## **Trustees annual report to Charity Commission – Wanjawulo April 2020 to March 2021**
April 2020 was a scary place for everyone and it became clear very quickly that we were not going to be able to visit Uganda in the coming months. A volunteer trip booked for April 2020 was cancelled and Geoffrey and Winnie were both stuck in different parts of the capital while policies were changing daily.
The UK lockdown forced the committee to withdraw travel plans and the uncertainty in Uganda meant that we were seeing a constantly changing picture. Travel outside of the home environment was prohibited and we were forced to sit and wait; maintaining minimal contact with those in the village as communication lines were severed. Schools closed in Uganda and public transport was suspended with travel across the country only permitted intermittently in private vehicles.
Our 3 aims for Wanjawulo during this year were:
- To fence off and secure the Wanjawulo space at Suubi and begin to be more creative about how this can be used to better manage the sessions
- To make links with Musana who are a big charity in Iganga, with visits and preliminary discussions around whether any collaboration is possible
- To resume the frequency of sessions and begin to explore ways of making this even more regular
All trips for UK volunteers planned for 2020 were cancelled and overnight our priorities changed to ensuring the safety and health of our families. Covid was a massive concern in the community of Busu; any infection would have travelled with speed through the hamlets, potentially causing widespread deaths of our already vulnerable group. We were not in a position to mobilise Winnie and Geoffrey with travel banned and were forced to watch and wait until restrictions meant travel was possible.
In June, restrictions were lifted enough to allow a quick visit by Winnie and Geoffrey in which we supported them in distributing some essential supplies to the families that had been village-bound throughout the lockdown period. This was a great success and families were delighted to receive the donations of sugar, rice, flour, soap and matches. Just after this, Uganda was plunged back into lockdown and restrictions were tighter than ever.
On a more positive note, we finally managed to get the Wanjaulo bank account set up with CAFbank, using the very generous donations of the team around the charity. This has been a long-standing bugbear for us; being such a small team and a small charity, it was extremely difficult to gain the support of a bank.
www.wanjawulo.org.uk Registered charity number 1176553 wanjawulo@outlook.com
CAFbank have been really helpful and it will be great to be able to send funds in a more proper manner.
In September, the situation globally was mellowing again so a series of welfare checks were initiated by the UK team. We were able to provide the Ugandan team with an online survey to support their visit and to allow our analysis of answers provided. This was a useful task and one which provided us with some new directions for our work. It also guided us in which questions were worth asking as some drew monumental blanks, and others misguided idealism!
Covid continued to scupper our plans and we were forced back into an extended period of ‘watch and wait’ as the world tackled waves 2, 3 and onwards. It meant we had to keep whatever contact we could with the Ugandan team but even this was difficult for periods. The Ugandan general election in January 2021 led to the country being put on the red list and security being a main concern for the families and for us in asking Winnie and Geoffrey to move about. This political halt to proceedings meant we weren’t able to facilitate any further visits from the Ugandan team this year.
Our priorities for the following year are:
- to re-establish visits to Busu by Ugandan team
- to formalise links with bigger charities in Iganga and Jinja to discuss further support links
www.wanjawulo.org.uk Registered charity number 1176553 wanjawulo@outlook.com
|**Date**|**Item**|**Income**|**Expenses**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
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|1.4.20|openingbalance|443.75|||
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|1.6.20|Fundraisingfor June trip|530|||
|9.6.20|sent to Geoffreyto fund June trip||560||
|1.9.20|Donation from Torbayminibuses|300|||
|4.9.20|Donation from Team members|1000|||
|5.10.20|sent to Geoffreyto fund October trip||500||
|15.10.20
16.11.20
15.12.20|account fee
account fee
account fee||5||
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|15.1.21|account fee||8||
|12.2.21|donations from friends of wanjawulo|580|||
|15.2.21|account fee||8||
|16.3.21|account fee||8||
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||Totals|2853.75|1099|1754.75|
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