Registered Charity Number: 1183873
Humanitarian Operations CIO
Trustee’s Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2023
Table of Contents
Financial Review ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Reserves Policy .................................................................................................................................... 1 Plans for 2024 and Beyond ..................................................................................................................... 2 Objectives and Activities ......................................................................................................................... 5 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Activities .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Performance and Outreach .................................................................................................................... 6 Case studies ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Structure Governance and Management ............................................................................................... 7 Principal Office .................................................................................................................................... 7 Trustees ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Appointment of Trustees .................................................................................................................... 7 Committees ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Anti-Corruption Policy......................................................................................................................... 8 Reference and administrative details ................................................................................................. 8
Financial Review
For the financial year ended the charity had excess expenditure over income of £5,942 (2022: excess of income over expenditure of £776).
The income is received from various sources. The table below shows the split of income (figures in £).
| 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| _Hertford Regional College _ | 158 | 158 |
| Personal Donations | 19,819 | 54,297 |
| TOTAL | 19,977 | 54,455 |
During the year the premises from which the charity operated were generously donated by Halkin Management Ltd and Avire UK Commercial Ltd. 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 £)
| app, with the split below (figures in | £) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2023 | |
| IT Costs | 1,312 | 2,769 |
| Stationery | 131 | 154 |
| Misc Expenses | 439 | 253 |
| Volunteer / Staff Costs | 18,712 | 38,477 |
| Office Costs | 0 | 6,702 |
| Insurance | 158 | 158 |
| 20,752 | 48,513 |
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 £4,000. The reserves at the end of the Financial Period were just under £14,000, greater than the policy requirement.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 1
Plans for 2024 and Beyond
The plans fall into 4 broad categories.
Disaster Relief Operations
-
We are in the process of establishing our Disaster Monitoring, Management, Command, and News Centres.
-
In the last three decades, technology has permeated every facet of our daily lives, but disaster relief efforts have not kept pace due to a lack of investment in Data Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, and Augmented Reality.
-
As we move towards digital solutions in disaster relief, from evaluating necessities to facilitating aid distribution, the expanding role of AI is becoming more evident. Our team has been focused on developing a digital approach to modernize disaster response efforts. This year marks the anticipated completion of our prototype for the Relief Operation System (ROS) developed by HOPE.
-
Starting this year, we will collaborate with various universities and colleges to create additional modules for ROS by HOPE, aiming to ensure it integrates effectively and enhances the efficiency of most relief operations. Modules will be added to monitor and manage the distribution of:
-
Water
-
Food
-
Medical Supplies
-
Clothing
-
Housing
-
Furnishings
-
Sanitary Supplies.
-
In preparation for the 2025 expansion of ROS by HOPE:
-
We are establishing a team tasked with sourcing and developing portable solutions for victim housing and furnishing.
-
Making our forward operations and transit hubs as portable and self-sufficient as possible is an essential part of improving effectiveness. We are establishing a permanent UK team tasked with undertaking this.
-
We are establishing a team tasked with looking at alternative solutions to satisfy the need for long term food aid.
-
We are establishing a team tasked with looking at simple product related developments that can be essential for preparedness and assist the victims of a disaster greatly.
-
We will be developing disaster relief warehouses and test centres, using temporary space available.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 2
Digital Education Platform
We are in the process of creating a comprehensive application designed to make digital education more engaging, especially for children aged 2 and above. This app is particularly focused on aiding a child’s development when they have been affected by disasters by rediscovering learning through the joy of play, hence the emphasis on cutting-edge interactive technology. By employing augmented reality, the app facilitates learning through the means of dance, art, music, and drama, greatly boosting creativity and educational experiences for children. Due to its multi-dimensional nature, where augmented reality blends movement and interaction with the physical world, thorough testing of the app prior to its release is essential both for its development and ensuring appropriate safety of its young users and based on our mission statement, the organization focuses on providing relief and assistance to people globally who are affected by wars, natural disasters, troubles, or catastrophes. Our approach includes supplying essential skills and resources to leverage digital education tools for public benefit.
In the years 2024 and 2025, we are poised for accelerated growth, leading to the establishment of specialized teams tasked with readiness for launch. This will result in a large scale increase in our requirement for space.
This is how the different spaces for our app development align with our mission:
-
I. Development Space: In this area, the primary focus will be on creating an app that aids children in disaster-affected regions. The development will emphasize userfriendly interfaces suitable for children in stressful environments and potentially with varying levels of education and technological exposure. The app's content, while focusing on attainment of educational and developmental milestones, will help alleviate the socioemotional and psychological impact of disasters and help offset their detrimental long-term effects on child development.
-
II. Testing Space: AR Testing Space: Ziggy will be controlled by AI and has to be safe…. He can’t walk through windows. Testing the AR components will ensure that the interactive experiences are calming and engaging for children affected by trauma as well as facilitate social learning and modelling of safe behaviour that requires enhanced study and trial testing. The focus will be on creating a safe augmented reality and virtual environments that provide a sense of normalcy and joy to children that would otherwise remain deprived of it.
-
Nursery Testing Space:
-
Spaces of Excellence: These areas will concentrate on ensuring the app excels in delivering educational content effectively, even in challenging environments like refugee camps or temporary shelters.
-
III. Training Space: Training provided here will equip caregivers, educators, and volunteers in disaster zones to use the educational frameworks delivered by the app as a tool for helping children learn relevant skills, knowledge and build coping mechanisms. The training should include guidance on dealing with children who have experienced trauma.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 3
-
IV. Language Development Area: Considering the global scope of our mission, this space should focus on targeting diversity and making the app accessible in several languages, with particular attention to the languages spoken in disaster-prone regions and ensuring inclusivity is observed with regards to relevant cultural sensitivities and local educational standards.
-
V. Outreach Centre: These centres will serve as local hubs for distributing the app and educating communities on its use and long-term mission. They should also provide feedback to the development team on the app’s effectiveness and gather insights on additional needs of disaster-affected populations.
Each space will work together to create and deliver an app that not only educatse but also provides socioemotional, developmental and psychological support to children in distressing situations, aligning with our organization's commitment to aid victims of war and natural disasters through innovative solutions.
Television Programing to Educate and Generate Donation Support
We are developing an interactive television program, "Little Heroes, Big Mission," aimed at fostering a sense of social responsibility and empathy among children aged 8 and above. The show will feature 12 child directors from Central London who will act as the primary creative forces. Additionally, each county and borough of London will have its own young creative directors, forming a network of branches. The unique focus of our program is to engage these children in missions related to disaster relief and assistance. For example, a mission might involve organizing a collection of essential items like food, water, sanitary supplies, and personal hygiene products for victims of natural disasters or war. Another mission could involve raising awareness and funds for the provision of digital education tools to children in disaster-stricken areas. The experiences and responses of these young directors to their missions will be documented and shared on the show, offering a meaningful platform for learning and inspiring a new generation to take compassionate action in times of crisis.
Survival Training centre and First aid Training
Our objective is to establish facilities dedicated to survival training where children can learn various essential survival techniques. These centres are designed to offer courses and experiences suitable for various skill levels and survival situations. For instance, children will learn how to have the best chance at survival using such skills such as procuring drinkable water from dirty water, identify safe-to-eat plants and insects, and develop navigational skills using tools like compasses. The training will also include methods of cooking without traditional utensils. Beyond these survival skills, we plan to provide comprehensive first aid training. This includes crucial skills such as CPR and basic life support, along with managing different types of wounds like cuts, abrasions, punctures, and addressing both hypothermia and heat-related illnesses. The training aims to equip children not just with practical survival skills, but also to foster confidence, resilience, and the ability to solve problems effectively under challenging conditions.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 4
Objectives and Activities
Purpose
Humanitarian Operations provides aid to those impacted by natural and human-made disasters worldwide. Such events often lead to uncertainty and turmoil, cutting off access to vital resources for affected individuals. Our goal is to mitigate the devastating impact of these disasters and conflicts. To achieve this, Humanitarian Operations distributes critical supplies like food, water, clothing, and items for personal and sanitary hygiene. These essentials, often scarce during times of crisis, are crucial for helping survivors restore normalcy, enabling them to recover and rebuild their lives. The primary mission of Humanitarian Operations is to address and meet the needs of individuals caught in global crises, aiding in their recovery and reconciliation wherever 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 objectives 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.
More and more children are missing out on vital elements of their education, be that because of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Cost-of-Living Crisis, or due to natural or man-made disasters. We have completed the platform prototype 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
-
Special committees tasked with assessing risks of disaster situations.
-
Facilitation of evacuation and repatriation.
-
Provision of but not limited to; food, water, and sanitary supplies to the victims of disaster
-
Providing Educational Support
-
Continued in the creation of digital educational tools for institutions that would not otherwise have access to positive and progressive education.
-
Establishing a digital education app free of charge that will teach children foundational learning and social skills.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 5
Performance and Outreach
Case studies
-
Disaster Relief Operations
-
Working with our Australian colleagues, in March, we undertook distribution of food and water to the residents affected by the floods in Queensland.
-
Working with our Bahamian colleagues, at the end of September and at the beginning of November, we undertook relief operations in response to the destruction caused by the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season. This ended up being the third worse Atlantic Hurricane Season since records began. Hurricane Ian caused more damage in financial terms than any other Hurricane in 2022.
-
We responded to Hurricane Ian in the State of Florida.
-
Our response to Hurricane Nicole was focussed on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas and primarily the State of Florida.
-
Logistical capabilities limited our response to dealing with the aftermath of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
-
Initial Development began on our Disaster Management Platform, ROS by HOPE
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 6
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
Hallam House 56-60 Hallam Street London W1W 6JL
During the year to 31 March 2023, the charity was based at 140 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5DN, moving to the current address in March 2023.
We thank Avire UK Commercial Ltd for kindly providing the office space at 140 London Wall to Humanitarian Operations rent and service charge free until February 2023.
Trustees
-
Darren Adler, appointed 9 June 2019
-
Mark Palmer, re-appointed 8 June 2021
-
Mohamed Malek Fitouri, appointed 22 February 2022
Peter Comandulli acted as a Trustee during the year, resigning on 12 July 2023.
Each trustee takes the responsibility for monitoring the charity.
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:
-
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.
-
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.
Committees
The present governance structure is as shown below with no changes introduced during the current year to any of the committees.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 7
Board of Trustees
Finance & Risk People Fundraising Committee Committee Committee
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.
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 8
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
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
Humanitarian Operations TAR 2023
Page 9