**Annual Report and Financial Accounts** April 2022 to March 2023
1
**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/alumni 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
T
- Summary of Activities, pp. 3-7
- Financial Overview, p. 8
- Annual Accounts, pp. 9-11
_Kite ON mentors and mentees take part in an activity at Silver Springs High School, Kibera._
2
## **Summary of Activities**
## Mentorship Scheme:
2022-23 saw Kite Oxford-Nairobi implement the third iteration of the Kite Mentorship Scheme in Nairobi. Following two successful years implementing the mentorship scheme at Uhuru Kenyatta Secondary School, a government school on the outskirts of Kahawa Sukari, it was decided to test and refine the model in the new setting of Silver Springs High School in Kibera. As a community-run school in the heart of a large informal settlement, Silver Springs has comparative challenges accessing funding and has a high proportion of its students coming from challenging social circumstances. Silver Springs school therefore represented a setting where the Mentorship Scheme could deliver a high level of impact, with its aims of supporting students to stay in school and develop workplace skills.
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 building of rapport. The mentors receive training through a programme that Kite ON developed in partnership with the Companionship of Works Organisation (a Kenyan NGO focused on youth employability). This year (in May 2022), a total of 33 mentors undertook the three-day training.
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:
- **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.
- **Group activity sessions** : mentees, in class-sized groups, participate in activities designed to develop skills relevant for the workplace such as teamwork, budget management, and communication.
- **Special activities** : mentors run ‘one-off’ special activities on a termly basis. The idea behind these activities is to take mentees outside their usual environment by 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.
_Kite Mentor Brian Mutuku, with his certificate in recognition of a year’s mentorship._
This financial year’s 16-session programme mentored 97 students at Silver Springs school, enabling them to develop key skills such as teamwork,
3
communication, planning and goal-setting. Mentors also provided individual support to mentees with their academic work and personal development.
Looking forward, the next step will be to bring together the evaluations of the project’s three iterations. This evidence base will result in insights – a university-student-led mentorship ‘product’ – which can be adopted by other NGOs and organisations working on youth mentorship, both in Kenya and abroad. In providing others with data-driven insights, best practices, and lessons learned, this critical resource helps widen the impact of the Kite Mentorship Programme.
_Mentors with certificates upon completing delivery of the 2022 Mentorship Programme._
## Toilet Block Construction and Menstrual Health Scheme:
Since 2021, Kite ON has been planning to introduce a menstrual health programme at Silver Springs High School in Kibera, with the intention of tackling stigmas related to menstruation while providing access to reusable sanitary products (alongside education on their use). A lack of adequate sanitary products is notably a significant cause of school drop-outs among adolescent girls in Kenya.
However, at the project’s ideation, Silver Springs High School lacked access to running water – a major barrier to the utilisation of reusable sanitary products (which require access to water for cleaning/hygienic use). The school also had very rudimentary toilets which did not provide a sanitary, safe environment in which adolescent girls could change a sanitary product (see images below). Kite ON therefore committed to address this challenge by working to facilitate the school’s connection to the mains water supply,
4
and by building a toilet/changing block. Initial meetings between the school’s 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) initiated a fundraising campaign to support the initiative. This – combined with fundraising efforts on the Oxford side – enabled construction to commence in the latter part of 2022-23. With construction scheduled to finish in June 2023, Kite ON’s longplanned menstrual health project would commence afterwards.
_Staff and student toilets at Silver Springs High School before renovation work began._
_Student toilets at Silver Springs High School before renovation work began._
5
_Initial plans for the toilet block at Silver Springs High School._
_Measuring out the site, March 2023._
_Laying foundations._
6
## Organisational Developments and Challenges:
2022-23 has brought both challenges and opportunities for Kite ON. As with all studentled organisations, there is an element of cyclicality in leadership from the high turnover each year as students graduate. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that student gatherings were significantly restricted throughout 2021, making publicity and recruitment of committee members far more difficult. This led to a small committee (with only three regular members) in 2021-22, which hampered recruitment efforts in 2021. This meant that by April 2022, Kite ON was without an active student committee in Oxford. While Kite ON’s Trustees have stepped in to ensure continuity in the charity’s activities, fundraising in particular has been hampered by this development.
On the Nairobi side, there have been positive developments. The successful efforts of Kite ON alumni in Nairobi in setting up a registered NGO in Kenya ‘Kite Nairobi Organization’ and in opening up a bank account on its behalf have enabled funds to be raised in Kenya, reducing dependency on Oxford-based fundraising efforts. Whilst Kite Nairobi Organization and Kite Oxford are separate legal entities, they will continue to collaborate, in the spirit of the partnership model which is at the heart of Kite ON.
To manage spending on projects in Kenya, Kite ON has historically transferred money from its UK bank account via Wise to a dedicated MPesa account in Kenya, managed by the Kite Nairobi committee. This had advantages as the MPesa account created a realtime record of spending in Kenya, which could easily be cross-referenced against planned budgets and receipts. Unfortunately however, in 2022-23, Wise stopped their MPesa transfer service. Kite ON therefore had to explore other models and settled on transferring funds for use in Kenya on Kite ON projects to the Kite Nairobi Organization bank account. As an account registered to a Kenya NGO, spending from this account is subject to an annual audit, providing a safeguard to ensure the proper management of finances. Without the automatic record of spending produced by the MPesa account, Kite ON has had to ensure adequate record keeping through receipts and reports, particularly when money is being withdrawn from Kite Nairobi Organization’s bank account to make cash payments (as is sometimes necessary in Kenya). Transitioning to this model brought some initial challenges (with some documentation requiring improvement). Over the next year, a priority will be to streamline the financial reporting system and ensure high standards are maintained by the Kite Nairobi Organization.
7
## **Financial Overview**
## Income
As mentioned above, personnel challenges with the Kite ON UK committee have hampered fundraising activities in 2022-23, resulting in a significant fall in the amount of funds raised, down to £1582 from £6949. Kite ON was able to continue its projects in large part due fundraising efforts by its project partner, Kite Nairobi Organization. Kite Nairobi Organization notably managed to secure a grant of 6000CHF in support of the toilet construction/water connection project. Of the money raised by Kite ON, £922 came from a grant from Wadham College Oxford following Kite ON’s selection as Wadham College JCR student charity for the 2021-22 academic year. The remainder raised came from a mix of recurrent (£243.72) and one-off (£415.72) donations. The amount raised, combined with £2121 carried forward from 2021-22 was sufficient to see the mentorship scheme through to its conclusion.
## 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 (94.6%) of funds going directly to support the implementation of our projects, the Mentorship Scheme, and toilet construction/water connection project. The decrease in administrative costs relative to last year was mainly the result of reduced publicity costs, due to the lack of recruitment in Oxford over the year (which meant no expenditure on Freshers’ Fair as was traditionally done) and the donation of Kite ON’s website subscription.
Mentorship costs were split across paying mentor stipends, purchasing materials and snacks/refreshments for the mentorship sessions, as well as an initial upfront cost to train the 33 mentors participating in this year’s programme. Kite ON covered the upfront cost of purchasing the toilets, water tanks, and sinks for the toilet-block construction project.
## Closing Balance
Financial activities over 2022-23 left Kite ON with a low closing bank balance of £284. However, with the third iteration of the Mentorship Scheme having concluded and with Kite Nairobi Organization covering initial costs of the toilet block construction project that were not met by Kite ON, the charity did not have any immediate upcoming financial obligations as of March 2023 - allowing it time to replenish its available funds.
8
## **Annual Accounts**
The tables below summarise the financial activities for Kite ON’s third financial accounting period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, in comparison to its second accounting period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022. 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 2022 to 31[st] March 2023
||**2022-23**|**2021-22**|
|---|---|---|
||**Note**
**Unrestricted**
**funds(£)**
**Restricted**
**Funds(£)**
**Total**
**funds**
**(£)**|**Unrestricted**
**funds(£)**
**Restricted**
**Funds(£)**
**Total**
**funds**
**(£)**|
|**Income from:**|659
0
659
0
0
0
922
922
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0|3844
0
3844
1588
0
1588
0
700
700
461
0
461
355
0
355
0
0
0|
|Donations|||
|Online Fundraising campaigns|||
|Restricted Grants|||
|Fundraising Events|||
|GiftAid|||
|Gifts in kind|||
|_Totals_|1582
0
1582|6249
700
6949|
|**Expenditure on:**|2
3243
0
3243
0
0
0
3
176
0
176|3899
700
4599
0
0
0
996
0
996|
|Charitable Activities|||
|Raising Funds|||
|Administration and Support
Costs|||
|_Totals_|3419
0
3419|4894
700
5594|
|**Net Income/Expenditure**|-1838
0 -1838|1354
0
1354|
|Transfers between funds|0
0
0|0
0
0|
|Net Movement in funds|-1838
0 -1838|1354
0
1354|
|**Reconciliation of funds:**|2121
0
2121
284
0
284|767
0
767
2121
0
2121|
|Total funds brought forward|||
|_Totalfunds carriedforward_|||
1 Figures presented may not sum to the presented totals due to rounding.
9
## Balance Sheet – 31[st] March 2023
||**Note**|**Value (£)**|
|---|---|---|
|**Assets**|||
|Cash at UK Bank||284|
|**Liabilities**|||
|Creditors||0|
|Taxation||0|
|_Net Assets_||284|
## 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.
2. _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.
3. _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.
4. _Calculating the Sterling value of transactions undertaking in other currencies:_ The majority of Kite ON’s 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 Kite ON’s UK bank account and converting it from GBP to KES. To convert expenditures undertaken in Kenyan Shillings falling under each category in the Statement of Financial Activities from KES to GBP values, Kite ON used the average exchange rate it received over the course of the financial year, equal to the total Kenyan Shillings sent to Kenya (482321KES) in this period divided by the Sterling value converted (£3328.49) to purchase this KES value, giving an exchange rate of 145KES per pound.
10
## **2 Charitable Activities**
||**Value(£)**|
|---|---|
|**Mentorship project**||
|Mentor Stipends|1044|
|Snacks/Refreshments for participants||
|in mentorship sessions|332|
|Materials for mentorship sessions|68|
|Printing for mentorship sessions|254|
|Monitoring and evaluation costs|23|
|Cost of training mentors|453|
|**Menstrual Health Project**||
|Toilet Block Construction and Water||
|Connection|1068|
|**_Total_**|3243|
## **3 Administration and Support Costs**
||**Value(£)**|
|---|---|
|Publicity, Outreach and Recruitment|96|
|Transaction Charges|49|
|Airtime|0|
|Bank account charges (Nairobi)|17|
|Nairobi Committee Expenses|14|
|Balance held by Kite Nairobi||
|Committee|0|
|**_Total_**|176|
11