Registered Charity Number: 1183873
Humanitarian Operations CIO
Trustee’s Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2022
Table of Contents
Objectives and Activities ....................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Activities ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Performance and Outreach .................................................................................................................. 2 Case studies ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Financial Review ................................................................................................................................... 3 Reserves Policy ................................................................................................................................. 3 Plans for the Future .............................................................................................................................. 4 Structure Governance and Management ............................................................................................. 5 Principal Office .................................................................................................................................. 5 Trustees ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Appointment of Trustees .................................................................................................................. 5 Committees ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Anti-Corruption Policy....................................................................................................................... 6 Reference and administrative details ............................................................................................... 6
Objectives and Activities
Purpose
Humanitarian Operations provides relief aid to people affected by natural and man-made disasters across the globe. Often, such events propagate a period of uncertainty and chaos for these people and can reduce or even sever access to crucial resources.
Our aim is to negate the catastrophic effects that occur during these disasters and conflicts. Humanitarian Operations does this by distributing essential supplies such as food, water, clothing, sanitary and personal hygiene products. These are necessities that become scarce in the face of a disaster or conflict, and they are the tools that allow survivors to regain normality and allow them to recover and rebuild.
The ultimate purpose of Humanitarian Operations is to focus and fulfil the needs of the individual amidst international crises and to assist them in their rehabilitation and reconciliation where possible.
When planning our work, our missions and setting our objectives, we have continuously considered the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit. We ensure that our activities are in line with our charitable objective so that we can best relieve the effects of weather based, chemical, biological and nuclear disasters in the affected regions that our operations are able to reach.
As the Coronavirus Pandemic became ever more entrenched in our daily lives with schools being closed or restricting student access, the development of our free education app has become more important than ever. We have completed the app engine which will allow us to develop lessons at a very rapid pace. Currently we have built and tested our reading and numeracy lessons with amazing results. Nursery children that had never seen the alphabet before learned the entire alphabet in a day and a half. We are now developing the language translation engine which will allow our lessons to be available for free in at least 167 languages.
Activities
Humanitarian Operations’ primary activities in providing humanitarian relief from environmental, chemical and or conflict disasters are categorised as follows:
Providing Humanitarian Aid
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Special committees tasked with assessing risks of disaster situations.
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Facilitation of evacuation and repatriation.
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The COVID-19 Food distribution project for the homeless: Delivery of food and water to the most deprived population of the UK who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
Providing Educational Support
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Continued in the creation of digital educational tools for institutions that would not otherwise have access to positive and progressive education.
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Establishing a digital education app free of charge that will teach children foundational learning and social skills.
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Performance and Outreach
Case studies
Overseas
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Working with our Bahamian colleagues, teams were dispatched to Australia to assist with efforts to deal with the effects of the bush fires. Taking the experience gained running evacuation operations in the Caribbean prior hurricane impacts we were able to assist Australian families in successfully evacuating.
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As a result of our close involvement in bush fire-fighting, we are now in the process of developing a firefighter rescue unit capable of rescuing firefighters that become trapped and surrounded by the fire they are fighting.
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In Australia, the bush fire impact severely impacted the wildlife with many animals injured or left without viable habitats for survival. This was the first time that the Humanitarian Operations team became involved in large scale animal rescue.
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The likely return of pandemics have not been ruled out so it is opinion that we must develop and maintain the necessary ability to assist victims that become trapped and unable to return home should nations again enter lockdown status or close their borders. Our assistance became vital to the many Australians that became trapped as a result of their border closure.
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During the course of the year Humanitarian Operations opened our Australian Unit, and New Zealand Unit. We also commenced work on our Ukranian-Russian unit. We assited in the exfil of Ukranian-Russian dual nationals, who were stranded during the Ukrainan war. Our teams work in the same way as our Chinese and Indian Units did in assisting nationals with repatriation and evacuation as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic.
COVID-19 Food Distribution
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We have been grateful to receive pledged donations from Waitrose to distribute food to the homeless around London.
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We focused on handing out food at London's train stations as these are considered hotspots for the homeless. We created a system of fair distribution, taking details from individuals to ensure that the food was shared equally and therefore our reach spread further. We recognise that society frequently dismisses and disenfranchises the homeless as pariahs.
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We also recognise that we may not have reached every homeless person in the city, and that the donation of food creates only a short-term impact to the lives of the homeless. Nevertheless,we hope that these small acts of kindness contributed somewhat to the long-term well-being of these individuals.
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Financial Review
For the financial year ended the charity had excess expenditure over income of £776 (2021: excess of income over expenditure of £177).
The income is received from various sources. The graph below shows the split of income (figures in £).
During the year the premises from which the charity operated was generously donated by Halkin Management Ltd and the charity predominantly is operated by volunteers who receive no income or reimbursement of expenses.
The actual expenses incurred are for the relief operations and for the creation of the digital educational app, with the split below (figures in £)
Reserves Policy
We have amended the policy to reserve 1 months' worth of ongoing expenses in advance to ensure the smooth running of the charity. Currently, we value our monthly ongoing expenses are around £1,700. The reserves at the end of the Financial Period were over £1,800, greater than the policy requirement.
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Plans for the Future
The plans for the future fall into 3 broad categories.
Digital Education Projects
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Next year will see the global launch of our free learning App in over 167 languages.
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Incorporating disaster survival and preparedness in the App
Continued Workshop Development
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Introduction: What not to do
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Disaster Survival Techniques
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Rescue and Working with Helicopters
Overseas
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Working with our Bahamian colleagues we have been undertaking survival training for school children throughout the Caribbean. This will include swimming, in which our goal is to have all the children swimming confidently.
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Responding to other disasters as they occur.
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Structure Governance and Management
Humanitarian Operations is a non-governmental, non-political, non-religious organisation. The governing document is the Humanitarian Operations CIO Constitution adopted on 27 March 2019 and amended on 27 April 2020. Humanitarian Operations became recognised by the Charity Commission when it was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 13 June 2019. Our Charity Commission registration number is 1183873.
Principal Office
140 London Wall London UK EC2Y 5DN
During the year to 31 March 2022, the charity was based at 1 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND, moving to the current address on 1 October 2022.
We thank Halkin Management Ltd for kindly providing the office space at 1 Paris Gardens to Humanitarian Operations free of charge until 1 October 2022.
We equally thank Avire UK Commercial Ltd for kindly finding our current office space at 140 London Wall free of charge.
Trustees
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Darren Adler, appointed 9 June 2019
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Peter Comandulli, appointed 9 June 2019
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Mark Palmer, re-appointed 8 June 2021
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Mohamed Malek Fitouri, appointed 22 February 2022
Karl Kelledy resigned as a Trustee on 17 March 2022
Appointment of Trustees
The trustees consider recruitment of new trustees as the need arises. Applications from suitable candidates would be sought by identifying their skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. Newly appointed trustees will be provided with information on the activities, financing and management structure of Humanitarian Operations and will be referred to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and code of conduct trustees should follow. The following conditions must be met for the appointment of a new trustee:
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a. Every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
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b. The maximum number of charity trustees is 12. The charity trustees may not appoint any charity trustee if as a result the number of charity trustees would exceed the maximum.
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Committees
The present governance structure is as shown below with no changes introduced during the current year to any of the committees.
Board of Trustees
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Finance & Risk People Fundraising
Committee Committee Committee
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Anti-Corruption Policy
Humanitarian Operations is committed to training staff correctly and to enforcing an anti- bribery culture within the charity. We operate in countries that are considered to be at high risk of corruption, so our staff and volunteers are trained in how to effectively use our practices free from any corruption.
Reference and administrative details
In the event the charity exceeds the audit threshold of gross income becomes more than £1 million (or more than £250,000 and with gross assets of more than £3.26 million) the trustees will arrange for their charity's accounts to be audited.
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The following organisations have been kind enough to assist Humanitarian Operations where possible with legal, financial, and banking services.
Legal Services
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP Cannon Place 78 Cannon Street London EC4N 6AF
DLA Piper UK LLP 160 Aldersgate Street London EC1A 4HT
Allen & Overy LLP One Bishops Square London E1 6AD
Mayer Brown 201 Bishopsgate London EC2M 3AF
Financial Advisors
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 1 Embankment Place London WC2N 6RH
Goldman Sachs 25 Shoe Lane Holborn London EC4A 4AU
Bankers
Barclays 1 Churchill Place Canary Wharf London E14 5HP
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