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2020-09-30-accounts

Thank U Charity

Registered Charity Incorporated Organization (CIO): 1179853

Thank U Charity

Trustees Annual Report and Accounts

30[th] September 2020

Thank U Charity

Trustees Annual Report and Accounts for the period ended 30[th] September 2020

Contents

Page

Reference and Administration Information 3
Trustees Annual Report
-
Vision, purpose and aims		 4
-
Structure, governance and management of the charity		 5
-
Trustee Report		 5
-
Moving forward		 6
-
Our volunteers		 6
Financial Review 9
Statement of Financial Activities 10
Statement of Assets and Liabilities 11
Notes to the Accounts 12/13

Thank U Charity

Charitable Incorporated Organization (CIO) Reg No: 1179853

Reference and administration details

The Charity Name Thank U Charity
Incorporation Charitable Incorporated Organization

7[th] September 2018

Incorporation Date

The Charity Registered Number

1179853

Registered Office

Registered Office Dawes Road Hub 20 Dawes Road Fulham London SW6 7EN Email address enquiry@thankucharity.org

Website www.ThankUCharity.org The Trustees Debra Blackwood (Chair) Ugochi Amajuoyi Enoch Annobil Chloe Wood Daniella Akinsemoyin Tanika Jazmin Yearwood Sally Baffour (Founder) Bankers Lloyds Bank 21-25 Kings Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9HW England, UK

Bankers

Thank U Charity

Charitable Incorporated Organization (CIO) Reg No: 1179853

Trustees Annual Report for the period ended 30[th] September 2020

The Directors of the Thank U Charity Charitable Incorporated Organisation are its Trustees (as required by charity law) and are collectively referred to as the Trustees throughout the report.

The trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 30 September 2020. The trustees have adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).

Ensuring our work delivers our aims

Trustees review the charity’s aims and projects every year. We focus on delivering projects which deliver our charitable objects above.

The main activities undertaken in relation to our purposes during the year:

The Charity has followed the Charity Commission guidance of public benefit in managing and delivering our activities. To accomplish our main purposes, we actively promote and undertake events and fundraising activities to secure resources towards strengthening the skills of all participants and volunteers in our organization. We have been receiving capacity training and consultancy support.

CHARITY BACKGROUND

How Thank U Charity began

Sally Baffour, was due for a major operation and just before being wheeled into theatre, she became aware of her mortality. Her worry was that the 10 year old twin boy and girl that she had adopted at 2 years of age, would end up back in the same care system that had originally compounded their challenges and complex needs. Fearing the worst, she prayed for God to operate on her through the Doctors, to ensure its success, to spare her life and give a second chance.

When she came round and found herself in the recovery ward, she wondered why so many different doctors kept coming in to check her over but not the other patients. When she asked why, one of the doctors told her that they were surprised that her operation which had taken 6 hours instead of 45 mins, had been a mysterious success.

Her prayer had been answered! Overwhelmed with gratitude Sally said she heard the words of her late grandmother and greatest mentor, “Gratitude opens doors where only fortified walls exist” . Sally’s grandmother never had the opportunity to go to School, yet she was the wisest woman Sally had known.

In that moment, overwhelmed with gratitude for being given a 2nd chance in life, to enable her to care for her twins, Sally made a promise to God, to set up a Charity and name it Thank U, to ‘give back’ in gratitude and enable others to give back too.

The stimulus of Reading can regenerate children’s brain cells after being cured of Malaria: A few years after Thank U Charity had supported a variety of charitable causes, a visit to a children’s hospital in Accra revealed that 75% of the children they saw at the hospital were suffering from malaria. The paediatrician lamented that whilst most would be cured, many would end up with irreparable damage to their brain cells because they lacked the simple

stimulus to regenerate their brain cells. Discovering that reading was all that the children needed to stimulate and fully regenerate their brain cells once cured of malaria, the Trustees of Thank U Charity were inspired to set up a small library in the PML children’s Hospital, as the hospital did not have any library or books for children, at the time.

It was after this experience that the Trustees decided to focus all efforts on improving the quality of children’s lives through spreading literacy to end poverty.

PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES & THE FOCUS OF OUR WORK

This has been a challenging year due to the pandemic. However, despite this, we have continued to work and focused all our efforts on training, developing new methods and sustainable strategies, to deliver our charitable objectives online where possible. This will give us the flexibility to run our projects both face to face and online in future to help us enable us adapt to all seasons. This year our strategic planning efforts were focused on our main projects:

1. INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

Eco-Learning Centre Projects in Ghana.

(Library, Computer Lab, School Farm and Students Ecological Club)

Evolution: We found that with no local or school libraries, most children in the underresourced communities we were working in, had little or no access to any children’s books apart from their school textbooks.

School Libraries: That was when we began to establish libraries in schools to serve the local community, using recycled resources from Schools in the UK. Through our contacts with the local Ghanaian schools, we also discovered that most were not equipped with adequate computer equipment to teach the IT skills on their curriculum.

School Computer Labs : And so we began to set up computer labs in addition to the libraries in the local Schools using very high quality reconditioned computers and IT equipment from the UK.

Current Local Conditions : In Ghana, education is free, but unfortunately families living below the poverty line are forced to concentrate on their basic needs, such as food, shelter and clothing, and are therefore unable to prioritize education.

Hunger, the main deterrent to children’s Education : The children who do go to school, start their day on an empty stomach and in many cases, struggle to afford even one meal a day. This affects their ability and capability to learn. However, once they are fed, the children are all very keen and able to learn.

Thank U Charity approach to Tackling Hunger to aid children’s Education: While financial hardship and lack of resources was and still is a major factor, the main deterrent to children’s education is actually ‘Hunger’. As a small charity with not a lot of resources, feeding all the thousands of children who benefit from our Library and computer labs, was not an option for us, so we came up with a better solution. And that is the establishment of School farms, where children can learn to grow the food that they eat at School. In addition to the library and computer lab, the school vertical farm became the third component of our Thank U Charity Eco-Learning Resource Centres, for improving educational standards in existing schools in Ghana.

School Vertical farm: The vertical farm is designed in such a way that it produces 8 times more crops than traditional farms, yet it is compact enough to fit into small spaces and can therefore be accommodated in any of the local schools that we are working in. This now enables students to develop practical farming skills, that equip them with valuable experiences for potential agricultural enterprise, in future.

How The Eco-Learning Centre Project Delivers Public Benefit

We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aim and objectives and in planning our future activities. We work to ensure that all of our projects deliver our charitable objects and are for the benefit of the public.

Enhancing Educational Facilities for comprehensive Literacy, to transform children’s lives : For our international projects, we are transforming the lives of approximately 4,100 Children through the establishment of our self-sustaining Eco-Learning Centres (libraries mainly and more recently, Computer labs, and farms) that augment facilities and improve the quality of education in the 7 Schools in our programme in Ghana. The facilities are open to the communities for after-school classes for children who are unable to attend mainstream education for various reasons and for adult education.

Supporting Local economy and work force: Having teamed up with local organizations in Ghana on using solar energy for our projects as well as bricks made out of recycled plastics for our first construction of the new-build structure to house the library and Computer Lab for our current project, we have started instituting our next Eco-Learning Centre Component.

Students Ecological club: We are now developing the 4[th] component which is an ecological club, to sensitize school children to the issues of climate change, recycling, reducing carbon footprint and looking after their environment, to help save the planet.

UN Sustainable Development Goals: Our Eco-learning Centre Project tackles 10 out of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals:

• Responsible consumption and production

2. LOCAL LONDON-BASED PROJECT

Discussions Across Generations (DAG) project

Intergenerational Activities

Creating Innovative Solutions to Support the Young and the elderly: As a female led Charity rooted in the African and Caribbean community we serve, our work directly supports positive change to improve the lives of the voiceless, often neglected, hard to reach marginalised young and elderly people of African and Caribbean heritage, on the margins of society in London.

Cause of the Problem: Racism has resulted in many young talented people of African/Caribbean heritage in London losing their sense of belonging and ability to thrive, because they lack confidence, direction, and purpose.

Targeting Marginalized Black Youth of African and Caribbean Heritage: Throughout most of their young lives, they have been marginalised, disenfranchised and left with little or no access to opportunities to develop talents that will aid their progress, productive development or economic growth. And just like the saying, “ without purpose, any road leads anywhere” , abashed with low self-worth, some join groups on the margins of society, fall victim to knife and gang crime and drift into the criminal justice system.

Targeting Marginalized Black Elders of African and Caribbean Heritage: At the other end of the scale, many of our elders who are already hard to reach, marginalised and voiceless, miss out on many of the support services. Not being digitally literate, they are cut off from the outside world, becoming even more isolated, lonely, and inaccessible during the COVID pandemic.

Thank U Charity Solution to Unite the Two Marginalized Groups in an Intergenerational

Project: Our Discussions Across Generations (DAG) project brings together these two marginalized parts of our communities (young people and the elders), to create a symbiotic relationship that builds bridges to aid community cohesion and boosts our community’s resilience to benefit our entire UK society.

Inspired by Ghanaian Proverb, ‘Sankofa’: Drawing inspiration from the African proverb, “Sankofa”, we inspire the young people in our DAG project, to “learn from the past to build a better future ”.

Intergenerational Dialogue and Activities: Through our intergenerational dialogue and activities, older people tell their stories, share their wisdom, and are positively listened to and acclaimed by the younger generation. The young team members document the inspiring narratives, legacy, knowledge, lessons and traditions, in mediums that they enjoy, and disseminate them to their peers and wider community through social media.

How Discussions Across Generations (DAG) Project Delivers Public Benefit

We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aim and objectives and in planning our future activities. We

work to ensure that all of our projects deliver our charitable objects and are for the benefit of the public.

Empowerment and Positive Impact on Their Mental Health: Mutually beneficial to both young and old, the DAG project has a positive impact on their mental health, as it gives both of the groups an exciting and value-creating project that gainfully occupies and exercises their time, mind, and creativity.

Digital Literacy for elderly, Digital Marketing for Young People: To safeguard the vulnerable older volunteers, we maintain social distancing by gifting each an iPad and digital literacy training, to participate in the project online. The young are upskilled with enhanced digital and social media marketing skills. As the young people learn about their history, traditions and culture and its significance in giving them a sense of belonging that renews their purpose in the UK society they live in, they also educate their elders about their modern world, enabling both groups to learn from each other.

Upskill Young People to Develop Their Talents : In addition to the capacity-building and the digital marketing training we offer the young people, we give them access to opportunities, providing them with facilities and skills that enable them to develop their talents. Encouraged by their constructive and culturally educational interactions with their elders, the young Black Youth are empowered to fulfil their potential, by contributing productively to create value for the society they live in.

Outcome of Confident Young People Generate Income Productively : Outcome The

confidence-boosting experience of the young people on the DAG project, especially from their interactions with the elderly, combined with the certificate earning technological training, offers the young volunteers valuable learning experiences that form the basis of personal transformation and productive income generation.

Strengthening Newfound Intergenerational Bond to Stave off loneliness and Isolation:

Empowered by their newly acquired digital skills, the elderly is now able to stave off loneliness and isolation. Armed with their new iPads and new-found online and social media connections, the elders are enabled to maintain contact with their Young mentees, who are able to continue looking out for the elders, after their term on the project.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document

The charity is controlled by its Constitution, a governing document for the Charitable Incorporated Organization.

The Charity’s organisational structure

In the year under review the Charity had seven trustees all of whom are volunteers and who met together approximately every month. The trustees have overall control and responsibility for policy and major decision making.

Day to day management and responsibility for implementing policies is carried out by the trustees.

Trustees

The Charity currently has a governing body of seven trustees who are all volunteers. The Trustees have held office during the whole of the from 1 October 2019 to the date of this report.

The contribution of volunteers during the year:

The Charity has two additional volunteers who support the Charity as and when required.

Trustee Report

The trustees confirm that the annual report and financial statement for Thank U Charity contained within this report comply with current statutory requirements.

Our beneficiaries

This year the following people benefitted from our projects:

Stakeholders include:

The main activities undertaken during the year to further the Charity’s purpose for public benefit:

As stated above the Charity’s primary objective, and the focus for the year’s work is as stated above. The Charity has followed the Charity Commission guidance of public benefit in managing and delivering its activities.

Financial Review

In the year we received £8763 in income and spent £8208 in expenditure. This resulted in a small operating deficit of £769 which is covered by funds brought forward from the previous year. All of our funding was unrestricted.

Principal Funding Sources

Principal funding sources have been through various ad-hoc donations from a small number of loyal and committed individual supporters.

Reserves

The charity held unrestricted reserves of £5 at 30th September 2020. The Trustees acknowledge there is a need to increase the level of reserves and aim to build the unrestricted reserves to £2,000 as the trustee’s feel this to be an adequate sum when set against turnover and annual operational costs. Trustees have taken into account the fact that all of their costs are flexible and incurred only when they secure funds necessary to deliver projects and as such the trustees confirm they are satisfied that the charity continues as a going concern.

Key Risks

In terms of finances the biggest single risk Thank U Charity faces is raising the finances required to achieve the aims and objectives of the charity. However, by the continuous review of a Risk Register the trustees of Thank U Charity are constantly seeking to make provision for this eventuality plus all other major legal, operational, or financial risks to which the Charity could be exposed.

At the point of writing this report (December 2020), the charity has been impacted by Covid19 through sharp declines in revenues due to:

  1. a temporary pause in the physical execution of our international projects; the Eco-learning Resource Centre because all the Schools we are working with in Africa, have been closed since March 2020 due to the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  2. cancellations of our fundraising events has also led to delays in running our projects as we are having to digitalize, adapt and redesign all our UK projects, to ensure that the COVD-19 safeguarding protocols are adhered to.

In consideration of the continuation of these uncertainties, our Trustees are closely monitoring the situation and its impact to help guide us in ways to build in resilience for our charity. It has led us to innovating and restructuring all our activities for flexible online and offline delivery

Plans for the future

Signed by

Sally Baffour, Founder/Trustee

Statement of Financial Activities (including Summary income and expenditure account)

For the period from 1st October 2019 to 30th September 2020

Restricted
Note Unrestricted
income		 Endowment Total Prior year
funds funds funds funds funds
£ £ £ £ £
Income (Note 1)
Income and endowments from:
Donations and legacies 7,100 7,100 14,149
Charitable activities 603 - 603
Other trading activities - -
Investments -
Other 297 297
Total 8,001 - - 8,001 14,149
Expenditure (Note 2)
Expenditure on:
Raising funds -
Charitable activities 8,208 - 8,208 13,380
Separate material expense item -
Other 555 555
Total 8,763 - - 8,763 13,380
Net income/(expenditure) before
tax for the reporting period		 (763) - - (763) 769
Tax payable - -
Net income/(expenditure) after tax
before investment gains/(losses)		 (763) - - (763) 769
Net gains/(losses) on investments - -
Net income/(expenditure) (763) - - (763) 769
Extraordinary items -
Transfers between funds - -
Other recognised gains/(losses): - -
Gains and losses on revaluation of fixed -
assets for the charity’s own use -
Other gains/(losses) - -
Net movement in funds (763) - - (763) 769
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward 769 769 -
Total funds carried forward 6 - - 6 769

Statement of Assets & Liabilities as at 30th September 2020

Restricted

Statement of Assets & Restricted
Liabilities as at 30th September 2020
Note
Fixed assets
Total fixed assets
Current assets
Cash at bank and in hand
General Account
Savings Account
Total current assets
Creditors: amounts falling due
within one year
Net current assets/(liabilities)
Total assets less current liabilities
Creditors: amounts falling due after
one year
Total net assets or liabilities
Funds of the Charity
Restricted income funds
Unrestricted funds
Total funds
_ S Baffour loan_**		 Unrestricted
funds
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total this
year
Total last
year
£
£
£
£
£
-
-
-
-
-
3
-
3
742
2
-
2
26
5
-
-
5
769
297
-
-
297
-
(292)
-
-
(292)
769
(292)
-
-
(292)
769
-
-
-
-
-
(292)
-
-
(292)
769
-
-
-
-
-
(292)
-
-
(292)
769
(292)
-
-
(292)
769
297

Notes to the accounts

Note 1 Income

Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Donations and gifts
7,100
7,10014,149
Gift Aid
-
Legacies
-
General grants provided by government/other
charities
-
Donated goods, facilities and services
-
Other
0
0
Total 7,100 - - 7,100 14,149
Charitable
activities:
Book Sales
603
- 603
Total 603 - - 603
-
Other:
Other
297- - 297
-
Total 297-- 297
-
8,001-- 8,001 14,149
Analysis of income
Donations
and
legacies:
TOTAL INCOME		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Analysis of income		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Analysis of income		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Analysis of income		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Analysis of income		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Analysis of income		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
£
£
£
£
£
Analysis of income
Donations and gifts 7,100 7,100 14,149
Gift Aid -
Legacies -
General grants provided by government/other
charities		 -
Donated goods, facilities and services -
Other 0 0
**Total ** 7,100 - - 7,100 14,149
Book Sales 603 - 603
**Total ** 603 - - 603 -
Other 297 - - 297 -
**Total ** 297 - - 297 -
8,001 - - 8,001 14,149

Notes to the accounts

----- Start of picture text -----
Note 2 Expenditure
Restricted
Unrestricted Endowment Total Prior
income
Analysis of expenditure funds funds funds funds year
£ £
Expenditure on Project Expenditure 990 - 990 3,260
charitable
activities Marketing 280 - 280 1,910
Training
102 102 171
Utility Costs
10 10 570
Professional Fees
417 - - 417
IT Costs
- -
1,196 1,196 1,030
Recruitment
100 - - 100
Consultancy
706 706 3,433
Bank
82 - - 82
Stationery 2,694 - - 2,694 143
Travel
-
1,000 1,000 1,460
Sundry 632 632 1,403
Total expenditure on charitable 8,208 - - 8,208 13,380
Other Sundry 555 - - 555 -
Total other expenditure 555 - - 555 -
TOTAL EXPENDITURE 8,763 - - 8,763 13,380
----- End of picture text -----

Approval of this report

This report was approved by the Board on 14[th] July, 2021.

Sally Baffour

Founder Trustees