Annual Report and Financial Accounts April 2021 to March 2022
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Kite Oxford-Nairobi is a UK registered charity (no. 1181075) that aims to maximise the agency and impact of students in international development. The organisation is led by two committees formed of students from Oxford University and from universities in Nairobi respectively. By drawing upon the people, research, and resources of these universities, we deliver innovative projects that address development challenges identified by communities in Kenya. Throughout the report, Kite Oxford-Nairobi is abbreviated as ‘Kite ON’.
Contents
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Summary of Activities, pp. 3-4
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Financial Overview, p. 5
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Annual Accounts, pp. 6-8
Kite ON mentors with their certificates at the conclusion of this year’s mentorship scheme
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Summary of Activities
Mentorship Scheme:
The Kite Mentorship Scheme was the first project established by Kite ON, beginning in earnest with the recruitment and training of our first cohort of mentors in December 2018. The scheme responded to two visible Kenyan development challenges: high school drop-out rates and the lack of employment opportunities for youth upon leaving school.
The mentorship scheme utilises university student mentors who act as enthusiastic and able role models for secondary school age mentees from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have been selected for the scheme by teaching staff. Their recent experience with secondary school education also means that the mentors themselves will be familiar with some of the issues faced by mentees, which helps to facilitate rapport building through relatability. The mentors receive training through a programme Kite ON has developed, partnering with the Companionship of Works Organisation (a Kenyan NGO focused on youth employability), in order to enable them to provide effective careers and skills development support.
The mentors deliver the curriculum Kite ON has created which aims to develop workplace skills and career readiness amongst the mentees through weekly sessions over the school year. This curriculum has been developed through cross-disciplinary research into mentorship best practice and is delivered through three session types to inject variety and increase the engagement of participating mentees:
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One-to-one mentoring sessions : mentors meet regularly with their paired mentees and work closely with them to identify, develop and pursue their individual goals.
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Group activity sessions : mentees, in class-size groups, participate in activities designed to develop skills relevant for the workplace, such as teamwork, budget management, and communication.
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Special activities : mentors run ‘one-off’ special activities on a termly basis. The idea behind special activities is to take mentees outside their usual environment, trying new activities or visiting new places of interest. These new experiences provide learning opportunities that are not possible in a classroom setting. Such activities also have a ‘wow factor’ and provide an incentive for mentees to actively engage with the scheme.
Following the reopening of Kenyan schools in January 2021, between April 2021 and March 2022, Kite ON successfully ran the second iteration of its mentorship scheme at Uhuru Kenyatta Secondary School in Kahawa Sukari, Nairobi. This financial year, we trained 50 university students to serve as mentors and mentored over 100 students across a 33-session programme. The programme developed various key skills such as teamwork, communication, planning and goal-setting while providing careers awareness and sessions on topics such as CV writing, interview skills, and training/academic pathways. The mentors also provided individual support to mentees with their academic work and personal development.
Menstrual health scheme:
In Kenya, there are notable issues concerning accessibility to menstrual health management (MHM) products, such as sanitary pads and tampons, with some of the
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main barriers to such products being cost and social stigmas. While the issue of menstrual health has recently received more attention (from NGOs and through the introduction of reusable sanitary products), the social stigmas surrounding menstruation continue to present significant barriers which in turn prevent newer, sustainable products such as menstrual cups from being introduced. Against this backdrop, Kite ON sought to create an educational programme utilising university students to tackle stigmas around MHM whilst simultaneously providing access to reusable MHM products.
We have explored a two-tiered project model centered around the recruitment of male and female university students who, through training co-delivered with a partner organization, would serve as menstrual health ambassadors; could teach and answer questions on pivotal sex education and menstrual health topics; and explain and demystify MHM products. The first tier would involve these ambassadors visiting upperprimary and secondary schools to deliver 6-month programme of 6 menstrual health education sessions which would include boys and girls; introduce them to different reusable sanitary products; incorporate small group activities to encourage discussion; and provide girls will receive a product of their choice, free of charge, among other activities. The second tier involved raising awareness and encouraging the use of reusable MHM products among university students to reduce waste from disposable products and support the uptake of reusable products through outreach. By distributing quality reusable products which are used by the ambassadors themselves as well as their peers and which can be purchased more widely in an accessible fashion, this should encourage uptake and usage and directly benefit girls.
While the onset and continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic presented major challenges to the project, most notably due to the closure of schools which in turn disrupted the ideation, planning and implementation stages, 2021 resulted in the identification and selection of Silver Springs High School in Kibera, Nairobi as a partner school for introducing for this pilot project.
Silver Springs High School currently lacks access to running water, a major barrier to the utilisation of reusable sanitary products. Kite ON has therefore committed to addressing this challenge by working to facilitate the school’s connection to the mains water supply. Initial meetings between school leadership, Kite ON volunteers, and the Nairobi City Water board were set up from March 2022 with a view to initiating a survey for the laying of pipes. In tandem, our implementation partner for the project (Kite Nairobi Organization, an NGO registered by Kite ON alumnus in Kenya) has initiated a fundraising campaign to support the initiative. We anticipate that connecting the school to the mains water supply will cost in the region of £3000-£5000, and hope to be able to raise sufficient funds to enable this to take place in the next financial year. In preparing for the forthcoming MHM sessions once this structural barrier is resolved, the Nairobi team has also independently procured discounted reusable sanitary pads for girls and boxer shorts for boys.
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Financial Overview
Income
The Statement of Financial Activities table on page 6 provides a breakdown of Kite ON’s income sources over the course of the year. While fundraising activities were partially curtailed by the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic during the first part of the financial year, Kite ON was able to capitalise on its increased knowledge of and experience with running online fundraising campaigns. Following the success of previous campaigns, Kite ON raised £1618 from the 2021 ‘Kite Kilimanjaro’ (sponsored hike) challenge.
Kite Oxford notably received £2121 from Oxford Development Abroad, a student-run charity that was registered in 2002 and worked to harness the energy, enthusiasm and resources of the University of Oxford’s student body to assist with small-scale, community-initiated development projects in the developing world. Following the dissolution of Oxford Development Abroad, its trustees determined that Kite Oxford was closest to that former organisation’s charitable objectives and bequeathed Kite Oxford with its outstanding funds in February 2022.
Kite Oxford also received a donation from Wadham College (University of Oxford) of £225 in June 2021 and a grant from the Magdalen Trust of £700 in July 2021.
Expenditure
The Statement of Financial Activities table on page 6 provides a breakdown of Kite ON’s expenditure sources over the course of the year, with a vast majority (82%) of funds going directly to support the implementation of the mentorship scheme. The increase in administrative costs relative to last year were the result of two key factors: (i) the resumption of the mentorship scheme, as the scheme itself involves a significant number of small transfers (e.g. to pay mentor stipends) which in turn meant more transaction costs had been accrued (whereas last year’s administrative costs for Kite ON’s COVID-19 response, on the other hand, involved fewer but larger transfers) and (ii) increased recruitment and publicity costs as this reporting period saw the return of the University of Oxford’s annual Fresher’s Fair. Kite Oxford obtained a stall for £240 to restart recruitment, “post pandemic”. Note 4 to the financial accounts provides a breakdown of administration costs.
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Annual Accounts
The tables below summarise the financial activities for Kite ON’s third financial accounting period from 1[st] April 2021 to 31[st] March 2022, comparing against our second accounting period from 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021. See ‘Notes to Accounts’ for Kite ON’s accounting policies and for a further breakdown of the tables below. All of the reported values below have been rounded to the nearest pound[1] .
Statement of Financial Activities for the Period from 1[st] April 2021 to 31[st] March 2022
| 2021-22 | 2020-21 (beginning Dec 2018 upon Kite ON's registration) |
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|---|---|---|
| Note Unrestricted funds(£) Restricted Funds(£) Total funds (£) |
Unrestricted funds(£) Restricted Funds(£) Total funds (£) |
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| Income from: | 3844 0 3844 1588 0 1588 0 700 700 461 0 461 355 0 355 2 0 0 0 |
1060 0 1060 3921 0 3921 0 0 0 0 0 0 756 0 756 47 0 47 |
| Donations | ||
| Online Fundraising campaigns |
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| Restricted Grants | ||
| Fundraising Events | ||
| GiftAid | ||
| Gifts in kind | ||
| Totals | 6249 700 6949 |
5785 0 5785 |
| Expenditure on: | 3 3899 700 4599 0 0 0 4 996 0 996 |
4621 500 5121 22 0 22 375 0 375 |
| Charitable Activities | ||
| Raising Funds | ||
| Administration and Support Costs |
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| Totals | 4894 700 5594 |
5018 500 5518 |
| Net Income/Expenditure | 1354 0 1354 |
767 -500 267 |
| Transfers between funds | 0 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
| Net Movement in funds | 1354 0 4599 |
767 -500 5121 |
| Reconciliation of funds: | 767 0 767 2121 0 2121 |
0.08 500 500.08 767 0 767 |
| Total funds brought forward |
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| Total funds carried forward |
1 Figures presented may not sum to the presented totals due to rounding.
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Balance Sheet – 31[st] March 2022
| Note | Value(£) | |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | ||
| Cash at UK Bank | 2121 | |
| Liabilities | ||
| Creditors | 0 | |
| Taxation | 0 | |
| Net Assets | 2121 |
Notes to the Financial Statements
1 Accounting Policies
1. Basis of Preparation: The accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis informed by guidance in Charity Commission document CC16b.
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Income: Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds and any performance conditions have been met. Income received in advance of the provision of a specific service or initiative is only recognised after the performance of the service or the carrying out of the initiative. Gift Aid is recognised when received from HMRC.
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Expenditure and Irrecoverable VAT: Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party. Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.
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Calculating the Sterling value of transactions undertaking in other currencies: The majority of our charitable activities, and varying proportions of expenditure in other cost categories, take place in Kenya in Kenyan Shillings (KES). This requires transferring money to Kenya from our UK bank account and converting it from GBP to KES. To convert expenditure undertaken in Kenyan Shillings falling under each category in the statement of financial activities from KES to GBP values, we used the average exchange rate we received over the course of the financial year, equal to the total Kenyan Shillings sent to Kenya (748123KES) in this period divided by the Sterling value converted (£4949.97) to purchase this KES value, giving an exchange rate of 151KES per pound.
2 Gifts in Kind
- We received two donations in kind in 2020-21 with donors directly transferring money to the Nairobi committee to carry out mentorship project expenditure. We have records of the exact monetary value of purchases and as such the amounts presented for gifts in kind in the statement of financial activities are equal to the cash equivalent value of the donations. No gifts in kind were received in 2021-22.
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3 Charitable Activities
| Value(£) | |
|---|---|
| Mentorship project | |
| Mentor Stipends | 2925 |
| Snacks/Refreshments for participants | |
| in mentorship sessions | 619 |
| Materials for mentorship sessions | 298 |
| Printing for mentorship sessions | 83 |
| Monitoring and evaluation costs | 39 |
| Cost of training mentors | 631 |
| Menstrual Health Project | |
| SurveyMeetingwith Partner School | 4 |
| Total | 4599 |
4 Administration and Support Costs
| Value(£) | |
|---|---|
| Publicity, Outreach and Recruitment | 550 |
| Transaction Charges2 | 183 |
| Airtime | 7 |
| Purchase of Nairobi Committee | |
| Phone | 89 |
| Nairobi Committee Expenses3 | 134 |
| Balance held by Kite Nairobi | |
| Committee | 0 |
| Total | 963 |
2 Transaction charges are incurred when transferring funds to Kenya from our UK bank account and when making transactions via the MPesa mobile money account we used to undertake expenditure in Kenya.
3 Kite Oxford-Nairobi members are entitled to be reimbursed by the Charity for expenses actually, necessarily, reasonably, and incidentally incurred by them in carrying out their duties, when proper documentation is provided. The large majority of committee expenses incurred related to transport to and from meetings, to attend projects, or to purchase materials on Kite’s behalf.
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