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2020-09-30-accounts

Marlow Refugee Action: Trustees Annual Report for the period 1[st] October 2019 – 30[th] September 2020

Registration Number: 1180428

Address:

8 Carver Hill Road High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP11 2TY

Trustees:

Tania Baldwin-Pask

Vanessa Faulkner

Tom Doust

Sian Herschel

Julie Purves

Sarah Jones

Nicola Anne Monk (Appointed 20/09/2020)

Introduction

The Trustees present their annual report and financial statement for the charity for the period 1[st] October 2019 – 30[th] September 2020. This is our second annual report, following the formation of the charity.

Charity Structure

The charity is constituted under our Governing Document registered 24[th] October 2018. The Trustees that were appointed at the formation of the charity remain in place, having been invited to become Trustees by the founders, Vanessa Faulkner and Tom Doust. Nicola Monk was appointed to join the founding trustees on 10[th] September 2020.

The Trustees meet quarterly to agree the broad strategy and areas of activity for the Trust, including consideration of grant making, fund raising activities, awareness raising, recruitment of volunteers

and the requirement for policies and procedures (such as Volunteer Code of Conduct, Disciplinary Procedures, Grievance Procedures, Safeguarding and GDPR).

Our Mission is ‘Translating the Global Refugee Crisis into meaningful local action’.

Objectives

In June – August 2020 we held a strategic review where we identified three key focus areas:

This is represented in the following InfoGraphic:

Achievements and Performance

Our key achievements over the period of this report are:

  1. We continued to provide financial support for a leased building for the Legal Centre on Samos. Samos is one of the Greek Islands, just 5km from Turkey. This is our third year of providing support for them. Over the past year we have donated ~£2,700 towards the rent and running costs of a legal centre to provide free and independent legal counselling to assist refugees in navigating the Greek asylum procedure. The Centre provides a calm and professional space where lawyers from Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASF-France) in collaboration with volunteers from the Berlin Refugee Law Clinic can work with clients.

  2. We provided support to non-profit organisation Refugee4Refugees, who provide emergency relief to refugees and asylum seekers in Greece. Initially we provided £1,000 as an immediate response to the fire in Lesvos camp which left 13,000 people without shelter. We provided further funds (£3000) to help implement a food distribution centre in the new temporary camp.

  3. We provided £5,000 to Collective Aid (a volunteer-run organisation that works to provide aid and support to refugees across Europe) as part funding towards a new vehicle to assist them in their distribution to refugees in and around Calais. This was to assist them in reaching the 1,500 people sleeping rough every night. In total they have four vehicles which carry volunteers and aid to where they need to go on a daily basis. We have close contact with a young Marlow resident who worked as a Warehouse Manager for Collective Aid, and was therefore able to provide us with regular feedback on activities.

In Q1 2020, ahead of the COVID-19 lockdown, 9 volunteers travelled from Marlow to Calais to provide volunteer assistance. The volunteer groups there work tirelessly to provide food and essential items to help people survive in the most basic of conditions.

  1. Our ability to run fundraising events was impacted by COVID-19 but prior to the start of the pandemic we held events to both raise awareness and fundraise. This included ‘Syrian Kitchens’ held in a local restaurant where authentic Middle Eastern food was provided by Imad Alarnab. Imad and his family were one of the first refugee families to be settled by the Wycombe Refugee Partnership – a local charity who support families with legal refugee status in the UK and help them with housing, education, languages, job skills and friendships to aid integration with society. We have a close working relationship with Wycombe Refugee Partnership.

  2. We have focused on supporting refugees and asylum seekers locally. This included hosting an information sharing event about refugees in this country with Sanctuary Hosting and

Asylum Welcome (Oxford).

  1. We have continued to work with local schools to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis and the work of Marlow Refugee Action amongst students, parents and teachers. Most of this has been done remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the production of a video to be used in schools for Refugee Week.

  2. We ran a number of fundraising and awareness building events for Refugee Week, 15[th] – 21[st] June 2020. This included:

  3. a. A Solidarity Sleepout, where families were asked to swap their beds for sleeping bags and camp out in solidarity with those sleeping rough across Europe.

  4. b. A Relay4Refugees, recognising that refugees often have to travel thousands of miles in search of a safe home, we asked people to run (or walk) a relay around Marlow

  5. c. An online Syrian Supper Night In cooking session where Imad Alarnab provided recipes for a Syrian feast to be prepared in people’s homes

  6. d. A Plant Stall

  7. We have an active group of volunteers who assist us with event planning, financial management and we also have an active prayer group.

  8. We provide updates through a regular newsletter to a database of interested people (GDPR compliant).

  9. We receive a number of regular donations including a monthly donation of £250 from the Farnfield Charitable Trust which is to support the Samos Legal Centre. This is a restricted fund.

Charity Name Marlow Refugee Action

No (if any) 1180428

Receipts and payments accounts

Period start date Period end date To 10/1/2019 9/30/2020

For the period from

Section A Receipts and payments

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Donations 19,160 2,500 - 21,660
Fundraising events 12,736 - - 12,736
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
31,896 2,500 - 34,396
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 31,896 2,500 - 34,396
A3 Payments
Grants 16,462 2,500 - 18,962
Cost of fundraising events 7,507 - - 7,507
Stationery, domain renewals, advertising 188 - - 188
Bank charges 77 - - 77
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ 24,234 ] 2,500 - 26,734
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - -
Total payments 24,234 2,500 - 26,734
Net of receipts/(payments) 7,662 - - 7,662
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 4,540 - - 4,540
Cash funds this year end 12,202 - - 12,202
----- End of picture text -----

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Unrestricted Restricted
Categories Details funds funds
B1 Cash funds Bank account Total cash funds to nearest £
12,202
-
-
12,202


to nearest £
-
-
-
-
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))		 OK OK
Unrestricted Restricted
funds funds
B2 Other monetary assets Details to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-




to nearest £
-
-
-
-
-
-
B3 Investment assets Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional)
-
-
-
-
-
B4 Assets retained for the Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional)
-
charity’s own use






-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
B5 Liabilities Details Fund to which
liability relates



-
-
-
-
-
Amount due
(optional)
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees		 Signature Print Name

----- Start of picture text -----
CC16a
----- End of picture text -----

Last year

to the nearest £

-

-

-

-

Endowment funds

to nearest £ - - - -

OK

Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - Current value (optional)

When due (optional)

Date of approval

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/
members of
On accounts for the year
ended
Set out on pages		 Charity Name
Marlow Refugee Action		 Charity Name
Marlow Refugee Action		 Charity Name
Marlow Refugee Action
30/09/2020 Charity no
(if any)		 1180428
1-2

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 30/09/2020. Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed:
Name:
Relevant professional
qualification(s) or body
(if any):
Address:

 04/06/2021
Eric Pask FCCA
ACCA
113 Banstead Court
60 Westway, East Acton
London W12 0QJ

Oct 2018

1

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Oct 2018

2

IER