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2022-03-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2022

UK Registered Charity Number 1184471

CONTENTS

63 Financial review

66 Statement of financial activities

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Legal and administrative information

Charity name

Help Change Lives

Charity number

1184471 (Registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales)

Registered and correspondence address

Help Change Lives 5 The Fairway Northwood Middlesex HA6 3DZ

Website address

www.helpchangelives.org.uk

Trustees

Pallvee Shah, LLB, MSc, FCA, CTA Parus Shah, Bsc, MSc Prashant Amatya, Bsc, FCA

Chief executive officer

Pallvee Shah, LLB, MSc, FCA, CTA

Bankers

Barclays Bank Plc

Independent examiner

Marietta Boutros FCCA 12 Lynton Road New Malden KT3 5EE

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Structure, governance and management

Help Change Lives (the ‘Charity’) is constituted as a charitable incorporated organisation (‘CIO’) and registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for England & Wales effective from 17 July 2019.

Our governing document is a constitution, which is based on the CIO Model Constitution as published by the Charity Commission for England & Wales with no material changes.

Help Change Lives (the ‘Charity’) is governed by its board of trustees. Trustees are recruited after being identified as having skills, contacts and other attributes that will help the Charity in the furtherance of its object and activities.

There are currently three trustees, one of whom (Prashant Amatya) is an independent trustee with significant experience in internal audit and governance. Pallvee Shah, the chair of trustees, conducts the day to day running of the charity. Future trustees must be appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the trustees.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration or other benefits. The trustees also cover the rent and utilities expenses of the Charity, and do not charge for travel or expenses, so there are no head office costs.

There is a child safeguarding policy in place that all trustees and people working for the charity are aware of and follow. DBS checks are carried out prior to commencement of trusteeship and the checks are carried out again in line with statutory requirements.

Objectives

The objects of the Charity, as set out in our constitution, are:

“… the prevention or relief of poverty anywhere in the world by providing grants, items and services to individuals in need, and/or charities, other organisations or persons working to prevent or relieve poverty for the public benefit.

This includes in particular, but not exclusively, the advancement of education with the aim of reducing poverty, provision of food, water, clothing, shelter, health aids and income generating opportunities to underprivileged persons, and contributing to social and economic development.”

In planning our activities for the year, we kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit at our trustee meetings.

100% of all non-trustee donations are spent on our projects, as the trustees cover all the other administrative costs, transfer fees and fundraising costs of the charity, which we keep to a minimum.

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Key achievements and activities

----- Start of picture text -----
Cause Countries helped Amount (£)
- Kakamega family support programme Kenya 32,293
- Higher education support (secondary school, university
and vocational training) Kenya 24,944
- RajSaubhag- humanitarian activities India 23,000
- Fighting period poverty Kenya 19,594
- Covid food relief Kenya 18,268
- SALVE International- Ugandan street children Uganda 15,150
- Mary's Meals- school feeding Malawi and Liberia 14,405
- Kangemi (Nairobi) slum school refurbishment project Kenya 14,305
- Railway Children- Tanzanian street children Tanzania 5,061
- Covid oxygen relief Nepal and India 4,473
- Medical appeals Kenya, Ghana and India 3,581
- Kenya Children Centres- feeding programme Kenya 2,640
- Shishukunj- educational books Kenya 1,500
- Miscellaneous Kenya and Uganda 1,751
- Hope4Smile- feeding Indian street families India 1,500
Total 182,464
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Costs Amount (£)
- London Marathon fees and t-shirts 472
- Website, email and data protection fees 423
- Exchange rate loss on forex balances 52
Total 947
----- End of picture text -----

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More detail on our projects during the year

Set out below are our achievements and activities in the year.

1. Kakamega family support programme (£32,293)

Help Change Lives continued a programme to support vulnerable families in Kakamega, Kenya during the year. We provide medium-term support to very vulnerable families in this region and neighbouring counties. We find the families and some are also referred to us by schools, other charities and our contacts. We assess the families carefully and help the ones in need.

A lot of the families are headed by grandparents, disabled people, women who have been subject to abuse or abandoned, or where children are at risk of turning to the streets. We aim to empower the families to become independent, improve their quality of life, and prevent the children ending up on the streets and instead help them to become valuable and independent members of society.

We build homes and toilets, provide monthly food and hygiene items, medical assistance, help with school enrolment, fees, uniforms and school supplies, reusable sanitary pads, clothes, shoes, solar lamps, vocational training, start micro-businesses and provide farming help by buying seeds and fertiliser for the families who have land.

Our work in Kakamega is delivered directly by us through our social workers, Maureen Okweya Musungu and Maxwell Masoni, who are our only paid staff members. Maureen went on maternity leave for 7 months in January 2022 and Maxwell was hired to cover for her.

Maxwell, Maureen and our trustee, Pallvee Shah, in Kakamega, Kenya

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We are a no-frills charity and do not have offices in Kakamega, as our social workers spend all their time in the field.

We keep costs to a minimum by buying food monthly from wholesalers or markets and buying all the clothing for our families from the market or obtaining them through donations.

100% of all donations are spent directly on the field as our very minimal operating costs are covered by trustee donations.

1.1 Programme background

Two of the trustees were shocked at the level of poverty and the living conditions of the people in Kakamega when we went to first visit some poor families there in 2017 and felt compelled to help the people there.

There is a very high level of poverty in Kakamega and neighbouring counties. The population is growing very fast and a large percentage lives in poverty, and in very rural conditions. Most of our families live in mud houses with iron sheet roofs and have very poor toilet facilities, if any. They often have little bedding, sleep on mud floors and some suffer from jiggers, which are small insects that burrow into feet and lay eggs, rotting them away and causing intense itchiness.

There is also a lack of formal employment and many of the people we support earn a couple of dollars a day doing casual labour such as weeding or construction work if they are able to get work. One family we are helping had the main breadwinner earning only $10 a month herding cows, even though he was trying very hard indeed. There are high levels of addiction, family breakdown and absentee parents, with ageing grandparents looking after grandchildren without support. The people we support also cannot afford appropriate medical care or medicines.

Set out below is some of the assistance we provided in the year.

1.2 Food and farming help

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Pictures of food assistance provided, as well as a family with their maize seed and fertiliser, and another with food plus some medicines for epilepsy

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1.3 Shelter and lighting

Pictures of families being helped with toilets, housing, food, solar lamps and cement floors

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Families helped with housing, utensils and solar lamps. Joshua suffers from schizophrenia and jiggers and we helped with treatment, new housing and reunification with his estranged family. Look at the transformation!

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1.4 Clothing, bedding, furniture and utensils

Bedding and clothes donations to our families in the year

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Mama Hellen adopted this young boy but then lost her arm in an accident- she was really struggling and was featured in a local paper. We helped her.

1.5 Primary school education

Young children we are supporting in primary school, with new school bags and stationery

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A group of students we are supporting in school in their uniforms and with their new stationery

A happy mum with her daughter’s KCPE (end of primary school national exams) revision guides and textbooks

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1.6 Supporting differently-abled children in Kakamega area

Some of the differently abled children we supported in the year, with three of the cerebral palsy wheelchairs we donated

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Some of the therapy aids we provided to the boarding school for differently abled children

Some of the toys we donated to the school

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Personal items we purchased for pupils who couldn’t afford them, including trunks, bedding, nappies, toilet rolls, shoe polish, uniforms and so on

A normal wheelchair donated to help get students to and from the therapy room, and another cerebral palsy wheelchair we donated – you can see how the poor child’s knees are so grazed by dragging herself around

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A young boy we have been helping since 2017- you can see how he was when he found him. He is thriving now in a special boarding school for physically handicapped children .

1.7 Medical help

During the year, we also provided medical help to the families we were supporting in Kakamega, including the following:

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Fred, doing very well now after receiving the right treatment for his kidney condition

Photos of the teenager with double club foot, who is in the process of being helped.

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The boy with a swelling on his face, and Maxwell treating jiggers for the semi-homeless man with schizophrenia

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2. Higher education support (secondary school, university and vocational training), Kenya (£24,944)

2.1 Introduction

During a trip to Kenya in July 2021, our trustee Pallvee Shah read an appeal in the Sunday Nation broadsheet regarding how very poor but bright students were really struggling to pay for the fees and personal items needed for secondary boarding school in Kenya.

Article in the Sunday Nation on 25 July 2021 highlighting the plight of poor students who couldn’t afford to go to secondary school

All good secondary schools in Kenya are currently boarding schools. It was especially hard in 2021 for students to afford the fees, which ranged from £250-£300 a year for education, boarding and food. This was due to the impact of Covid, which had led to widespread unemployment, as well as sickness and deaths of caregivers. Students also needed approximately £200-£300 for boarding school items, textbooks and uniforms.

Secondary and higher education is increasingly vital in today’s world. It really boosts the chances of employment, and for girls it’s a chance to study well without having to also manage home chores, early relationships, early marriage and teenage pregnancies.

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Following the newspaper appeal, we felt compelled to help and this started our higher education support programme. Further details below.

2.2 Academic year 2021_22 (£19,321)

We supported 55 students in the 2021_22 academic year at different levels of higher education as shown in the table below. Most were in secondary boarding school. The total amount we spent was £19,321 and the average cost per student was £358.

The 2021_22 academic year ran from 26 July 2021 to 4 March 2022. This academic year was compressed to try and catch up on lost school time during Covid.

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Academic year 21_22
Year in higher education Number
Form 1 Secondary School 30
Form 2 Secondary School 6
Form 3 Secondary School 10
Form 4 Secondary School 2
University 4
Technical Training 5
Total 57
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2.2.1 Secondary School, academic year 2021_22

In total, we supported 48 students in secondary school. Following the appeal in the Sunday Nation, we supported 9 children from the newspaper appeal, 22 students referred to us by a rescue centre for children from rubbish picker families in Dandora slum, Nairobi, (pictured below) and 17 students from our family support programme in Kakamega and from Kisumu.

The Dandora slum and rubbish area, where some of the children we are helping come from

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We are so grateful to all the sponsors who supported these students and enabled us to do this. All fees are paid directly to the schools to ensure that funds were not misused.

An update article was published in the Sunday Nation a week after the original appeal mentioning Help Change Lives and the students we had supported by then.

Photos of two sisters we found in a desperate situation at home and after we supported them at boarding school

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Where necessary, we also bought the students uniforms and boarding school personal items such as mattresses, blankets, trunks, uniforms, textbooks, bedsheets etc and supported with fare to and from school (the boarding schools are often very far from their homes).

Photo of one the students we are supporting with her boarding school items and in her new uniform, outside her boarding school. We also support with textbooks and stationery.

2.2.2 University education and vocational training, academic year 2021_22

For the 2021_22 academic year, we also supported 4 underprivileged people at university to study Bachelor of Business Administration with IT; Bachelor of Arts in Security Studies and Criminology; Bachelor of Science in Information Science and Bachelor of Education, Secondary Teacher Education.

We also supported 4 underprivileged people in technical training, doing tailoring, masonry, fashion & design and social work & community development.

2.3 Academic year 2022_23 (£5,623 spent in the year, project continued post year-end)

We continued our higher education support programme for the 2022_23 academic year, which is running from 25 April 2022 until 25 November 2022, with national exams thereafter. Again, this is a short academic year to catch-up on Covid, after which the academic years will match calendar years from 2023.

We took on many more students in this academic year and a full update will be provided in our next annual report. We raised funds of £9,109 for this academic year by 31 March 2022 and paid £5,623 by then as well. We therefore had a restricted fund balance of £3,486 carried forward at the year-end for this project.

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3. RajSaubhag Humanitarian activities (£23,000), India

3.1 Introduction

Shree Raj Saubhag Satsang Mandal UK is a UK charity that raises funds for humanitarian work being done in Gujarat, India amongst other activities. Two of our trustees visited their charitable activities in India in December 2018 and December 2019 and were impressed.

We donated £23,000 from unrestricted funds to support them this year:

This should also have helped raise more funds for the charity by encouraging other donations due to the matching.

It is called the Community Health Centre (CHC) but is actually a small hospital. The CHC provides vital access to healthcare for 120,000 people in 75 rural and poor villages in the surrounding area, saving people from travelling far to access important health services.

The costs are also heavily subsidised due to Government subsidies and public donations. Help Change Lives contributed £3,000 during the fundraiser.

3.2 Impact of our donations

The £23,000 donated had the following impact:

----- Start of picture text -----
Number of Patients/
Item
Procedures
Laboratory tests 2,485 tests
Outpatients 2,285 patients
Inpatients 328 patients
Deliveries 21 baby deliveries
Caesarians 4 C-sections
----- End of picture text -----

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The CHC provides vital access to healthcare to a very poor and rural area of Gujarat

The Trust also raises awareness for disabled persons, does advocacy work, facilitates the provision of funds and rights, runs mental health services and inclusive livelihood programmes, and runs a regional sports competition for children with disabilities.

It helps over 400 children in 4 centres in Gujarat, and provides physiotherapy, outreach services and organises camps to distribute mobility/disability aids and artificial limbs.

Photos from a trustee visit to the Ashirvad Trust Centre in Sayla, Gujarat

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It is difficult for girls to access education in rural India. It is very likely that these young women would not have been able to study this far without the provision of this facility in a small town like Sayla.

The College is educating almost 600 young women in rural Gujarat, empowering them to have an education that would otherwise most likely be inaccessible to them. It has had over 2,000 graduates since 2007.

Photos from a trustee visit to the College and adjoining secondary school, as well as a celebration in the school (bottom right)

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4. Fighting period poverty, Kenya (£19,594)

4.1 Impact in the year

The education is really valued and appreciated by both the boys and the girls, and helps girls live in dignity and comfort, as taboos are broken and they are taught how to look after themselves and their health properly. They also get to ask questions that they would never have been able to, in a safe setting and learn things that they are otherwise never taught as these subjects are not discussed openly.

Contents of a PadMad reusable pad kit with 5 pads that lasts for up to 5 years

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4.2 Why this is important

4.3 Fighting period poverty, UK talks and fundraising

We are so happy to say that the dinner raised £34,000 for our period poverty campaign, all of which will be paid in the next financial year. £17,000 was raised from attendees and this was matched by £17,000 by the Jaspar Foundation. This will have a tremendous impact that will really help change lives.

During the evening, Pallvee gave a short 2-minute talk on Help Change Lives and period poverty. Here is a link to the talk - https://youtu.be/pOnhGj7hz2s

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They talked about period poverty in Kenya and the UK and the terrible plastic pollution that arises from disposable pads and tampons- they take 500 years to degrade. There are so many fantastic alternatives that you can switch to (period pants for one)- and making this change will help the environment tremendously! The event raised awareness and funds to help 156 vulnerable girls in Kenya with reusable sanitary pad kits.

Distribution of reusable sanitary pad kits at schools in Kakamega, Kenya and neighbouring areas, with Maureen Okweya giving out the pad kits after an education session by a qualified and experienced trainer we bring in.

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Boys and girls doing the Breaking the Bias pose for International Women’s Day 2022, and smiles of delight at getting the reusable pad kits.

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5. Covid food relief, Kenya (£18,268)

5.1 First distribution in Mathare and Kangemi slums, Nairobi (£2,000 – 67 food parcels, helping at least 268 people)

Help Change Lives contributed £2,000 towards a mega food and hygiene distribution led by MZ KZ Shah Foundation (Hope4Smile) and Lions in Kenya. This was also supported by Shishukunj Kenya and Avallain Foundation.

Help Change Lives assisted in designing the food parcels and co-ordinating with the team on the ground from Lions, who sourced, packed and distributed the items. We therefore had clarity and oversight on how the money was being spent, cost-effectiveness and value and were very impressed. This led to a second, much larger distribution – see below.

Each family was given almost 50kg of food and hygiene items- 1 bale (24kgs) unga (maize) flour, 10kgs rice, 5kg red beans, 2kg green grams, 1 litre oil, 1kg sugar, 1kg salt, 1.6kg soap, 200g tea-leaves, 8 masks, 0.5 litres hand sanitizer and I packet of sanitary pads. Each parcel was designed to support a family of four for at least 1 month. The recipients were absolutely delighted.

The Help Change Lives donation was for 67 parcels/families and helped at least 268 people with food and hygiene items for a month. A total of 1,000 families were helped in Kangemi slums and Mathare slums, Nairobi, Kenya, on 29 May and 5 June 2021 by the food drive.

Photos from the first food distributions in Mathare and Kangemi slums, Nairobi

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5.2 Second distribution (£16,268 – 550 food parcels, helping at least 2,200 people)

Off the back of this successful distribution, we then did a joint mega 48-tonne food distribution in Kaani and Katwanya villages, Machakos. This is a very dry and poor region in Kenya where relief is not commonly given out, and where Covid had exacerbated an already tough situation due to lack of rain.

A total of 1,050 food parcels were given out on 26 June 2021, with Help Change Lives contributing 550 parcels and Hope4Smile contributing 500.

Lions again sourced and distributed the parcels and we are very grateful to them for their brilliant logistics and organisation, led by Dr Manoj Shah and Dr Manilal Dodhia.

Each parcel again had 46kg of food and hygiene items comprising 1 bale (24kgs) unga (maize) flour, 10kgs rice, 5kg red beans, 2kg green grams, 1 litre oil, 1kg sugar, 1kg salt, 1.6kg soap, 200g tea-leaves, 8 masks, 0.5 litres hand sanitizer and I packet of sanitary pads. Each parcel was designed to support a family of four for at least 1 month.

Here is a video showing the food being gathered and packed in a warehouse prior to the distributions: https://fb.watch/g-dDlMYIHN/.

We are really happy to have contributed to vital efforts to help the most vulnerable when they were hard hit.

Some of the families with their items- the distribution had to be done in stages as there were so many people

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The Lions team, and a sample of the items in each food parcel (there is an extra bale of flour on the table compared to the parcel)

Pure happiness at receiving this much needed and vital aid in such difficult times

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Blessings from the recipients, the joint banner, and beams of happiness…

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6. SALVE International Uganda street children, Uganda (£15,150)

6.1 Background

SALVE International (SALVE) is a UK registered charity that helps street children in Jinja, Uganda. They rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate the street children and have been running for 15 years.

Devastating UK aid cuts meant SALVE International’s (SALVE’s) Girls’ Drop-In Centre was in danger of closing in May 2021. This happened at a time when numbers of street children had increased significantly due to Covid, and they were really struggling to obtain even basic necessities, resulting in children as young as 8 years old having to resort to sex for food.

A child they are helping, Jalia (aged 13) said “On the streets, you don’t have many choices. I can look through the rubbish for scrap to sell or I can sell my body. COVID has made things worse. Sometimes I sell myself for just a chapati (10p equivalent) so I have something I can give my baby brothers to eat. I dream about going to school. I just want a different life.”

We became aware of this situation through a Facebook group for Small International Development Charities that our trustee, Pallvee Shah, is part of. UK Aid of £25,000 a year had been promised to the charity in 2021 and 2022 after thorough due diligence and this had been pulled at the very last minute. The charity was left in the lurch. We decided to help this charity after conducting due diligence.

6.2 Assistance provided and impact

We donated a total of £15,150 during the year, and enabled a further £7,000 of donations through our contacts. Here is how we helped and the impact we had:

----- Start of picture text -----
Item Expenditure
Business training, start up and follow up costs for 12
£4,173
families of street connected girls
School fees and requirements and counselling visits for
14 girls (1 secondary, 4 vocational, 9 primary) for two £2,830
terms
Contribution towards bigger Girls' Drop-In Centre costs
(rent, utilities, food, social workers, class materials,
£2,142
cleaning materials, clothes and transport for children,
new furniture)
School catch-up classes / coaching for for one term the £855
14 girls above to prepare to return to school
Total £10,000
----- End of picture text -----

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Pictures from the SALVE International Larger Girls’ Drop-In Centre in Jinja, Uganda

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Pictures and stories of the 12 families of street-connected girls we supported

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Information about the 14 girls (1 secondary, 4 vocational, 9 primary) we helped in education during the year.

7. Mary's Meals school feeding programmes, Malawi and Liberia (£14,405)

This year we sponsored school lunch for a year for 906 children in 2 schools through Mary's Meals, a UK registered charity that feeds over 2 million children in school in 19 countries around the world. That’s 181,200 meals that we helped provide in 2 different countries!

This is the impact we had:

We are delighted that these children will now be able to have at least one meal a day in a place of education - which will be their route out of poverty.

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Information on school feeding in Liberia by Mary’s Meals

Information on school feeding in Malawi by Mary’s Meals

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8. Kangemi school refurbishment, Kenya (£14,305)

8.1 Background

During a distribution of reusable pads at Kihumbuini Primary School in Kangemi Slums, Nairobi, we became aware of the terrible condition of the school. We felt compelled to help improve conditions for the school’s 1,550 mixed boy and girl student population, who all come from very poor backgrounds.

This is a government school covering preschool and grades 1 to 8. The students come from 3 slums in Nairobi- Kangemi, Kawangware and Kibagare. It was built for 400 students and looked like it has had no attention for around 35 years. The government has closed nonformal schools in the area, so the school population has greatly increased. There was huge pressure on existing facilities that were already in a bad state. There were only 34 toilets for the entire student population!

The school had toilets in total disrepair, blocked sewage pipes, cisterns hanging off walls, missing and broken windowpanes and completely worn-out classrooms, with no paint on the walls. The kitchen had also collapsed, so no lunch could be served. As the parents are from a poor background, they don’t have much leverage to get things sorted out by the government.

We arranged for a local contractor to do the work to keep costs as low as possible, and a volunteer for Help Change Lives, Pratik Shah, helped oversee the project from Nairobi, whilst Pallvee Shah supervised the project from the UK and was in touch with the contractor and the headmaster on an almost daily basis.

We raised just over £21,000 for this project in the financial year, and work started in January 2022. We are really grateful to all the donors, who enabled us to do this wonderful project and change so many lives. A significant donation was made by the Bhagwanji Raja Foundation, who donated more funds post year-end as well.

By 31 March 2022, we had spent £14,305 and are expecting to complete this project by the end of 2022. We were able to do more work than originally planned due to extra funds raised, for which we are very grateful indeed. Work done post 31 March 2022 will be reported on in our next annual report.

8.2 Impact

The impact of helping this school is that a very large student body will benefit for many years to come in terms of better sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and studying environment, leading to higher grades and less disease in the student population. This makes it a very high impact project to support. If we estimate 150 new students joining every year for the next 10 years, then over 20 years at least 5,000 students will be helped, including the existing school population.

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One of the donors to our project also initiated a school feeding programme that started after the year-end. This was enabled as the kitchen was refurbished by other friends of the school, who were keen to help after they saw the changes we were making. The ripple effects of this project are wonderful to see and will also have a long-lasting benefit on the health and concentration of the pupils.

Distribution of reusable sanitary pad kits at this school in Nairobi’s Kangemi slums, which made us realise how bad conditions were at this school for almost 1,600 students with just 34 student toilets that were not flushing and had blocked sewage pipes

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8.3 Project details

The project involved the following work:

  1. Toilets and washrooms- The boys’ and girls’ toilets were terrible, with cisterns falling off from the walls so the toilets cannot be flushed, no doors and peeling paintwork. We replaced all the toilet bowls and cisterns, repainted the toilet blocks and put in new doors. We also built a large new urinal for 10 boys at a time with more sinks to increase capacity, and fixed the blocked sewage pipes.

  2. Windows- A lot of the windows were missing glass or were non-existent, and so the classrooms were open to the elements. There was no heating, and it got very cold and wet at times, such that the students were really suffering. The work required was to repair 42 sets of windows, of which 37 needed to be made new, welding, removal of all wooden frames and replacing with new metal frames, welding the broken window and grills, and plastering and painting the frames. We fixed or replaced all the windows, making the new ones from scratch to reduce costs.

  3. Classrooms and admin block- The 21 classrooms and 5 room admin block were very dark, dingy and dirty. They badly needed to be repainted inside and outside, including the ceilings. They also needed new cupboards and blackboards. We painted all the classrooms inside and outside, including the ceilings and blackboards.

  4. An entire building housing grade 3 was in a state of total disrepair and needed a lot of work. We fixed the roof, repainted all 4 rooms inside, put in larger windows, repaired the veranda on which porridge is served, added steps to the side and widened the front steps to enable easier serving of food to the population of 1,600 students. It's hard to believe it's the same building! We also refurbished the storeroom inside in preparation for the new school feeding programme.

  5. New desks and chairs were needed for the students as some students were sitting on the floor and studying, whilst others were sharing 4 to a desk meant for 3, writing on their laps. By 31 March 2022 we had provided additional desks and chairs for 60 students, with many more helped post year-end.

8.4 Visuals of the transformation

We visited Kihumbuini Primary School four times during a trip to Kenya in April 2022 and were amazed at the transformation. We met the headmaster and the school’s board of management, and they were so incredibly grateful and happy at the changes. Unfortunately, the school holidays had started, so we could not meet the pupils.

They noted how the pupils would be so much more motivated to study in the lovely new environment, and how their health would improve given the improvement in the toilets and the provision of reusable sanitary pads.

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The photos below are from our trip and show work in progress as well as completed items. We shall be really pleased to share the full transformation in our next annual report.

----- Start of picture text -----
 Work done on toilets and washrooms:
----- End of picture text -----

State of toilets and washrooms before the refurbishment

Unblocking the sewer pipes

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Work in progress on toilets and washrooms, and photos of the new urinal and sink. Photo shows Parus Shah, one of the Help Change Lives trustees.

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Refurbished toilets and washrooms from inside and out- new paint, new internal and external doors, cleaning and plastering.

Photos show Pratik Shah, a volunteer for Help Change Lives who was helping supervise the project in Kenya and co-ordinate with the contractor; and Mr Hassan Tala, the headmaster of the school, along with some workers.

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Work done on classrooms, windows and admin block:

Photos of the state of the classrooms before and during the works. Photos show representatives from major donors, along with our trustee, Pallvee Shah

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State of outside of classrooms and windows before the refurbishment

Newly refurbished classroom in use, with new windows

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Newly refurbished classrooms from the outside, and work in progress on top left

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State of Grade 3 building prior to refurbishment, and work in progress

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Partially refurbished Grade 3 building and state of the large classroom inside prior to the refurbishment- the windows were tiny and broken, the ceiling had holes and the walls were filthy

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State of Grade 3 classroom before refurbishment and work in progress on the verandah

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Repainting the Grade 3 classroom, holes in the ceilings which were fixed and the finished classroom with the happy pupils

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9. Railway Children Tanzania street children (£5,061)

In June 2021 Help Change Lives provided Railway Children with £5,061 to support streetbased interventions in Tanzania, including the Kivuko Smart School (KSS) in Mwanza, near Lake Victoria. This is the impact the funds had:

The Kivuko Smart School in Mwanza, Tanzania, run by the Railway Children

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10. Covid oxygen relief in Nepal and India (£4,473)

During the peak of the Covid pandemic, there was a severe shortage of oxygen in certain countries, resulting in an urgent need to obtain oxygen concentrators and build oxygen plants in order to prevent deaths. We donated to two appeals that were raised by trusted sources:

Help Change Lives fundraised for this appeal, and we were able to donate £2,473 towards the oxygen plant. Prashant visited the plant in December 2021 and was pleased to see that it was open and operational. Oxygen is provided free of charge to the poor. Those able to pay are being charged a nominal amount to cover operational and maintenance costs. This will really make a difference to the underprivileged community living locally.

The oxygen plant we donated towards at the Chhatrapati Free Clinic (Hospital), Kathmandu, Nepal

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11. Medical appeals in Kenya, Ghana and India (£3,581)

During the year we supported 2 major medical appeals and several smaller ones.

We have been funding the education of children from the rubbish picker community in Dandora estate, a Nairobi slum, in co-ordination with the local Rehema Rescue Centre that is based there. They approached us in January 2022 to ask if we could add on one more child as an emergency as the father had developed cancer. On seeing his photos, our trustee Pallvee Shah investigated further and found it was a potentially curable cancer, but the father had run out of funds and therefore had not been able to afford any treatment following a biopsy. He had only weeks left to live without any help.

We fundraised to help Silas. We paid for the Kenyan government National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for him, which was expected to cover the majority of his chemotherapy costs and some medicines. We also raised funds to cover other scans, tests, medicines and cab transport for him (needed due to weakened immunity and risk of Covid).

By 31 March 2022 he had had 3 cycles of chemotherapy and the tumour had shrunk significantly. By the reporting date Silas has had 8 cycles of chemotherapy and is now cancer free. We are so happy for him. The treatment raised unexpected costs as the government hospital had run out of chemo drugs at times and were unable to provide all the medicines needed, so private treatment was also needed at times. He still needs regular scans. This shall be covered in the following year’s report.

The treatment saved his life and it has certainly helped him have a much better quality of life than before, as he had been unable to eat, drink or sleep. We have also supported his wife’s tomato business, provided him with some emergency food relief and paid some school fees for his children as he is unable to work and was the main breadwinner. A donor for his medical treatment is also now directly supporting one of his children in secondary school, another wonderful ripple effect.

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Silas – before, during and after his treatment for lymphoma

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12. Kenya Children Centres feeding programme in Kenya (£2,640)

This UK charity has a local partner in Kenya through which it runs excellent programmes. We support their feeding programme in Umoja, Thika, Kenya. The programme started by feeding children in the slum area. It has since expanded and been moved to the nearby Umoja Primary School.

Help Change Lives supported the feeding of porridge before school for 60 children and a hot githeri lunch for 75 children (there is some overlap but some of the children at both sittings are different). The children are weighed and measured twice each term to assess progress.

The charity has built a database of BMI and academic performance with measurements taken twice each term at 7 of their 8 feeding projects, covering approximately 800 children. The data shows an improvement in four areas:

Children being fed at Umoja Primary School in Umoja, Thika, Kenya, run by a local partner of Kenya Children Centres

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13. Educational books to Kenya (£1,500)

We funded the subsidised cost of approximately 40,000 educational English medium books sent to Kenya by Shishukunj London. This formed part of a 40ft container sent to Kenya by Shishukunj- the rest of the books were funded by other parties.

The books were distributed to vulnerable schoolchildren in Kenyan Government schools by Shishukunj Kenya.

This will help improve the education and literacy of the children and make a significant impact on the resources available to them. We are really pleased to have supported this programme.

Some books donated by Help Change Lives to a Kenyan Government School through Shishukunj

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14. Hope4Smile feeding Indian street families (£1,500)

We supported 6 weeks to 2 months of feeding vulnerable people on the streets of Jamanagar, India through Hope4Smile, a UK registered charity (under the name M Z and K Z Shah Foundation).

Food was given once a day to approximately 175 people each day. A local partner distributed cooked food to villages in the outskirts of Jamnagar, giving meals to people on the streets, including children. The meals cost approximately 15 pence each. We are really happy to have supported this initiative that feeds the very vulnerable in society.

Street families being fed in Jamnagar, India through Hope4Smile and a local partner

15. Other small donations (£1,751)

The charity wrote: “The children were thrilled with them, the blankets arrived just in time for the rains when it gets a little cooler at night and as the children have just started back at school after two years it is so wonderful for them to have new backpack to start them off. It has really helped them to prepare for going back to school after so long away, made sure it was a more positive experience and that we were giving them some encouragement.”

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16. Expanding our profile and sources of donations

Thank you also to Shishukunj London for organising training, logistics, support and a delicious post-marathon lunch. We love collaborating with other charities and together we have a bigger impact.

Pallvee and Hema were also featured in their local newspapers- Northwood News and Pinner News, thus increasing awareness about Help Change Lives through another channel.

Our London Marathon team on Marathon Day, 3 October 2021

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London Marathon team photo in Help Change Lives t-shirts

Pallvee Shah featured in Northwood News

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Hema Khimasia featured in Pinner News

Future plans

As at 31 March 2022, our future plans included:

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Financial review

1. Expenditure

All expenditure in the year has been on projects to further Help Change Lives’ charitable objectives. 100% of all non-trustee donations are spent on our projects, as the trustees cover all the other administrative costs, transfer fees and fundraising costs of the charity, which we keep to a minimum.

There are no head office admin or UK staff costs as the trustees are working on a voluntary basis from their own premises and do not charge for any travel or expenses.

We have only two paid staff members, who are our social workers in Kenya. They carry out the work needed to run our Kakamega Families Programme on the ground.

Please see section 6 below on Reserves policy for further information.

2. Income

Our main source of funds this year (53.9%) has been public donations, including from friends and non-immediate family. 46.1% of funds were raised from trustees and related parties.

3. Designated and restricted funds

£112,458 (57%) of the donations received in the period were restricted funds given to support specific appeals.

The trustees have not designated any unrestricted funds for a specific purpose.

4. Banking and investment policy

Funds held by the Charity are not invested. They are held as cash balances and a small amount in hand / mobile money in Kenya. The Charity has a UK Barclays Bank Community Account (Charity Account) that offers special charity rates.

Minimal bank fees of £18 were incurred in the period. These have been included within project costs. These fees are covered by trustee donations.

5. Related party transactions

46.1% of funds were raised from trustees and related parties. The amount includes Gift Aid and corporate matching.

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6. Reserves policy

Our reserves policy is to hold at least enough funds to cover legally committed expenditure and forecast expenditure for the next four months.

Our reserves at 31 March 2022 were £39,846 (£26,307 at 31 March 2021). There was no legally committed expenditure at the year-end.

Of this, £35,474 comprised restricted funds for the following causes:

----- Start of picture text -----
Cause Amount (£)
-
Fighting period poverty 16,276
-
Kangemi slum school refurbishment project 6,715
-
Kakamega family support programme 5,396
-
Medical appeals 3,601
- Higher education support (secondary
school, university and vocational training) 3,486
Total 35,474
----- End of picture text -----

The balance of £4,371 in unrestricted funds covered our forecast unrestricted expenditure on the Kakamega Families Programme for the next four months.

7. Accounts format

We have used the receipts and payments accounts format set out for small charities by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

8. Independent examination

Our financial statements are required to be independently examined as the Charity’s income for the year exceeded £25,000.

The trustees are pleased that Marietta Boutros FCCA, an experienced certified accountant, has agreed to carry out the independent examination.

This report of the trustees was approved by the trustees on 14 December 2022 and signed on their behalf by:

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Report to the trustees/
members of
On accounts for the
period ended
Set out on pages
Responsibilities and
basis of report
Help Change Lives (a charitable incorporated organisation)
31stMarch 2021
Charity
no.
1184471
66 following
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity (“the CIO”) for the period ended 31stMarch 2022.
As the charity's trustees, 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 CIO’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters examiner's statement have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in, any material respect:  the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or  the accounts did not accord with those records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

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Statement of financial activities for the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

Countries helped Unrestricted
Funds

Restricted
Funds

Total at 31
March 22

Total at 31
March 21
Section A – Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts- Donations and Gift Aid 98,896 98,053 196,949 81,814
A2 Asset and investment sales - - - -
Total receipts 98,896 98,053 196,949 81,814
A3 Payments
- Kakamega family support programme Kenya 14,953 17,340 32,293 31,076
- Higher education support (secondary school,
university and vocational training)
Kenya 8,245 16,699 24,944 -
- RajSaubhag Humanitarian activities India 23,000 - 23,000 -
- Fighting period poverty Kenya 690 18,904 19,594 3,235
- Covid food relief Kenya 16,650 1,618 18,268 15,795
- SALVE International Uganda street children Uganda 5,201 9,949 15,150 -
- Mary's Meals school feeding Malawi and Liberia 14,341 64 14,405 5,947
- Kangemi slum school refurbishment project Kenya - 14,305 14,305 -
- Railway Children Tanzania street children Tanzania 5,061 - 5,061 -
- Covid oxygen relief Nepal and India 2,534 1,939 4,473 -
- Medical appeals Kenya, Ghana and
India
1,350 2,231 3,581 -
- Kenya Children Centres feeding programme Kenya 2,640 - 2,640 2,640
- Shishukunj educational books Kenya 1,500 - 1,500 -
- Hope4Smile India feeding street families India 1,500 - 1,500 0
- Miscellaneous donations Kenya and Uganda 1,751 - 1,751 1,062
- London Marathon fees and t-shirts 472 - 472 444
- Website, email and data protection fees 423 - 423 178
- Exchange rate loss on forex balances 52 - 52 769
- School solar power project Kenya - - 0 9,376
- Shishukunj Sponsor a Child India - - 0 7,200
- Blood cancer medical appeal India - - 0 5,500
- Virgin MoneyGiving registration fee - - 0 180
A3 Payments sub-total 100,362 83,049 183,411 83,403
A4 Asset and investment purchases - - - -
Total payments 100,362 83,049 183,411 83,403
Net of receipts/(payments) (1,467) 15,004 13,538 (1,589)
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 5,838 20,470 26,307 27,896
Cash funds at 31 March 2022 4,371 35,474 39,846 26,307
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of theperiod
Unrestricted
Funds

Restricted
Funds

Endowment
Funds
B1 Cash funds 4,371 35,474 -
B2- B4 Other assets - - -
B5 Liabilities - - -

Approved by the trustees on 14 December 2022 and signed on behalf of the trustees by:

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