## **Kumi Community Foundation** **Charity registration number: 1184935** **Registered address: 2 Upsall Drive, Darlington DL3 8RB** **Trustees’ Annual Report 01/09/2024 to 31/08/2025** ## **Objectives and Activities** The purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document are: THE RELIEF OF POVERTY, SICKNESS AND DISTRESS, THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION OF, IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY, DISADVANTAGED AND DISABLED CHILDREN AND ADULTS LIVING IN THE TESO REGION OF UGANDA, BY THE PROVISION OF SUPPORT, ITEMS AND FUNDS AS THE TRUSTEES SEE FIT. The main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit are: enabling those in need to access nutrition, medical and therapeutic assessment and intervention, aids to mobility and hygiene, education, training, and income generating activities. The Trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. All Trustees are volunteers. Additional UK volunteers help with fund-raising events and craft items for sale or to distribute in Uganda. Ugandan volunteers provide local knowledge and contacts, make field visits to identify those in need, and follow their progress after intervention, as well as supporting banking and administration. ## **Achievements and Performance** Our founder, Elspeth Robinson, was awarded a well-deserved MBE in an investiture By Prince William at Windsor Castle in June 2025, recognising her immense personal contribution in initiating the work of the charity. Donations from private individuals and commercial or charitable organisations make up much of the funding for KCF (75%) and Gift Aid is claimed where applicable, providing another 4%. Organisations giving generously have included St Augustine’s Parish Centre Darlington, Soroptimists International of Darlington District, Darlington Inner Wheel, Convent of Poor Clares, and Scorton Methodist Church. A range of fund-raising activities (which provided 18% of income) included sales of bric-a-brac and craft goods, Christmas wreath-making workshops, an Open Day at the founder’s home and a ceilidh. Other income came from bank interest. 1 We are particularly grateful for generous donations from Farmers Overseas Action Group (for surgeries for gluteal fibrosis) and The Rope Trust (for the transport of mobility equipment into Uganda). KCF has continued to sell Gift Cards, raising £1035 in this financial year, thus providing for Income Generating Projects (IGPs, e.g. chickens and goats to improve the status and financial security of a family affected by disability), Afripads (menstrual hygiene products so that girls don’t have to miss school every month) and aids to mobility (prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs). KCF has produced two newsletters (circulated in print and by email) and made regular use of the website and Facebook to publicise the work. These media have proven valuable in telling the stories of individuals whose lives have been changed immeasurably by the work of KCF. KCF volunteers in Kumi have facilitated 4 outreach clinics. Following each clinic, reports, including photographic evidence, have been submitted to Trustees so that action plans and costings can be agreed. Clinic outcomes over the year have been summarised by our team leader in Kumi as: 71 surgeries, 9 prostheses, 17 orthotic devices and other aids to promote safe mobility, one walker, 8 hand-propelled tricycles and 6 bicycles. KCF has continued to support the work of the Nutrition Unit at Kumi Hospital. 110 patients were identified during outreach ranging from very young babies to older teenagers. As well as providing life-saving nutrition, staff aim to identifying causal factors and conditions, educate mothers re breastfeeding and weaning and support families and carers emotionally, socially, and practically in the often difficult task of bringing up a child with a disability. During the period of this report, 2 tailoring students have completed their courses and been given a sewing machine and materials to begin in business. Another young mother of a disabled child has been enrolled on the course. Our founder, Elspeth Robinson, visited in September 2024. She was able meet the family of the late Atom Ruth (a long-standing key volunteer in Kumi) and give thanks personally for Ruth’s valued service. Two Trustees and a supporter visited in March 2025. They worked tirelessly to iron out issues in new procedures, establish a kitchen garden for the Nutrition Unit, supply income generating projects and much else besides. Working in partnership with PhysioNet, a charity that collects unwanted wheelchairs and other mobility equipment and refurbishes them to send abroad to those in need, KCF was able to fill a forty-foot container with more than 100 wheelchairs as well as postural chairs, walking frames and pairs of crutches. This container left England in May 2024 to travel by sea and road to Kumi, arriving in August, well in time for a distribution camp in October. The successful distribution took place between Monday 28th October and Wednesday 6th November 2024. A total of 222 clients were seen, 2 101 wheelchairs were distributed, as were 13 postural chairs, 7 buggies, 12 walkers, 18 walking frames, and 53 pairs of crutches. A total of 19 prosthetic limbs were also funded. Principal areas of expenditure in Uganda during this period (£33,785) related to hospital expenses (36%), education (21%), nutrition (9%), income generating projects (6%), and physical aids and workshop (6%). Other expenditure included client and team expenses, especially transport, so necessary when working to support those in remote areas. Operational costs have been higher this year as they include the cost of shipping disability aids from the UK to Kumi (£8,000), and the cost of the distribution itself (£5,500) which involves transport, materials, and nutrition. Therapists and technicians fund their own air travel, accommodation, and other expenses, for which the charity commends them. KCF continues to be reliant on a small number of dedicated volunteers ‘on the ground’ in Kumi. Kumi Hospital management continue to be very supportive of KCF, working positively to enable KCF to ‘help others to help themselves.’ ## **Contribution made by volunteers.** Key volunteers in Uganda: - manage the day-to-day administration of banking, finances, record-keeping and maintaining the link with the Trustees, - liaise with Kumi Hospital staff. - manage the educational and vocational needs of sponsored students, including enrolment, paying fees, providing requirements and transport if necessary, maintaining contact with the school Director and staff, and ensuring that students' situations are satisfactory. - identify new individuals and families in need of assistance, conduct or arrange for assessments and report back to the Trustees for advice on future action and permission to finance the assessed need. - Support the above individuals and families to access assistance, for example by funding transport if this is needed, and by meeting perceived immediate needs such as inadequate nutrition and medical costs. Other Ugandan volunteers work with the above to identify new families with children with disabilities and/or malnutrition and report back with information for the key worker's assessment. In the event of a proposed outreach clinic, such families are alerted through the church, health centres, and schools. UK volunteers - assist with social media. - visit Kumi with Trustees in order to experience and support the work there. - raise funds in many different ways, including by making and selling craft items. 3 ## **Financial Review** At the end of the period, the charity carries forward £45,743. As budgets are set for quarterly expenditure based on funds already in hand, the only funds held in reserve are £8,000 to ensure the payment of school and training fees for one year. No funds are materially in deficit and there are no specific financial uncertainties about the charity as an ongoing concern at present. The charity’s principal sources of funds are: - one-off and regular donations from individuals on which Gift Aid is claimed where applicable, - collections of donations in public buildings on which Gift Aid (Small Donations Scheme) is claimed where applicable, - donations from supportive organisations, - funds raised by the charity as well as by individuals and other organisations. through sales of gift cards, crafts, coffee mornings, sponsored events etc. The principal risk facing the charity is reliance on a small number of committed but busy individuals in Uganda. Trustees are continuing to work to mitigate that risk in a number of ways, for example by: - simplifying procedures and paperwork, - providing appropriate transport and information technology, - encouraging Ugandan volunteers to identify other local individuals who may be able to help with this work in the future. ## **Structure, Governance and Management** Kumi Community Foundation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, governed by a constitution. Trustees managing the charity are Elspeth Robinson (Chairperson), Lynn Fletcher (Secretary), Lynne Mosher (Treasurer), Michele Herdman, Lynne Williams, and Hannah Meeson. Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. The charity trustees will make available to each new charity trustee, on or before his or her first appointment: - a copy of the current version of the constitution, - a copy of the latest Trustees’ Annual Report and statement of accounts. - a copy of the Safeguarding Policy ## **Links with other Charities** The charity continues to work with PhysioNet, collecting mobility aids for refurbishment and shipment to Kumi for another distribution camp in Spring 2026. 4 ## **Declarations** **The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.** **Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees** |**Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)**
**Position (e.g., Secretary,**
**Chair, etc)**
**Date**||| |---|---|---| ||Elspeth Robinson|| ||
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