RAISING
FUTURES
KENYA
ANNUAL
REPORT 2022
## **Thank you!**
## **Dear Friends of Raising Futures Kenya,**
Thank you very much for your kind support and donations over the past year. As a small charity each and every one of you means a lot to us and we are very grateful for you choosing to support us.
In 2022 we faced many challenges. The worst drought seen in years in Kenya has caused crops to fail, driving up food prices significantly, alongside the war in Ukraine increasing fuel prices. Communities were already struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19 causing increased unemployment rates, so this has pushed more people into extreme poverty. As always, women and girls have been hit hardest, are more likely to be forced to leave education, and are at the highest risk of exploitation and abuse.
Demand for our vocational and business skills training courses increased dramatically as people wanted to learn a trade or start a business to survive the current dire economic circumstances. We trained and supported more young people in 2022 than the first 10 years of the project combined.
This has all happened at a time when our donors are also experiencing a cost of living crisis, and sadly many have had to reduce or stop their financial support to us. Many funders are also stopping their support for international projects, including the UK Government’s Small Charity Challenge Fund which we used to be eligible to apply to, or are closing altogether. This means the same small pool of funders are being approached by more charities than ever before, making it increasingly difficult to fund international work.
Thanks to our wonderful family of supporters we have weathered the storm of recent years, and for that we are eternally grateful. Our colleagues at our partner NGO in Kenya (also called Raising Futures Kenya) have worked incredibly hard to transform our Seed of Hope vocation training and business skills project so we could support more young people in 2022 than ever before, while carefully managing our costs.
Together we have been able to support young people to build a life free from poverty. They have gained the skills and knowledge they need to secure a job, or start a small business, and the counselling support we provide has enabled them to process the stress and trauma they have experienced over the last few years, building their resilience and giving them hope, opportunity and dignity. They are waking up today with opportunities and options open to them, which they’ve never had before.
This wouldn’t have been possible without each and every person and organisation who donated to us, volunteered with us, shared our social media posts or told someone about us. Together we are making a difference and supporting young people to build a self-reliant future, free from poverty.
Thank you very much for standing by us, we really appreciate you.
Best wishes,
**Kirsty & Leela in the UK and Mary & Florence in Kenya Raising Futures Kenya Leadership Team**
**www.raisingfutureskenya.org.uk**
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Data collected from the daily monitoring records taken by Seed of Hope teachers between Jan-Dec 2022.
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## **Raising Futures Kenya Annual Report 2022**
**Raising Futures Kenya** is a small UK registered charity. For over 20 years, we’ve worked closely with our Kenyan partner organisation, Raising Futures Kenya NGO. Together we develop projects owned by the community to increase access to education, improve livelihoods and reduce poverty for young people.
Our award-winning training programme in Kenya, called Seed of Hope, enables young people who are from marginalised communities and experiencing poverty, to access business and employment opportunities, and to ultimately become self-reliant and live free from poverty, safe from exploitation.
We provide free vocational and business skills training, counselling, food and practical support for over 700 young people a year (aged 14-25, 75% girls). This enables them to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to secure employment or start a small business, generating enough income to live above the poverty line and become self-reliant and independent. After completing a Seed of Hope course, **over 90% of our young graduates go on to secure a job, start a business or access further training.**
**“I realise now all the choices ahead of me. I know these choices are mine to make now. I look at my hands and know they can make money…Seed of Hope has made me feel free.”**
- Seed of Hope student 2022
## **Trustees**
Trustees are chosen and elected by the Raising Futures Kenya Board.
Andrew Munnings stepped down in 2022 at the end of his 6 year term (29.09.22). We’d like to sincerely thank Andrew for their support and dedication. The following trustees served throughout the year 2022: Chair: Andrew King Treasurer: Michael Doris Khadija Owusu Deputy Chair: Olivia Deborah Kimathi John Fleming Geymond Manni Kuthiala Dan Bunter
**Founders -** Mrs. V. Packard. Rev. J. Packard.
**Bankers -** Barclays Bank, Tamworth Business Centre 24 Middle Entry, Tamworth, B79 7NJ
## **Independent Examiner -** Chris Tyler
## **Registered Charity Incorporated Organisation Number -** 1181670
All photos and stories in this report are shared with consent.
## **Staff**
Kirsty Erridge is the CEO.
In July 2022 Natalie Hayden joined us for 1 day a week as our Fundraising Support Officer. In November 2022 Leela Shanti joined us for 4 days a week as our Head of Fundraising and Impact.
## **Contact**
**Registered Address -** Raising Futures Kenya, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield, S1 4FW hello@raisingfutureskenya.org.uk
**www.raisingfutureskenya.org.uk**
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## **History**
Raising Futures Kenya is a UK registered charity working in close partnership with a Kenyan NonGovernmental Organisation (NGO). We were established in the UK in 2001 by Rev and Mrs Packard and registered as a charity in England and Wales on 18th March 2002 under its constitution, which was adopted on 15th December 2001 and amended 9th March 2002.
In January 2019 we rebranded as Raising Futures Kenya and registered with the Charity Commission as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO, registered charity number 1181670) to replace our former name, Vision Africa Give a Child a Future. The Trustees of the charity felt that the CIO structure, which was not available when the charity was originally founded, was more appropriate for the future ambitions of the charity. Vision Africa Give a Child a Future’s (1091198) liabilities and assets have been transferred to Raising Futures Kenya (1181670). Vision Africa Give a Child a Future (1091198) was officially closed and removed from the Charity Commission register in 2021.
## **Vision, Mission and Values**
Our **vision** is a world where all children and young people in Kenya live with dignity, hope, and the opportunity to fully participate in society.
Our **mission** is to create opportunities with children and young people in Kenya to break the cycle of poverty and inequality and fulfil their potential.
## Our **values** :
**Inclusive** - We listen to people and work together with them to develop solutions that really work and last. We do not discriminate on any basis.
**Compassionate** - We believe in the potential of all children and young people and recognise their challenges. We feel compelled to provide the support and opportunity that will help them change their lives.
**Collaborative** - We work together to make change happen, we’re happy to share with and learn from individuals and organisations to create the biggest impact.
## **Our Strategic Plan 2022-26**
2022 saw the start of a new Strategic Plan for Raising Futures Kenya. For 20 years we have talked about Raising Futures Kenya (formerly Vision Africa) as being one organisation. The reality is we are two organisations working in close partnership, a Charity Incorporated Organisation in the UK, and a registered NGO in Kenya. We’re both called Raising Futures Kenya and we’re both working towards the same vision and mission. We have just recognised that we have very different roles to play in achieving those goals: from the UK our primary function is to fundraise and from Kenya the primary function is to deliver the projects.
For the first time, in 2022, the UK and Kenyan organisations developed their own separate Strategic Plans. This is because we recognise that the Kenyan NGO should have autonomy in deciding what the programme priorities should be and how best the funding should be invested to ensure young people can become self-reliant and free from poverty. Our Kenyan staff are from the communities where we work and understand the nuanced needs of the communities and what projects/interventions will be successful.
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We are committed to **Shifting the Power** to our passionate, experienced and dedicated colleagues in Kenya. We are acutely aware of the power imbalance between NGOs in the Global North, who typically have access to funding, and NGOs in the Global South who typically are implementing the projects.
Over the next 5 years we’ll work with our Kenyan colleagues to build up their team, resources and capacity to take on more of the decision making for our two organisations. We’ll work to encourage our committed funders and supporters to fund them directly, rather than going through us in the UK as the middle-man.
## **Strategic Themes for Raising Futures Kenya in the UK**
Underpinning all of our work over the next 5 years will be the following themes:
## **Do good, be better**
Learn from the Shift the Power movement and embed it throughout our organisation. Embed a culture of reflection and respond to changes in society. Actively reflecting on our own actions, admitting to failure, looking for opportunities to learn, to act, to be better, to share and to ensure no one is left behind and everyone has an opportunity to thrive.
## **Sustainability**
This theme cuts across all of our work, from: increasing the sustainability of our programmes in Kenya; increasing the sustainability of our income through income generating activities; increasing the longterm sustainability for young people and communities who are benefiting from training and skills development at Seed of Hope; and increasing self-reliance and using environmentally sustainable working practices wherever possible.
## **Wellbeing and thriving**
Our Seed of Hope programme centres on the wellbeing of students, ensuring they are in the best position to be able to thrive. We will ensure this is extended to all staff, volunteers and anyone working with Raising Futures Kenya. We will advocate for wellbeing in the sector.
We consider the whole person in our work. Sustainable development isn’t simple; solutions are often complex and unique to each individual. We work closely alongside children, young people and families to ensure they have all the support they need to break the cycle of poverty and inequality.
## **Our Future UK Vision**
- “ **Ultimately we don’t want to exist in the UK** ” – Kirsty Erridge, CEO
In 15 years we would like Raising Future Kenya’s (UK and Kenya) unique, evidence based, approach to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to be integrated into Government, NGO and private TVET provision across Kenya – creating better outcomes for young people engaging in TVET. In 15 years we would like RFK UK to be an influential voice in the UK development sector, advocating for localisation of development work and funding.
Our ultimate long term goal is for there to be no need for a UK Raising Futures Kenya. We want RFK in Kenya to be fully autonomous and donors and funders happy to fund them directly. We realise this requires a big shift in the UK/Global North funding sector so we are committed to being here for as long as our partner NGO needs us, and the support we offer will be led by their needs and requests.
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## **UK Strategic Outcomes 2022-26**
Guiding our work over the next 5 years will be the following 3 outcomes:
- **Outcome 1** – Raising Futures Kenya has an evidence based, independently reviewed and replicable model for holistic Technical and Vocational Education and Training provision in Kenya.
- **Outcome 2** – Facilitate Raising Futures Kenya NGO in Kenya to become the lead partner.
- **Outcome 3** – Raising Futures Kenya in the UK have diversified our income sources and reduced RFK Kenya’s reliance on our/overseas funding.
The Raising Futures Kenya NGO team in Kenya at their staff training day
## **The need for our work**
In 2022, 17% of Kenya’s population was living in extreme poverty, on less than 1.90 U.S. dollars per day. The vast majority of those 8.9 million Kenyans live in rural areas, in underserved communities like those where we work (Statista, 2022).
Across Kenya, rising inflation on food, fuel and household basics along with the worst drought seen in years, on top of the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment (with over 1.5 million young people out of work), pushed more young people into deeper poverty. Most cannot afford secondary education: on average 60% of Seed of Hope students have not had secondary education, and this rises to 97% in one of our rural centres. They leave school with no qualifications or employment skills, particularly girls, and find themselves locked out of training and job opportunities as the cost of living worsens.
We are seeing the effects even more acutely in the rural, remote and slum communities we work in. Families are living hand to mouth, desperate to find money for food, selling anything they have to survive. Girls and women have been hit hardest, which puts them at high risk of exploitation. Many of the young people we work with have experienced unimaginable trauma, exploitation and abuse. Several young girls are parents as the result of rape, while others have been forced into marriages. Many have had to sell sex as a means to survive, and have experienced drug/alcohol addiction and criminal activity.
The situation has led to a huge increase in demand for our free Seed of Hope courses and the wellbeing support provided. In response to community needs, in 2021, we overhauled our programme and condensed the duration of our courses to enable young people to learn the skills and secure employment quicker. We also introduced a new short business and computer skills course for budding entrepreneurs. These changes meant we increased the number of places available from just 127 a year to 735! **In 2022 we have supported more young people than the last 10 years combined** !
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Without Seed of Hope many young people face a bleak future of poverty, exploitation, abuse and crime and no opportunities for a way out. That’s where we come in. **Our Seed of Hope programme can provide these young people with opportunity, dignity and hope for a safer, financially secure, happy future.**
## **What we do - Seed of Hope**
Through our Seed of Hope programme, we run three training centres in Kenya; in rural, remote Kitui and Murang’a, and urban Dagoretti slum, Nairobi. Our partner organisation in Kenya is run by local people from the communities we work in, with an unparalleled understanding of local issues and needs. We run regular needs assessments with the community to ensure we can adapt and refine the programme to maximise its impact.
## **Our training courses**
We provide 14-25 year olds with free accredited 6 or 12-month in-depth vocational training courses in: motor vehicle mechanics, fashion design, carpentry and joinery, hairdressing and beauty therapy and catering and hospitality. All courses include core education in English, financial literacy, business and computer skills. Students can take an external exam at the end of their course for a national qualification.
We also run 2-month short courses in Business, Financial Literacy and Computer Skills to enable young people to learn the essential skills of running a business and managing finances- perfect for those who don’t necessarily need a skilled trade for the types of businesses they want to run. This was added in 2021, in response to the skills gap identified through our thorough community needs assessment.
Catering & Hospitality course, Motor Vehicle Mechanics course and Hairdressing & Beauty course 2022.
## **What sets us apart**
Training courses alone don’t create meaningful change for young people. If young people are experiencing extreme poverty, trauma from previous abuse, are hungry or cannot afford sanitary products or childcare, they are unable to fully engage in lessons and learn. What sets us apart from traditional vocational training is not only that our courses are completely free, so they are fully inclusive to the most marginalised young people, but that we treat every student as an individual and personalise our support to their specific needs (physical and mental) and circumstances to set every student up for success.
Our free support package, developed from 20+ years of experience and community engagement, addresses barriers young people face in accessing education and employment, as shown:
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|||
|---|---|
|**What we do**|**Outcome**|
|||
|**1. Life skills lessons**
Tackle sensitive issues such as gender-
based violence, FGM, young marriage,
substance misuse, family planning, health,
hygiene and nutrition. Includes group
counselling and encourages students to
work together to seek solutions to
local/cultural challenges.|●
Helps to address community-wide issues
negatively impacting on students, particularly
girls.
●
Empowers girls to know their rights.
●
Encourages boys to become allies for girls.
●
Helps to reduce stigma around mental
wellbeing, and signposts students to our
individual counselling.|
|**2. Counselling support**
Unlimited free counselling sessions open
to all students to work through the
trauma, abuse and exploitation they’ve
experienced.|●
Enables young people to process trauma and
develop coping mechanisms.
●
Empowers young people to speak out and report
abuse.|
|**3. Practical support**
Free cooked lunches, support with travel
costs, childcare vouchers and free
menstrual hygiene packs and emergency
food packs for families experiencing
extreme poverty and hunger.|●
Removes barriers to accessing training,
attending lessons and completing courses.
●
Young people can focus on learning as their
immediate needs of hunger, childcare and
hygiene are met to be able to attend full time.|
|**4. Graduate support**
3-month placements secured for real-
world experience. Access to the Seed of
Hope Business Hub, its computers, tools
and materials to launch a small business.
Peer mentoring from former Seed of
Hope graduates in their community.|●
Young people are supported to make the leap
from learning to employment or to set up their
own business.
●
Young people become self-reliant and generate
a sustainable income to support themselves and
their families.|
**Tracking impact:** We follow up with graduates 6, 12 and 18 months after they leave our courses, to measure the longer-term impact of our training. This sets us apart from most standard vocational training. We are building an evidence base ready to share learning and impact with other vocational training institutes.
**“Working with these young people, you see transformation every day. Many of our students are young mothers. All the odds are stacked against them. Yet in every single one of our classrooms, the top performing student is a mother. I know in a year’s time these young women will come back grinning from ear to ear, happy with the life they have built for themselves, and their children, using the tools they learnt here.”** – Ann Mary, Seed of Hope Teacher, Kitui
Seed of Hope Kariti Graduation 2022
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## **Message from our Chair, Andy King**
This year, I was fortunate enough to visit Kenya again for the first time since the pandemic.
It was brilliant to spend time with our Kenyan partners - or should I say - our Kenyan leaders. Whilst there were many improvements I could point to in the Seed of Hope sites, the biggest improvement came from the Kenyan staff.
In the last few years, our Kenyan colleagues have gone from good to great. They are more confident, more decisive and have a team united around purpose. They are running the kind of organisation many UK businesses can only dream of running.
The results speak for themselves. I met with five students who told me that Seed of Hope has given them choices. They explained that previously that had felt stuck, with no options. But now, they know the options are nearly endless. One student said “I look at my hands, and know they can make money… Seed of Hope has made me feel free.”
At Raising Futures Kenya, we are proud to champion choice.
We choose to be led by the communities we serve. We choose to see young people as individuals, rather than students. We choose hope over despair every time.
Thank you for choosing this too.
Andy King, Chair of Trustees
## **James’ story**
James (name changed) is a 22-year-old Fashion and Design graduate of Seed of Hope Nairobi. He has been passionate about fashion and design from an early age, and loves travelling and meeting new friends as this gives him unique opportunities to generate new ideas.
James is the last born of six children, and was orphaned at a very tender age. His only family members were his siblings who at the time were living with different relatives across the city. James stayed with a family friend who gave him accommodation and food, but did not support his education. He had to depend on his elder brother to put him through school which was challenging because his brother had three children of his own to support. James’s primary and secondary school life was characterised by a lot of on and off dropout because he had to skip classes and
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engage in casual work as a minor to raise money for his school fees. He worked hard to successfully complete secondary school.
James joined Seed of Hope in January 2022. He undertook a course in Fashion and Fabric design and was mentored in business skills. Alongside his course, he went through mental health and wellbeing sessions and was taken through counselling by both internal and external counsellors.
He successfully finished his course and graduated in July 2022 having gained new skills and knowledge in the fashion and fabric design field. He was now set to go for a 3-month industrial attachment where he could get hands-on experience in the fashion and fabric design industry. After his internship, he secured full time employment at one of the local fashion houses, where he is currently employed as a tailor. At the moment, he is making bags made out of denim material, he makes dresses on order and he also does custom made denim shirts.
James is now earning a decent income that enables him to pay for his rent and bills and also make monthly savings. He is happy to mentor Seed Of Hope students and young people within his community, and encourages them by narrating his story and how it is important to focus and work hard towards achieving your goals in life.
## **Programme Update 2022 by Kirsty Erridge**
## **Seed of Hope Programme**
Our flagship vocational training programme for young people, Seed of Hope, was founded in 2004. The last two years have been incredibly challenging for our staff and teachers in Kenya who have worked tirelessly to ensure our students were still able to receive their education, whilst coping with their own personal circumstances. Kenya is still suffering from the devastating economic impact of COVID-19, alongside the worst drought in recent history and a cost of living crisis. Our team is more committed than ever before to ensure more young people can access the free training and support available at Seed of Hope, as it’s needed more than ever.
In July 2021 Seed of Hope underwent the biggest transformation since it began. We carried out a comprehensive community needs assessment with over 300 participants to determine which businesses were surviving in the wake of COVID-19, and what the skills gaps were in the local communities. In response to the findings we condensed the length of the courses, added a new short course and increased our support for young people.
In 2022 we were able to support more young people than ever before. **778 young people joined Seed of Hope courses and received skills training and personalised support** . To put this into context, this is more students than we supported in the first 10 years of Seed of Hope combined.
**In 2022 we supported 544% more young people than before the pandemic** (average annual student numbers used to be just 143 per year)!
That’s 778 young people who are waking up today with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to build a secure future for themselves in these turbulent times. When they thought there were no opportunities or hope, thanks to you, we could be there to show them there were.
**www.raisingfutureskenya.org.uk**
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Graduation ceremonies 2022
**“I was not satisfied with the life I was living. I wanted to do a vocational training course, so I could rely on the skills even in old age, but I could never afford it, until I heard of the free vocational courses offered at Seed of Hope. Leaving drugs behind, thanks to counselling, has been a huge milestone for me and with completing the skills course I am sure of a dignified future.’’** - Seed of Hope graduate 2022
## **Business Hub in Kangweni, Kitui County**
In February 2022 we also launched our first Educational Business Hub at the Seed of Hope centre in Kangweni, Kitui. The business hub provides tools, equipment and computers for graduates to use to start-up their business. Once they are earning enough they can start to buy their own tools and equipment. We have a business skills teacher based at the hub to offer guidance and advice. We know it’s a big leap from learning a skilled trade in a classroom to running your own business so this provides the ideal stepping stone.
Since it’s been opened we have had over 50 graduates running businesses from the hub including hairdressing and beauty therapy and fashion design and tailoring.
The broader community is also making use of the cyber cafe, which sits within the hub, and generates a small amount of income for the centre through computer use and printing services - none of which are available locally so it’s serving a local need as well as generating income for the hub.
## **Nelly’s story**
Nelly* (name changed) is a 23-year-old young mother of two who likes travelling and making new friends. Nelly has five siblings; she was raised by her mother with the help of her older siblings after her father passed away. Nelly joined secondary school but unfortunately had to drop out after form 2 as her elder brother, who was paying for her school fees, fell ill.
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Nelly then got married and had two children. Sadly, her husband stopped being supportive and she had to move back to her mother’s home with her two children. Having no skill or income, she decided to join the Seed of Hope programme in Kangweni.
Nelly enrolled at Kangweni Seed of Hope in July 2022 to study hairdressing and beauty therapy and she graduated in December 2022. She received additional support such as young mothers’ childcare vouchers, financial and business skills training and also mental health wellbeing support and counselling.
The free training that Nelly received meant that her family did not have to struggle financially while she was on the course. The support that she received through the childcare vouchers helped her take care of her children while still attending classes, therefore enabling her to focus on her craft, which she excelled at. Nelly also became young mothers’ club leader where she led the girls in supporting each other through their training journey.
Nelly secured an internship placement in a beauty Spa in Mombasa because of her skills and the customer care skills that she obtained at Seed of Hope. She is being paid well and this has enabled her to send her mother money to take care of her children. She hopes to start her own salon business in the future.
## **New Agribusiness Pilot Project in Kariti, Murang’a County**
Through Seed of Hope, the free training and additional support we offer was very well established at ‘supplying’ training, and improving employment prospects. In 2022 we recognised that despite this, we were not doing anything to reduce the general needs of the community in the first place - reducing the ‘demand’ for free training.
Our partners in Kenya carried out a community needs assessment to see what support families of students, and the wider community, needed to address the common issues facing everyone such as poverty, climate change, lack of employment and business opportunities. Through the research we found that the most common occupation in the area, due to its arid and rural nature, was small-scale farming. However, farmers were using outdated techniques and their crops were failing in the changing climate, meaning they weren’t able to grow enough to provide for their families or generate any income. This was resulting in more families experiencing poverty, unable to provide regular nutritious food, or send their children to school.
In response to the needs identified, we decided to develop a pilot project which would provide training in agriculture and business skills. This would enable local families to maximise the yield of the crops they could grow on their small farms and learn how to add value to the crops in order to sell them to generate income (such as drying fruit etc).
We established a demonstration farm in the grounds of our Seed of Hope centre in Kariti. This will enable us to demonstrate the different crops and soil treatments, grow more crops to supplement the student lunches we provide and to sell surplus crops to subsidise the running costs of the centre in the future.
The project launched with our first cohort of 79 local people in September 2022. The training runs for 3 months, providing 2-3 days training a month, and is delivered in partnership with the Ministry of
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Agriculture. Members are divided into groups depending on their location, so they can provide peer support to each other between training and afterwards. Members were taught how to prepare and treat the soil, the different crops which would survive and thrive, how to plant them and care for them and were all given some seeds to get them started. They were taught different things they could do to add value to the crops after harvest including drying fruit etc.
Business and finance skills training was provided to enable them to sell their surplus crops and products for a profit and to assist with managing their finances. They visited a local market to do some research into the types of products and crops on offer and local selling prices to give them an idea of what to sell their own produce for.
The pilot project is set to continue in 2023 with another 3 cohorts of local people being trained. After this, the local farmers will be trained to become trainers so they can self-organise their own training and continue to use our Seed of Hope Kariti centre and farm to demonstrate the different crops and soil treatments.
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## **Awards**
## **Finalist - Best NGO on Promotion of Human Rights, Diversity and Inclusion Awards**
In March 2022 we were shortlisted as a finalist in the Diversity and Inclusion Awards in the category for Best NGO on Promotion of Human Rights, held in Nairobi. Mary Mwangi (Operations Director) and Florence Olwenge (Seed of Hope Manager) were very proud to represent the charity at the awards ceremony in Nairobi.
We were nominated for our work over the last 20 years to support and encourage inclusion in education for children with disabilities. Our nomination statement said:
**“Raising Futures Kenya supports Kirunguru School in Kandara District and Percy Davies School in Kambiti, offering specialist residential education, therapies and personal care. They work with parents and the wider community to challenge stigma and harmful attitudes towards disabled people and work with partners to carry out assessments on children from the local communities and advise parents on educational and care plans. They work to get disabled children into mainstream education where possible.”**
We are proud to announce that both specialist education schools are now fully financially independent, no longer requiring funding from us, thanks to community ownership and support from the Ministry of Education.
## **Winner - Improving Impact, Charity Governance Awards**
In May 2022, The Clothworkers’ Company selected Raising Futures Kenya as the winner of the Improving Impact category at their annual Charity Governance Awards. Andy King (Chair), Olivia Geymond (Deputy Chair) and Mike Doris (Treasurer) were proud to represent Raising Futures Kenya at the awards ceremony in London. Here’s what the judging panel said:
**“The judges felt RFK demonstrated visionary leadership in prioritising the needs of the local community and taking a dynamic approach to streamlining its programmes.**
**The board has also focused on shifting power to local communities and developing local leadership in Kenya — the organisation brought most of its programmes into community ownership and is empowering its implementation partner for the ‘Seed of Hope’ to take on more operational and strategic decision-making. The judges were impressed by RFK’s ambitions to share learning from the process of shifting power from organisations in the Global North to those implementing the projects in the Global South.**
**All this has been underpinned by a more rigorous approach to impact measurement. The judges were particularly struck by RFK’s decision to focus on its most impactful programme and felt this demonstrated the organisation’s ambition to focus on depth of impact over breadth. Working closely with partners from communities to collect data using a range of quantitative and qualitative methods has also enabled RFK to be more agile in responding to change and supported continuous improvement of its programme.”**
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## **Plans for 2023**
We are under no illusion that 2023 is going to be an easy year. The cost-of-living crisis hitting our kind donors, as well as the communities we work alongside, means there will be a huge increase in need at a time when people will need to cut back on their charitable giving. Coupled with many funders shutting the doors to international development charities we are preparing for a challenging year.
We are delighted to have a BBC Radio 4 Appeal being aired on Sunday 26th February 2023 so we hope this will generate much needed funds and increase the number of people who know about us, and what we do. We will also be taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge in December where donations are matched for 1 week.
Due to the uncertain funding climate, we will be working alongside our colleagues in Kenya to support them with generating income within Kenya and becoming more sustainable (in line with our strategic plans). This will be from a variety of income generating activities such as catering, dressmaking and maximising our centre farms to subsidise running costs, alongside fundraising from local funders and corporations. Our joint target is for 10% of Kenyan expenditure to be generated in Kenya in 2023.
Seed of Hope will continue to be our flagship programme as it has the most impact in supporting young people to become self-reliant and live free from the constraints of poverty. We will continue to assess the needs of the community and identify skills gaps in the local economy to ensure the courses we offer are meeting a specific need, and will provide good earning potential for graduates.
We will continue with the pilot project for the Agribusiness community training project in Kariti, providing agricultural and business skills training to the parents/guardians of Seed of Hope students, and members of the local community. This will enable them to learn which crops are best to plant to thrive in the current climate, and how to add value to them to sell. By helping families and communities to increase the yield on their farms it improves their nutrition and health and enables them to generate money.
Our focus in 2023 will be fundraising for, and commencing the building of a new Seed of Hope centre in Nairobi. The land was generously donated to us a few years ago but the current combination of converted shipping containers and corrugated iron temporary classrooms (pictured) are not fit for purpose. We plan to build an accessible, inspiring 4 classroom building and new toilet block, with the option to add an additional floor in future, when funding allows. The new building will enable us to add an additional course and increase the number of students we can support each year to 510 students, up from currently just 195. This is a huge commitment for us as a small charity, but it is essential to the future of Seed of Hope in Nairobi - where we always have the highest demand for courses.
Current corrugated iron classrooms in Nairobi, and new proposed building (phase 1 will only be the ground floor)
**www.raisingfutureskenya.org.uk**
16
## **Finance report**
Receipts from all sources (income) between 1st January- 31st December 2022 was **£200,823** .
Payments (expenditure) for the year was **£212,556** .
£175,717 was spent on charitable activities which accounts for 87% of expenditure. The remainder was spent on generating funds, governance and admin/overheads which includes managing the finances and adhering to our statutory obligations to ensure the charity is run professionally. We do not have an office in the UK; all staff work from home to try to reduce overhead costs.
The Charity Trustees received no remuneration for their work as Trustees, but they were reimbursed for travel expenses in line with our expenses policy.
The financial statements have been prepared on the receipts and payments basis plus a statement of Assets and Liabilities in accordance with the charity’s constitution and in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011. The accounts have been examined by an independent examiner.
## **Reserves Policy**
It is the policy of Raising Futures Kenya to maintain the unrestricted reserves of the charity at a level sufficient to meet its committed spend, management, administration & support costs for a period of 3 months. The ‘reserves’ are unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets and are split between UK and Kenya accounts as appropriate. In the UK we held unrestricted, designated, reserves at the end of the year to cover 3 months UK running costs, which was £21,075. The remaining £26,597 unrestricted cash held at year end is for planned expenditure in 2023 (as we do not currently use accruals accounting).
## **Risk Management**
The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the Charity is exposed, in particular those related to the operations and finance of the Charity and continue to review systems to mitigate the Charity’s exposure to major risk.
## **Public Benefit Statement**
The Trustees of Raising Futures Kenya confirm that they have complied with the duty contained within the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit. Our Chairman’s report details how we have delivered our purposes for public benefit.
## **Safeguarding**
The safety and wellbeing of the students, community, volunteers and staff we work alongside is our top priority. We have a comprehensive Safeguarding Policy and set of procedures. All staff undergo an annual safeguarding training course and our Senior Leadership have completed training in the implementation and management of safeguarding in the humanitarian sector.
**We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our dedicated supporters and donors. Without your commitment and generosity, we wouldn't be able to continue our much-needed work supporting vulnerable children and young people in Kenya. Thank you.**
**www.raisingfutureskenya.org.uk**
17
||**Charity Name**
**Raising Futures Kenya**|**Charity Name**
**Raising Futures Kenya**|**Charity Name**
**Raising Futures Kenya**|**Charity Name**
**Raising Futures Kenya**|**Charity Name**
**Raising Futures Kenya**|**CC16a**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**For the period**
**from**||Period start date
01/01/2022|**To**|||
||||||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||
|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**A1 Receipts**|||**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|Donations|**-**
**78,702-**||**-**
**2,828-**
**-**
**104,330-**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**81,530-**
**-**
**110,330-**
**-**
**8,846-**
**-**
**117-**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**99,523-**|
|Grant income|**-**
**6,000-**|||||**-**
**105,690-**|
|GiftAid|**-**
**8,846-**|||||**-**
**5,313-**|
|Bank Interest|**-**
**117-**|||||**-**
**12-**|
||**-**
**--**|||||**-**
**--**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**-**
**93,665-**
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|**-**
**93,665-**||**-**
**107,158-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**200,823-**|**-**
**210,538-**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||
||**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**||
|**_Sub total_-**
**--**
**_Total receipts_ -**
**93,665-**
**A3 Payments**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|
||||||||
||**-**
**93,665-**||**-**
**107,158-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**200,823-**|**-**
**210,538-**|
||||||||
|Charitable activities|**-**
**96,304-**||**-**
**79,413-**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**175,717-**
**-**
**27,843-**
**-**
**5,874-**
**-**
**2,050-**
**-**
**1,072-**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**174,227-**|
|Cost of raising funds|**-**
**27,843-**|||||**-**
**22,996-**|
|Administration|**-**
**5,874-**|||||**-**
**5,370-**|
|Overheads|**-**
**2,050-**|||||**-**
**1,673-**|
|Governance|**-**
**1,072-**|||||**-**
**990-**|
||**-**
**--**|||||**-**
**--**|
|**_Sub total_ -**
**133,143-**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|**-**
**133,143-**||**-**
**79,413-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**212,556-**|**-**
**205,256-**|
||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||
||**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**||
||**-**
**--**||||||
|**_Sub total_ -**
**--**
**_Total payments_ -**
**133,143-**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ -**
**39,478-**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**--**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**87,150-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ -**
**47,672-**|**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**||
||||||||
||**-**
**133,143-**||**-**
**79,413-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**212,556-**|**-**
**205,256-**|
||||||||
||**-**
**39,478-**||**-**
**27,745-**|**-**
**--**|**-**
**11,733-**|**-**
**5,282-**|
||**-**
**--**||**-**
**--**
**-**
**1,653-**
**-**
**29,398-**|**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**-**
**--**
**-**
**88,803-**
**-**
**77,070-**|**-**
**--**|
||**-**
**87,150-**|||||**-**
**83,521-**|
||**-**
**47,672-**|||||**-**
**88,803-**|
||||||||
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|||||||
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
Barclays Account 1 RFK
Barclays Account 2
RBS
CAF Shawbrook (Reserves Account)|||**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**11,418-**
**-**
**978-**
**-**
**14,201-**
**-**
**21,075-**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**29,398-**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|||||||**-**
**--**|
|||||||**-**
**--**|
|||||||**-**
**--**|
|||||||**-**
**--**|
||**_Total cash funds_**|||**-**
**47,672-**|**-**
**29,398-**|**-**
**--**|
||(agree balances with receipts and payments account
(s))|||OK|OK|OK|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
||||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted funds**|**Restricted funds**|||**Endowment**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Categories**|**Details**|||**funds**||||||**funds**||
||||||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**||
|**B1**|**Cash funds**|Barclays Account 1 RFK||**-**|**11,418-**||**-**|**29,398-**||**-**|**--**||
|||Barclays Account 2||**-**|**978-**||**-**|**--**||**-**|**--**||
|||RBS||**-**|**14,201-**||**-**|**--**||**-**|**--**||
|||CAF Shawbrook (Reserves Account)||**-**|**21,075-**||**-**|**--**||**-**|**--**||
|||**_Total cash funds_**||**-**|**47,672-**||**-**|**29,398-**||**-**|**--**||
|||(agree balances with receipts and payments account
(s))||OK|||OK|||OK|||
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
1/12/2023
1
|**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of
all the trustees|**Details**
N/A
**Details**
N/A
**Details**
N/A
**Details**
PAYE Payable
Pensions Payable
Student Loan Deductions Payable
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**--**
**-**
**--**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**--**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**--**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
Staffing
**-**
**105-**
Staffing
**-**
**182-**
Staffing
**-**
**83-**
Print Name
Andy King - Chair
Mike Doris - Treasurer|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**
**--**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**
**--**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**
**--**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of approval|
|||Andy King - Chair|11.01.2023|
|||Mike Doris - Treasurer|11.01.2023|
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
1/12/2023
2
IIYDEPENDENT EXAMINERS, REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES
ON THE UNAUDrrED ACCOUNTS OF IUISING FirruRES KENYA
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of Raising Futures Kenya for the
year ended 31 December 2022.
Responsibilities and basis of report
AS the charity trustees of ihc Twst you are responsible for the preparation of the 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 applicabl¢ Directions given by
the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirni that no material matters have come to my attention in
connectlon with the examination giving m¢ cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting reci)rds were not kept in respect of th¢ Trust as required by ¢tion 130 of the
2. the aGGounts do not accord with those records. or
I have no ¢oncems and havc come across no othcr matters in connection with the examinalion to
which attention should be drawn in this report to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to
be reached.
C R Tyler FCA DChA FCIE
FI CRT Limited
Chartered Accountsnt
Flat 24, Wellingtonia Court
Lainè Close
Brighton
BNI 6TD
Date.. f&