2020-11-30-accounts - Kipsaina Education And Environment Partnership (Keep)

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Kipsaina Education and Environment Partnership (KEEP)

Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts

For the year ending 30 November 2020

Charity number: 1175806

www.keepkenya.org

Reference and administrative information for the period ended 30 November 2020

Charity Name Kipsaina Education and Environment Partnership (KEEP) Legal Status Charitable Incorporated Organisation Governing Document Constitution Registered Charity number 1175806 Date registered with Charity 20 November 2017 Commission Principal address Brooklea Cotherstone Barnard Castle County Durham DL12 9PQ Trustees Sam Forsyth Rubel Quader Mary Charrington Bank HSBC 1 Prospect Place Darlington County Durham DL3 7LQ

KEEP TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

Kipsaina Education and Environment Partnership (henceforth “KEEP”) presents its third Trustees’ Annual Report. The charity was registered with the Charity Commission on 20 November 2017. It operates as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), which provides protection for the charity, trustees and volunteers and helps the charity be sustainable.

This report sets out a summary of the activities and achievements of the charity in its third year of operation, to the period ending 30 November 2020.

As a small charity, the year’s financial performance is presented on a Receipts and Payments basis which appears at the end of this document. A summary of the third year’s finances is presented in the financial review section.

To the best of the trustees’ knowledge the prepared financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the charity's Constitution and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities (SORP).

Objects

The objects of KEEP as set out in its Constitution are twofold:

1. For the public benefit, the conservation, protection and improvement of wetlands in western Kenya, in particular, but not exclusively, the Saiwa Swamp ecosystem and surrounding area.

2. The advancement of education for children living in the Saiwa Swamp ecosystem and surrounding area, in particular, but not exclusively, at the Kipsaina Primary School, by improving their physical learning environment and by promoting environmental awareness.

KEEP is the result of a long-standing friendship, now stretching to over 25 years, between UK filmmaker turned biology teacher Sam Forsyth, and Kenyan environmentalist, educator and community activist Maurice Wanjala. KEEP works closely, though not exclusively, with Maurice’s locally based NGO Kipsaina Crane and Wetland Conservation Group (KCWCG) - registered as a Community Based Organisation (CBO) in Kenya - to provide enhanced educational opportunities for children in the Kipsaina area, and to promote the conservation and improvement of the local wetlands. These wetlands provide protected nesting sites for up to six pairs of Crowned Cranes and are a habitat for the Sitatunga, a rare aquatic antelope, as well as a range of other wetland species.

Governance

KEEP is administered and managed by a board of three trustees who manage the charity on a voluntary basis. As set out in the charity’s Constitution, the three founding trustees were initially appointed for 4 years (Sam Forsyth), 3 years (Rubel Quader) and 2 years (Mary Charrington). Subsequently all trustees will be re-elected or appointed anew for a 3-year term by a resolution

passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees, with due regard given to the skill, knowledge and experience required for the effective administration of the KEEP CIO. The charity must have a minimum of three trustees at all times; if the number falls below this minimum then the remaining trustee(s) may act only to call a meeting of the charity trustees in order to appoint a new trustee(s). Mary Charrington and Rubel Quader were re-elected as KEEP trustees for 3 years each in November 2019 and November 2020 respectively after their initial tenures came to an end.

In the third year of its operation, the trustees of KEEP held 4 trustee meetings. Decisions are made by the approval of a majority of the trustees. The trustees have ensured that all charitable activities and approval of its future operational plans have been undertaken with regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and in accordance with KEEP's Constitution and Objects.

Trustees are required to familiarise themselves with the charity’s regulatory requirements and to that end have attended the Charity Commission’s seminars for charities working in high risk areas, as well as undertaking a course on data protection. In addition, they follow advice from specialist organisations on safeguarding

Fundraising and Donations

In its third year KEEP managed to raise £15,994 in donations, including Gift Aid, which exceeded the previous highest in-year amount of £13,608 raised in the first year of the charity’s operation (y/e 30th Nov 2018).

Of this, £9,341 was received from private donations. About half was donated directly to the charity and half online via our Virgin Money Giving page as the charity continues to recruit, and gain traction with, supporters and benefactors in the UK for its work in Western Kenya.

The remaining £6,653 was donated by Barnard Castle School (BCS, an independent sector co-ed school of some 660 pupils ages 4 to 18) at the start of November 2019, reflecting another year of outstanding charitable activity on the part of the school’s pupils and staff in 2019.

This excellent fundraising result was achieved despite the impact of the global Covid situation which inevitably impacted our ability to fundraise (primarily in the UK) and also our ability to initiate long term projects on the ground in Kipsaina.

Due to the global Covid situation the summer trip to Kipsaina by Barnard Castle School pupils planned for July 2020 was cancelled (these trips being scheduled to take place every 2 years, the first having taken place in the summer of 2018). Although some of the fundraising efforts that were to be undertaken by BCS pupils in relation to the summer trip were cancelled, many of these had been completed before Covid shut things down (see Christmas Card sales and 12 hour Sportathon below).
Covid has given added impetus to the trustees’ efforts to reorient KEEP, as it has evolved and gained a track record of delivery, from an organization based purely around direct fundraising from the public, to one that aims over the medium to long term to raise funds and support from larger NGOs and grant-giving bodies for larger projects. In parallel, KEEP is increasingly acting as an advocate in introducing the Kipsaina community to such bodies in order to facilitate direct collaborations. An example of this has been the development of

the Kipsaina WASH+ Project in collaboration with Barnard Castle Rotary Club.

Going forward, KEEP continues to raise funds from private donations and by undertaking fundraising events in addition to looking to apply for formal grants from private and public grant-giving bodies.

As alluded to above, it has been agreed by the trustees that, as a small charity, a large part of our efforts should be focused on advocating for and brokering partnerships with larger charities and NGOs for the benefit of Kipsaina and its surrounding communities and environment, rather than directly fundraising ourselves.

This was agreed in 2019, and much of the efforts this year have been to further these aims. In particular during 2020, the focus has been on building potential partnerships with organizations such as the Rotary Club, Sustainable Global Gardens and SDG Changemakers. This work follows that done last year by KEEP to successfully foster an ongoing tree-planting collaboration between the Kipsaina community, in the form of KCWCG, with the International Tree Foundation.

In the period to the end of April 2020 we also initiated the process of finding potential funding partners for large scale tree planting schemes – with a view to eventually capitalizing on the growing Carbon Capture/ Carbon Credit market. As an example, two organisations we have started discussions with are Ecosia and Plan Vivo.

Achievements and Performance

The year’s planned activities were subject to change due to the impact of COVID in the UK and in Kenya, both countries being subject to strict lockdowns and travel bans. In Kenya, schools were closed completely for over half of this reporting period which severely restricted operations. Notwithstanding the impact of COVID, in its third year of operation, KEEP has carried out the following activities:

Completed the replacement of the girls' toilet block at Kipsaina Primary School after the old one was destroyed by flooding.
Coordinated a major fundraising initiative at Barnard Castle School culminating in an overnight “Sportathon”. This raised funds for the community work planned for the cancelled July 2020 school trip. However, these funds were repurposed for other KEEP projects and initiatives with the School’s agreement
Writing a proposal for Kipsaina WASH+, a large-scale rainwater harvesting scheme combined with sustainable agricultural training involving four local schools, in collaboration with Africa Water Bank (AWB) and the Rotary Clubs of Barnard Castle and Kitale. This included the production of a promotional film for Kipsaina WASH+.
Continued support of KCWCG as it scaled up tree seedling production towards a goal of 600,000 for the 2021 planting season and delivery of its pilot contract with International Tree Foundation as arranged with the assistance of KEEP.
Completed the brokering of an MOU between KCWCG and UK charity Sustainable Global Gardens (SGG) for an initial planting of 3,000 trees with ongoing funding to the participating farmers to ensure survival of the trees up to at least five years.
Purchased a car for use by KCWCG to ensure the safe travel of key personnel during COVID as well as for wider community purposes, including as a community ambulance.

Detail of 2020 Activities

1. Completed a replacement of the girls' toilet block at Kipsaina Primary School after the old one was destroyed by flooding.

Pictures show the flood-damaged previous latrine, the construction process, the finished latrine block and handover to the Headmaster of Kipsaina Primary School. This toilet block has six units and has ensured that the girls at Kipsaina Primary feel safe.

The school has reported a positive impact on school attendance. Although a Primary School, the oldest children can be as old as fourteen years, so menstruation and the privacy to deal with it is an issue in school attendance.

2. Fundraising at Barnard Castle School

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The fundraising included the sale of Christmas Cards, letter writing to all school suppliers and a 12 hour overnight “Sportathon” completed by nearly 90 pupils as well as individual fundraising efforts by the pupils booked onto the cancelled 2020 trip. The purpose of this fundraising provisionally was to fund the rainwater harvesting at Kipsaina High School to be completed during the July 2020 school trip. However, in the light of COVID this money was repurposed for other KEEP initiatives including the purchase of the car for KCWCG and the wider community.

4. Kipsaina WASH+ Proposal and Kipsaina WASH+ Film

A lot of our time in 2020 was spent working on what became the Kipsaina WASH+ proposal (WASH+ standing for Water Sanitation and Hygiene plus environment). This is a proposal to link together largescale rainwater harvesting and sustainable agricultural training. Although Kipsaina WASH+ is yet to be delivered, it is very much a live project and one that has evolved substantially from the initial conception.

Our initial proposal was for a very large budget project (c. US$250K) – following the advice of AWB who have carried out similar, Rotary-funded projects. This was to incorporate up to six large 300,000 litre tanks, a community water kiosk and four school-based sustainable agricultural training plots. However, as COVID took effect (post this current reporting period) we have subsequently repurposed Kipsaina WASH+ to be smaller in scale, replicable and based on local skills acquisition and utilizing eco-friendly Interlocking Stabilised Soil Block (ISSB) technology.

Key stakeholders in the Initial Proposal (subsequently this list has changed)

Africa Water Bank (AWB): https://www.facebook.com/www.africawaterbank.org/
The Rotary Clubs of Kitale in Kenya and Barnard Castle in the UK

5. Scaling up of KCWCG tree nursery to 600,000 seedlings for planting in 2021

Over the 2020 reporting period KEEP supported KCWCG in scaling up its tree seedling production capacity to 600,000. Tree planting is a core pillar of our shared aims, and the income generated from the sale of these trees is projected to be a major contributor to future projects. KCWCG also had its first success in growing giant bamboo, which we hope is going to play a large part in the future success of our joint projects. KCWCG currently employs 7 full-time nursery staff.

5. Advocacy / consultancy for brokering partnership funding for KCWCG with Sustainable Global Gardens (SGG)

KEEP has continued working with third party organisations to deliver revenue-generating projects to the local community at Kipsaina in order to make wetlands conservation activities sustainable. This has resulted in a MOU and an ongoing relationship between KCWCG and SGG (see https://www.sustainableglobalgardens.org.uk).

The initial planting contract was for 3,000 trees, with the prospect of thousands more over the next few years. Whilst this is initially a small-scale contract, the benefit of this planting is that there is provision for a staggered SGG payment to the farmers/landowners to be paid over five years if the planted trees survive and prosper.

We have included the MOU drawn up by SGG to manage the relationship between the landowners/farmers with KCWCG and SGG, as it is an interesting document reflecting the evolution towards a more sustainable way of planting trees – something that we will look to build on as we investigate Carbon Trading and how to balance the financial claims of various stakeholders going forwards.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING [MOU]

between

KIPSAINA CRANE & WETLAND CONSERVATION GROUP [KCWCG]

and

[Farmer Name] ___ of [CBO/village/location]__

This is an agreement between Kipsaina Crane & Wetland Conservation Group, hereinafter called KCWCG, and

[Farmer name] _____

I. PURPOSE & SCOPE

The purpose of this MOU is to clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of each party as they relate to planting and maintenance of trees for the Sustainable Global Gardens [SGG] carbon capture project.

In particular, this MOU is intended to:

identify responsibility of farmers/landowners;
identify responsibility of KCWCG;
clarify rewards and penalties.

II. BACKGROUND

The UK-registered development group SGG is currently promoting the planting of trees for the purpose of carbon capture in order to reduce the dangers of climate change to both African small-scale farmers and the global population in general. In order to encourage such tree-planting SGG is looking to maintain several partnerships in different locations across Africa South of the Sahara for the purpose of carbon capture tree-planting. In 2021 SGG is establishing a partnership with KCWCG in order to promote the planting of indigenous tree species in locations close to and surrounding various wetlands in West Kenya. KCWCG’s concern is primarily to maintain and increase the biodiversity associated with West Kenya wetlands, whereas SGG’s focus is to promote carbon capture through tree-planting.

A particular aspect of trees for carbon capture is that the trees within this project should be allowed to grow beyond maturity without undue disturbance by the farmers, on whose land the trees are growing. Both KCWCG and SGG recognize that this growing of trees over a prolonged period represents a loss of space for the farmers’ other necessary activities. Thus, it is agreed by SGG and KCWCG that the farmer concerned should receive some compensation for the environmental services which benefit both the local community but also the wider world. This MOU not only clarifies the roles of the various stakeholders, but also sets out what may be adequate compensation for the farmers participating in this scheme. It should be emphasized here that, whatever the financial support available for this scheme the trees and their products remain the property of the people on whose land they are planted.

Farmers and individuals who wish to join this scheme must agree to the responsibilities below.

III. KCWCG RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THIS MOU

KCWCG shall undertake the following activities:

produce seedlings and transport to the planting site;
provide SGG with information giving the farm location, and how many trees & which species have been planted. A photograph may be useful additional information, but it is not required for every planting site. KCWCG shall maintain records for this purpose;
perform any monitoring, recording tasks and evaluation required by SGG;
assist SGG with the final renumeration to farmer households

IV. INDIVIDUAL FARMER RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THIS MOU

________ shall undertake the following activities:

plant and take care of the trees especially watering and weeding in first two years;
allow SGG and KCWCG representatives access to the planting site at all times for recording and monitoring purposes;
replace any tree that fails within the first 5 years with two trees of the same species;
maintain the tree for at least 10 years

V. IT IS MUTUALLY UNDERSTOOD AND AGREED BY THE PARTIES CONCERNED THAT:

This is primarily an MOU between KCWCG and an individual farmer, but it will also have the confirmatory signature of SGG. SGG’s role in this project is to liaise between KCWCG and overseas sponsors as SGG searches for funding to support the project. The project will ultimately depend upon SGG’s capacity to raise funding for carbon capture trees.
Costs and prices for tree-planting can vary over a prolonged period. However, the agreed prices for this scheme are – Ksh15/- per seedling to the KCWCG nursery, Ksh10/- for the farmer following SGG’s initial field visit, Ksh75/- to the farmer 5 years after transplanting for surviving trees only.
Failure to comply with the responsibilities will lead to the farmer, landowner or institution being dropped from the scheme.

VI. EFFECTIVE DATE AND SIGNATURE

This MOU shall be in effect for 5 years after the dated signatures of all 3 stakeholder parties. Those parties indicate their agreement with the MOU by their signatures.

KCWCG Signature & date ________

Farmer _Signature & date __________

SGG _Signature & date __________

6. Purchase of KCWCG Car

Towards the end of this current reporting period, KEEP trustees, with the agreement of Barnard Castle School (where a large amount of the money had been raised in connection with the cancelled Summer 2020 School trip), agreed that KEEP should purchase a suitable vehicle for the use of KCWCG members. This decision was driven firstly by the withdrawal of the previous vehicle for the use of Maurice Wanjala and KCWCG (due to refocusing of resources by The International Crane Foundation) and secondly, by the fear that Maurice and other KCWCG personnel would otherwise have to take the COVID risk of travelling on public transport. It has transformed the operations of the tree nursery, allowing them to expand reforestation activities including field trips to purchase wild tree seed directly from the women’s cooperatives. It will also be used for wider community purposes - including as a community ambulance.

The purchase of this vehicle also required a substantial personal donation from KEEP trustee Sam Forsyth and his family. Whilst we acknowledge that this is not a sustainable funding pathway, it was felt that the risk, both to Maurice and his team from exposure to Covid on public transport, and to the continued operation of KCWCG warranted this exceptional solution.

KEEP’s criteria for making this investment was as follows:

Need and fit with our objects

In addition to the need to protect Maurice Wanjala’s health by reducing his need to use public transport in the context of the current Covid situation, there is also a clear requirement for Maurice and KCWCG to be mobile in order to carry out the existing and future projects detailed above, all designed to advance the objects of KEEP.
This is clearly aligned with the objects of KEEP. Although perhaps not as direct or tangible an investment into the wellbeing of the local community and wetlands as the trustees would ideally envisage, it is the most pressing priority for KEEP's resources.
An MOU is in place with KCWCG, handing ownership and responsibility for maintenance and upkeep of the car to KCWCG, but specifying its usage primarily as a community asset – largely for the furtherance of KEEP and KCWCG’s environmental and educational aims but also to include emergency medical trips and other non-core educational and environmental journeys. Furthermore, any future sale or disposal of this vehicle must be done in consultation with and with the agreement of KEEP.

The challenge was to find a vehicle that was within KEEP’s price range that would be tough enough to survive the Kenyan roads and spacious enough to carry out smaller-scale transportation of materials. After much research we chose a two-wheel drive Toyota Fielder. This was then given as many adaptations to the Kenyan road conditions as possible, including heavy duty shock absorbers, suspension spacers, a sump reinforcement plate, riveting of all potentially removable parts and the installation of a satellite tracking anti-theft system.

Future Plans

KEEP continues to work with BCS and KCWCG to help turn Kipsaina Primary School into a flagship eco- school and sustainable agriculture training facility. Sadly, the international Covid situation curtailed the BCS trip scheduled for July 2020 which had knock-on effects on fundraising in the UK for our core long-term educational and environmental objectives in Kipsaina. However, towards the end of the year we were able to pivot to our Masks4Kenya fundraising initiative which resulted in KEEP providing much needed immediate funds to local schools, enabling them to re-open in the Spring of 2021.

Fundraising aside, Covid has not prevented KEEP from continuing to develop a WASH+ scheme for Kipsaina and surrounding communities. We are currently looking at a partnership with Haileybury Youth Trust (HYT - https://hytuganda.com/) to provide Interlocking Stabilised Soil Brick Technology (ISSB) training to local people in Kipsaina, and with Manor House (https://manorhouse.or.ke) on the sustainable agricultural component.

KEEP is also looking to develop further international partnerships with support and advice from Felicity Jones, CEO of SDGChangemakers (https://www.sdgchangemakers.today/) and founder of Thinking Philanthropy.

Key to this future development is the drive to scale up the KCWCG Tree Nursery output. The tree nursery remains the single biggest potential economic driver for all the other activities we are aiming to carry out. To this end we are looking to find a funding partner such as Ecosia or Plan Vivo. The idea being to allow the eventual adoption of a number of Kenya Forest Service owned forest blocks (through the “Adopt a Forest” scheme). These forest blocks would initially be the Kitale Forest Blocks (peri-urban degraded eucalyptus plantations within the town boundaries of Kitale – total area of around 1,000 hectares) and then subsequently forest blocks within the Cherangani Hills WaterTower.

Financial Review and Reserves Policy

In KEEP’s third year of operation, the policy of the trustees remains to maintain a positive bank balance at all times without recourse to borrowing or usage of overdraft facilities. As a small charity the trustees seek to initiate projects only once the full estimated amount, with at least a 10% contingency buffer, has been raised and is available in the charity’s CIO bank account for deployment.

Funding for projects is provided to our local partners in staged payments, rather than in one go, and is conditional on them furnishing KEEP with a comprehensive breakdown of spend (including receipts for materials and services purchased) at regular intervals.

Risk Management

The trustees have attended a Charity Commission course on managing risks and maintain a risk register which is reviewed annually. In addition, the charity has a Safeguarding Policy in place which it requires all partners and contractors to sign up and adhere to. The policy was written in consultation with SAFE (Safer Activities for Everyone), a not-for-profit community interest company established in 1987 which is dedicated to raising child and adult safeguarding standards both in the UK and overseas.

KEEP has a data protection policy in line with GDPR requirements, and a Privacy Policy available on request.

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

................................................

Sam Forsyth Trustee

Rubel Quader Trustee

30[th] August 2021

KEEP

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS

YEAR ENDED 30 NOVEMBER 2020

Period from 01 December 2019 to 30 November 2020

	2020	2020	2020	2019
	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
	funds	funds	Funds	Funds
	£	£	£	£
Receipts
Donations – Barnard Castle School	6,653		6,653	2,000
Private Donations	9,341		9,341	464
Total Receipts	15,994		15,994	2,464
Payments
Charitable activities - general	4,311		4,311	3,447
Charitable activities – car purchase	10,010		10,010
Bank charges for international money transfers	73		73	65
Administration	154		154	162
Total payments	14,547		14,547	3,674
Net receipts / (payments)	1,447		1,447	(1,210)
Cash funds b/f	291		291	1,500
Cash funds c/f	1,738		1,738	291

Note: The charity had no endowment funds, nor asset / investments sales or purchases