival sundries		27		-	-		27
IT and Media Costs		23		-	-		23	284
School Orientation Programme				727	-		727		125
Summer activities		94 6		-	-		946		835
Football entry		100					100		-
					-
Other room hire		130
		-		-	-		130
*Sub total*							12		954
		8600		3815	-		415		6

A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
Assets purchased from food for		200
thought– charity winding up		-	-		-	-		-
		-	-		-	-		-
*Sub total*		200
		-	-		-	-		-

	*Total payments*	8800	381 5			12 615	95 46

	*Net of receipts/(payments)*	1348 0	-- ----1201		-	12278	59 77
A5	Transfers between funds
		-	-	-		-	-
A6	Cash funds last year end	803 1	49 48	-		12 979	74 59
	*Cash funds this year end*	2151 1	37 47		-	25 258	129 79

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

Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 9 8,52 1 1225 5 18423 OK Unrestricted funds to nearest £ - - -	Restricted funds to nearest £ 6835 6835 OK Restricted funds to nearest £ - - -	Endowment funds to nearest £
		-
		-
		-
		-
		OK
		Endowment funds to nearest £
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-

B3 Investment assets

B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use

	-		-		-
	-		-		-
	-		-		-
Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost	(optional)		Current value (optional)
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost	(optional)		Current value (optional)
Kitchen equipment for when we have our
own premises				- 200	-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-
			-		-

B5 Liabilities

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

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





		Date of approval