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2022-07-07-accounts

Cape Verdean Association UK Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)

Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 07 July 2022

Registered Charity Number: 1191106

Cape Verdean Association UK CIO Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022

The Trustees present their annual report together with the financial statements for the charity for the year ended 07 July 2022.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS102) (effective 1 January 2015) (amended 2 February 2016) as detailed in the accounting policies.

1. Reference and Administrative Details

Charity Name: Cape Verdean Association UK Registered 1191106 charity number: Charity's 1 Winmill Road principal Dagenham address London RM8 3AA

Names of the charity Trustees who manage the charity

Trustee Name Date Appointed Position
Osvaldo Marques Semedo 02/09/2020 Chair
Anabela da Conceicao Gomes
Lopes Semedo		 02/09/2020 Secretary
Maria Teresa Sanches Semedo 02/09/2020 Treasurer
Armindo Emanuel Fernandes de
Brito		 02/09/2020 Cultural Attaché

Bankers Lloyds Bank plc 25 Gresham Street London EC2V 7HN

2. Structure, Governance and management

Governing Document

Cape Verdean Association UK is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), Foundation model constitution, registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales on 02 September 2020, number 1191106. This report and accounts are for the 12 months period ended 07 July 2022.

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022 (continued)

Organisational Structure

The charity Trustees are responsible for the general control and management of the charity. The Trustees give their time freely and receive no remuneration or other financial benefits.

The secretary was appointed by the Trustees to assist freely in the day-to-day administration of the charity.

The Trustees meet regularly and are responsible for all decisions taken in relation to providing community support and running activities provided by the charity. To assist the smooth running of the charity the Trustees have volunteers, an Honorary Communications Officer and an Honorary Social Attaché Officer that freely support them to oversee certain aspects of the charity work, the running of activities/workshops or administrative task. A register of members and volunteers is maintained digitally and is available to the public upon request.

Recruitment and appointment of Trustees

Apart from the first charity Trustees, every trustee appointed is elected by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity Trustees.

The existing Trustees are responsible for the recruitment of new Trustees and will seek views and recommendations of the elderly and community leaders. The Trustees believe this approach ensures that new Trustees are respected members of the community and ensures that good relations are fostered with the people of the communities served.

Newly appointed Trustees are provided with a comprehensive induction pack containing the charity’s constitution, annual reports and statement of accounts as well as the roles and responsibilities of charity Trustees. An initial meeting with the charity Trustees to brief them on their legal obligations under charity law is also arranged. When selecting new trustees, the Trustees identify people who attend the events, activities, workshops organised by the charity and who are willing to volunteer to help expand our community work.

Risk Management

The Trustees recognise the major strategic, business and operational risks which the charity might be exposed to and confirm that systems are in place to ensure regular reports are made in order for the Trustees to ensure all necessary actions are taken to mitigate risks. The procedures are periodically reviewed to ensure that they still meet the needs of the charity.

3. Objectives and Activities

The objects of the Charity as stated in its Constitution are to be carried out for the public benefit to promote social inclusion for the public benefit by working with people in the UK who are socially excluded on the grounds of their ethnic origin, religion, belief or creed in particular, members of the Cape Verdean community to relieve the needs of such people and assist them to integrate into society, in particular by:

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022 (continued)

Nothing in this constitution shall authorise an application of the property of the CIO for the purposes which are not charitable in accordance with [section 7 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005] and [section 2 of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008]

4. Achievements and Performance

The charity Trustees continue to have regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and continued to carry our voluntary actions to benefit the community served in the understanding of information, accessing and use of services by using their proficiency in the English, Cape Verdean and Portuguese language to bridge communication with support services, by providing translated information or by serving as interpreters over the phone and/or in person.

The charity continued to use social media platforms, email, phone and online Zoom meetings, to run informational workshops, provide support in the completion of forms or to support users in understanding key information. Cape Verdean Association UK also worked in partnership with other support services and organisations signposting/referring service users to professional/qualified advisors and services.

Throughout the year and within its capacity, the charity delivered a wide range of activities, summarised below, which fulfilled its charitable aims and the Trustees believe they benefited the communities served and promoted the social inclusion.

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022 (continued)

Cape Verdean Association UK promoted several online Health and wellbeing video messages through a volunteer community Psychologist & Autism specialist who is working with the community, in particular but not exclusively, those from African Portuguese descent, to help people recognise and seek adequate support. This is an ongoing project which is helping to raise awareness on current scenarios of mental health, depression and isolation following unprecedented times and pandemic restrictions and is supporting many to identify where to seek help.

Cape Verdean Association UK also engaged in the promotion of information about free meals, access to free English language workshops, participated in Digital inclusion workshops to provide support to those having problems to use NHS platform to book appointments with their GP or request medication and also actively divulge info and supported people to access food banks or extra support due to cost-of-living increases.

Those that seek our support had very limited English and/or no knowledge of where to ask for help being left in disadvantaged positions so we aimed to help them understand the information, reach/contact support services so that they can feel included and understood. We continued to work with specialist welfare and immigration advisors and organisations, who provide the service to the community and by donating our skills freely we made sure to continue promoting the inclusion of service users in their communities.

Using this platform, the charity also supported Cape Verdeans living in the UK with information and guidance on how to renew their Cape Verdean Identity documents by using the online Cape Verdean Consulate portal. We helped specially the elderly and those who were not computer literate to understand and complete information, send emails and regulate their status in the UK.

We also participated in Online workshops/conferences organised by the Ministry of Cape Verdean Communities for Cape Verdean Communities in the diaspora which aimed at discussing how can the inclusion of Cape Verdeans living abroad be promoted in the countries they live and how Cape Verde can support this inclusion. The key learnings from these events were shared with the community through our online platforms and social media.

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022 (continued)

We started a project with the community to launch the “Batuko” project. This is the first Cape Verdean “Batuko” group in the UK which is aimed at sharing ancient heritage of Cape Verdean ancestors with those that were born in the diaspora and want to learn more about their heritage and ancestors’ stories through rhythm, chants and dance to promote cultural heritage in the UK. The group volunteers engaged in several workshops and fundraising events, we were invited to participate in Cape Verdean Cultural heritage event “Rhythms of Cape Verde” in Luxemburg to represent the community in London, we also took part in Contemporary Music Proms in London to share the Cape Verdean tradition engaging with other communities to share cultures, rhythms and how UK embraces different traditions and heritage to unite people.

Fundraising events have been promoted to get the charity work known, raise funds for our activities, increase volunteer engagement/support for the charity, connect the different communities, share culture and traditions. We also promoted an event to empower women and to raise awareness of the increased violence against women. Volunteer women from the community who are leaders and specialist in women empowerment freely supported the organisation to put the event together to make sure the message widely shared reached as many women as possible to change their realities and see how they can move away from vulnerabilities, unemployment, isolation and have their own businesses or source of income.

With these wellbeing, community engagement, cultural and leisure activities we enabled people to connect with their communities, other Cape Verdeans but most importantly we relieved isolation and promoted inclusion of people and the share of cultural heritage amongst different communities.

5. Financial Review

The charity has no access to public funds and has not applied for funding yet. The Trustees continued to contribute voluntarily so that activities and provision of services, food/essentials can be available if needed. We have organised fundraising events and received donations from the community and this is supporting the run of activities and promotion of community inclusion.

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022 (continued)

Reserves Policy

For the period the Trustees have voluntarily held enough funds via membership contribution, which they have set up as a £60 monthly contribution, this helps them meet operational costs for charity activities. The Trustees still regard this as insufficient and are striving to make reasonable surpluses in the future to build up reserves to cover events or situations that may arise.

Principal Funding Sources

For the current period fundraising events, donations and trustees’ contributions have been the main source of funding to the charity.

Plans for future periods

The Trustees recognise the need to grow the income and to diversify its income stream to become a more sustainable organisation, capable of responding to any demands for services and meeting the needs of the community. The charity intends to diversify their income streams and increase funds through more consistent fundraising events and activities, intends to continue to build the charity operational capacity and infrastructure so that its less dependent on voluntary donations from members of the community, we continue to look for a physical space which will allow us to connect in person with the community and do more community inclusion activities such as digital inclusion and provide a wider range workshops for the community.

Develop the existing “Batuko” project to help more and more in the combat of isolation, depression and mental health problems. We aim to bring people and communities together, sharing cultures, traditions and experiences in such a diverse country.

We continue to give great emphasis to the promotion of welfare and wellbeing, being cultural heritage, traditions and knowledge sharing amongst community groups the core to empower so we will look to raise the promotion of inclusive wellbeing activities.

Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The charity Trustees are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the charity Trustees to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and for the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 07 July 2022 (continued)

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charity’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Acts. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The annual report was approved by the Board of Trustees on 21[st] April 2023 and signed on its behalf by:

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Osvaldo Semedo, Chair of Trustees Date: 21[st] April 2023

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Statement of Financial Activities / Receipt and Payments Account for the year ended 07 July 2022

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Cape Verdean Association UK CIO

Notes to the Payment and Receipts Account for the year ended 07 July 2022

1. Accounting policies

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:

CIO information

Cape Verdean Association UK was registered as a charitable incorporated organisation on 02 September 2020 and is governed by a constitution dated 01 September 2020 and registered with the Charity Commission under charity number 1191106. The charity’s principal office address is 1 Winmill Road, Dagenham, RM8 3AA.

Accounting convention :

The accounts (payment and receipts accounts) have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) issued on 16 July 2014 (“Charities SORP (FRS102)”), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), the Charities Act 2011 and UK Generally Accepted Practice as it applies from 1 January 2015.

The payment and receipts accounts have been prepared to give a ‘true and fair’ view and have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a ‘true and fair view’. This departure has involved following Charities SORP (FRS 102) rather than Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice effective from 1 April 2005 which has since been withdrawn.

The Cape Verdean Association UK CIO meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

Going concern

The Trustees have at the time of approving the payment and receipts accounts a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus, they continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Income resources

All Income resources are recognised once the charity has entitlement to the resources, it is certain that the resources will be received and the monetary value of incoming resources can be measured with sufficient reliability.

Voluntary income received by way of donations/contributions are included in full in the receipts and payments account when receivable.

The value of services donated by volunteers has not been included in these accounts, except where the services provided are in the nature of professional services where a fee would otherwise be charged.

Fund accounting

All funds received in the year are unrestricted in their application, the Trustees having full discretion over their use.

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