2023-03-31-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 2023

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 Thomas Lawrance Rensmann Syeda Momotaz Rahim (Appointed 24/9/2022) Rumana Yasmin (Appointed 24/9/2022)

Bankers

Nat West

The trustees have pleasure in presenting their report and the financial statements for the charity for the period 1[st] April 2022 to 31st March 2023.

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 non- formal education and social mobilisers working with children on the streets of Dhaka and in the transitional shelter at the station. We have also supported LEEDO’s participation in the Street Child Football World Cup 2022 and a mentoring project with the older children of LEEDO Peace Home. Our trustees have written, illustrated and published a bi-lingual book, written with children using LEEDO services. Profit from sale of the book will support the work of LEEDO in Dhaka.

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2023

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 one grant of £7,850 to Bangladesh to support education with children on the streets and to contribute to costs of sending girls from the Peace Home to take part in the Street Child United Street Child Football World Cup.

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

We have sent one grant to support the work of LEEDO.
We have raised awareness of the position of street children in Bangladesh through the publication of a book based on the experiences of children who have used the services of LEEDO. The book was launched at the Dhaka Lit festival in January.
We have produced 2 issues of our newsletter and circulated to over 200 subscribers.
• We have raised £4,288.97 from fundraising events and donations (excluding the crowd funding campaign) to support work with children who have survived on the streets of Dhaka.
We have provided mentoring to children at the LEEDO Peace Home and assisted one girl to apply for a scholarship for street connected children that is being provided by the University of West England. We have assisted one boy to obtain an internship assisting in a dental chamber.
We supported LEEDO’s successful participation in the Street Child Football World Cup 2022 and held 3 zoom events with supporters and the team, before during and after the tournament.
We held 3 fundraising meals, including one where a Bengali film was shown.
• We piloted the “Christmas Pound” scheme and raised funds from one restaurant using this approach, based on an initiative of Give One Back in Germany.
We now have 1,331 face book followers, an email circulation list of over 200 and a regularly updated web site.
We now use the People’s Fundraising platform for on-line giving. Some people now donate by Standing Order, and we also have occasional donations from other supporters as well as contributions when we organise events,
We have 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- Street Child United and Give One Back in Germany.
We have recruited two new trustees and achieved a better gender balance within the team of trustees.
We have continued to develop an Active Supporters’ Group, which includes people willing to promote and organise events to raise funds for our work.

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

Recruited 2 new trustees

Organised 3 on-line events to coincide with the Street Child Football World Cup

Supported LEEDO to organise events at the British Council and the British High Commission in Dhaka to raise funds and awareness about the girls’ football team participating in the Street Child Football World Cup.

Organised 3 fundraising meals, including one with a film.

Made use of an on-line giving platform.

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2023

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

Maintained an email mailing list and circulated 2 newsletters and other information as relevant.

Piloted the Christmas Pound to raise funds using an approach developed by Give One Back in Germany.

Made applications to charitable trusts.

Written, illustrated and published a book based on the experiences of street connected children with whom LEEDO has worked.

Run a Crowdfunder campaign to promote the book of stories based on the experiences of street connected children with whom LEEDO has worked.

Provided introductions for some older children at LEEDO to an internship, a scholarship scheme and advice about careers.

Grant making

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh awarded one grant to Street Children LEEDO in Dhaka, Bangladesh during 2022/23.

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 mentoring initiative and the successful bid by LEEDO to take part in the 2022 Street Child Football World Cup. We have an Active Supporters Group of 8 people who are willing to play a bigger role in our fundraising initiatives.

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 £10,178.28 through on-line events, fundraising meals, a crowd funder related to the publication of the book “The Street is not a Home” and donations. We made regular use of our face book page and now have over 1,300 followers.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The Statement of Financial Activities shows net incoming resources for the reporting period of £10,178.28 and our funds stand at £11,627.01 in total. Of these funds we have committed £2,000 to support the team participating in the Street Child Cricket World Cup 2023 and £1,500 to support the street school at Rayer Bazar in 2023/24. We have committed £6,500.00 to supporting work with children at the station, including work at the LEEDO shelter for children near the station. We have committed a further £2,000 to support outreach and education work on the streets during 2024-5.

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 and off-line fundraising events during the year.

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2023

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 £11.627.01 in reserves of which £10,000 is committed to be sent in grants to LEEDO at the beginning of 2023/4 with further commitments in subsequent years.

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 hold a register of risks related to governance, finance, operations, external factors, and legal compliance. These risks and the action to mitigate them are 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.

PLANS FOR FUTURE PERIODS

2022/23 was our sixth full year of operation as a charitable incorporated organisation. We have continued to make 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 continue a programme of 2 or 3 fundraising events, including meals each year.
• To review our pilot Christmas donation scheme based on the one organised in Germany by Give One Back and decide whether to repeat it.
To continue to raise funds on-line and to develop the ways in which we use the People’s Fundraising platform.
To send funds to LEEDO for the next 2 years to support the street school at Rayer Bazar.
To support LEEDO’s participation in the Street Child Cricket World Cup 2023.
To support mentoring, internships and guidance for older children at the Peace Home to help them live independently in future.
To consider how we can provide future support for the work of LEEDO at Dhaka railway station.
To develop use of the book published by Bok Bok books to raise awareness and funds to support the work of LEEDO.
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 on-line giving facilities.
To continue to develop the Active Supporters Group and Partnerships with other organisations.

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

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2023

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 7 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 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 16/4/2023 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 Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2023

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Registered Charity Number 1171061 Receipts and payments to 31/3/2023

Receipts		£
Donations:
Peoples Fundraising - 0nline donations		2,348.97
HMRC – Gift Aid		835.00
CAF Donation		250.00
Other donations		220.00
Other income:
Fundraising meals and Xmas Pound Campaign		635.00
Crowdfunding related to publication		5,889.31
TOTAL		10,178.28
(£10,873 - 2021-22)
Payments
Payment to LEEDO for Street Child Football and
Street school		7,850.00
Printing costs		78.00
Bank charges for fund transfers		15.00
TOTAL		7,943.00
(£8,480 - 2021-2022)
Receipts – Payments	£10,178.28- £7,943	2,235.28
Carried forward from	2021-22	9,391.73
Balance at 31/3/2023		11,627.01
Bank Balance at 31/3/2023 = 11,627.01

Friends of Street Children Bangladesh Trustees Report and Accounts For the period to end of 31 March 2023

Michael Sherriff

Chair

Saif Osmani Vice Chair