2021-03-31-accounts - Friends Of Street Children Bangladesh

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Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2021

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Registered charity name Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Charity registration number 1171061 Address for Correspondence 44 Slimmons Drive St Albans AL4 9AP Board of Trustees

The trustees who served the charity during the period were as follows:

Michael John Sherriff (Chair) Saif Uddin Osmani (Vice-Chair/Treasurer) Anthony Stevens Mahreen Ferdous Hamida Chowdhury (resigned – 8/5/2021) Dulon Miah Thomas Lawrance Rensmann (from 16/8/2020)

Bankers Nat West

The trustees have pleasure in presenting their report and the financial statements for the charity for the period 1[st] April 2020 to 31st March 2021.

The trustees confirm that the financial statements comply with current statutory requirements.

OUR AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Purpose and aims

Our charity’s purpose as set out in the objects contained in the Constitution are:

The promotion of health and relief of need of children and young people living on, or connected with, the streets of Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh, in particular by supporting the work of street children LEEDO to reach children abandoned on the streets and to provide counselling, and residential facilities to meet their needs

The Trustees have developed the charity as a small organisation raising funds to support specific work undertaken by Street Children LEEDO in Bangladesh. This year we have continued to support education work with children on the streets of Dhaka. We have supported LEEDO’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic and initiatives with both the transitional shelter and Peace Home.

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2021

Public Benefit

During the reporting period the trustees have considered section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 and Charity Commission guidance on public benefit. We have sought to ensure that the charity is fulfilling its charitable purpose to benefit the public by raising funds for specific projects. This year we sent three grants to Bangladesh. One was to enhance the work of the mobile school in Dhaka and to support a street school operating in the Rayer Bazar area of Dhaka. The second was to provide an emergency response to COVID- 19 for children surviving on the streets of Dhaka and unable to earn money due to restrictions on movement. The third was a grant for the transitional shelter for children recently living on the streets. These funds were raised by the volunteer organisation NGO3.

In our fourth year of operation we have achieved the following outcomes from our work:

We have sent three grants to support the work of LEEDO
We have raised awareness of the position of street children in Bangladesh at our zoom fundraising events, which have included children from both the Peace Home and the shelter. We have arranged performances of songs and dance and an innovative art workshop – memories of a street
We have produced 2 issues of our newsletter and circulated to 140+ subscribers
We have raised £4,768 to support work with children who have survived on the streets of Dhaka and collaborated with volunteers of NGO3 who raised a further £4,000 to support the work of the LEEDO shelter
We have initiated an innovative mentoring scheme with volunteers from the UK and Bangladesh to provide advice on future careers for older children living at Peace Home
We are supporting LEEDO’s successful bid to send a team of girls to take part in the Street Child Football World Cup 2022
We now have 1,197 face book followers, an email circulation list of 164 and a regularly updated web site
We continue to use Golden Giving to raise funds and have also received our first donation using text giving
We have started a you tube channel to raise awareness and assist our fundraising
• We have linked with other organisations concerned with children who have survived on the streets- the Consortium for Street Children and Street Child United

The activities that we have undertaken to achieve these outcomes include:

Organised 4 on-line fundraising events including a reunion with the children who came to the UK in 2019 for the Street Child Cricket World Cup, a quiz, an art workshop and the first in our series of cultural programmes celebrating 50 years of Bangladesh

Made use of new on-line facilities including Eventbrite, you tube, on-line banking and text giving to enable us to function effectively during the UK “lock downs”

Included regular posts on our face book page and updated our web site

Adopted internal policies to support our work

Collaborated with NGO3 to send funds to support the re-opening of the LEEDO transitional shelter to provide a refuge for children surviving on the street during the pandemic

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2021

Grant making

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh awarded three grants to Street Children LEEDO in Dhaka, Bangladesh during 2020/21.

Volunteers

The trustees of Friends of Street Children Bangladesh are all volunteers, organising fundraising events, applying for funds, publicising the work of LEEDO and providing support to initiatives such as the new mentoring initiative and the successful bid by LEEDO to take part in the 2022 Street Child Football World Cup. During the year we recruited one new trustee. We also recruited volunteers to contribute to our Celebrating 50 Years of Bangladesh with songs, poems, dance, and stories initiative.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Our achievements are monitored at regular trustee meetings at which we consider our performance and progress. During the reporting period we raised over £4,000 through on-line events, an application for a grant, and donations. We made regular use of our face book page and now have over 1,000 followers.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The Statement of Financial Activities shows net incoming resources for the reporting period of £985.72 and our funds stand at £6998.49 in total.

The charity is dependent on fundraising and support from charitable Trusts, and individuals. We have registered with the inland revenue to claim gift aid from donations and have also established an online giving facility. We have held successful on-line fundraising events during the year. We are committed to sending grants to LEEDO in 2021/2 including for education work and to provide some support for the Street Child World Cup team.

All funds are held in a bank account with Nat West bank.

Reserves

Our plan is to hold £1,500 in uncommitted reserves at any one time. This sum is to enable us to support priority projects with LEEDO where we have not raised sufficient funds by the time the project commences. We are currently holding in excess of £1,500 in reserves but a large portion of these funds will be needed to support our commitments to LEEDO projects in 2021/2.

Going concern

The trustees confirm that Friends of Street Children Bangladesh is a going concern

Principal risks and uncertainties

During the year the trustees kept under review the risks faced by the charity. We compiled a register of risks related to governance, finance, operations, external factors, and legal compliance. These risks and the action to mitigate them will be kept regularly under review. Two trustees have previously attended workshops organized by the Charity Commission for recently formed charities working in high risk areas internationally.

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2021

PLANS FOR FUTURE PERIODS

2020/21 was our fourth full year of operation as a charitable incorporated organisation and we faced specific challenges related to the Corona Virus pandemic. We have made more use of on-line facilities for our trustee meetings and fundraising and plan to continue to build on this experience in future. Our plans for the forthcoming period are:

To complete our on-line programme of fundraising events linked to celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh
To hold a second online art workshop to raise funds
To re-introduce face to face fundraising in restaurants as restrictions on people meeting together are lifted
To continue to send funds to LEEDO to support outreach and education work
To support LEEDO’s participation in the Street Child Football world Cup
To support mentoring and guidance for older children at the Peace Home to help them achieve live independently in future
We will consider how we can support LEEDO with their response to the corona virus emergency and with the transitional shelter
We will continue to increase our following on face book, those viewing our web site and you tube channel and those receiving our newsletter. We will continue to maintain an on-line giving facility and pilot more use of text giving

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

The charity is constituted as a charitable incorporated organisation and is governed by its constitution. The charity was registered on 10[th] January 2017

The provisions of the governing document have been complied with during the reporting period under review.

The trustees serve on a Board of Trustees consisting of at least three members. Apart from the first charity trustees, every appointed trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.

At present there are 6 trustees. The trustees keep under review gaps in experience and expertise represented on the board and aim to recruit new trustees accordingly.

There are no staff employed by the charity.

STATEMENT OF THE TRUSTEES’ REPONSIBILITIES

The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with UK law and the Charities Act 2011.The statements of accounts, reports and returns must be sent to the Charity Commission, regardless of the income of the CIO, within 10 months of the financial year end.

As the gross income of the charity is less than £25,000 in the current financial year there is no requirement to have the accounts independently examined or audited.

The accounts are submitted on a receipts and payments basis.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with requirements of the Charities Act 2011. The

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2021

trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charity’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The trustees’ report has been approved by the trustees on 8/5/2021 and signed on their behalf by:

Michael Sherriff Chairperson

Saif Osmani Vice- Chair

Correspondence Address: 44 Slimmons Drive St Albans AL4 9AP

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh
Registered Charity Number 1171061
Receipts and payments to 31/3/2021
Receipts	£
Grant:
Education services grant for LEEDO mobile school	1,500.00
Donations:
Golden Giving - 0nline donations	5,925.50
HMRC – Gift Aid	472.00
Paypal Giving	550.72
Other donations	200.00
Other income:

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2021

Donated Cricket Bat - on-line auction	Donated Cricket Bat - on-line auction	120.00
TOTAL		8,768.22
(£8915.64 - 2019-20)
Payments
Payment to LEEDO for CORONA Virus relief work		700.00
Payment to LEEDO for mobile school and
street school		3,000.00
Payment to LEEDO for shelter (NG30 fundraising donations)		4,000.00
Cost of 3 fund transfers		82.50
TOTAL		7, 782.50
(£11,869.59 - 2019-200)
Receipts – Payments	£8,768.22- £7,782.50	985.72
Carried forward from 2019-20		6,012.77
Balance at 31/3/2021		6,998.49
Bank Balance at 31/3/2021 = 6,998.49
Michael Sherriff	Saif Osmani
Chair	Vice Chair