DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
Charity Registration No: 1191810 Company Registration No: 12433605
ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE ELEVEN MONTH PERIOD
1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
| ALSAMA PROJECT | |
|---|---|
| ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | |
| FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021 | |
| CONTENTS | |
| Reference and administrative details | 3 |
| Trustees’ report | 4-6 |
| Independent examiner’s report | 7 |
| Statement of financial activities | 8 |
| Balance sheet | 9 |
| Notes to the financial statements | 10-13 |
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
Charity number: 1191810
Company number: 12433605
Principal office and registered office address:
5[th] Floor, 30-31 Furnival Street, London EC4A 1JQ
Trustees
The trustees who served during the period and since the period-end were as follows:
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Meike Ziervogel
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Elizabeth Mary Robertson
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Richard Verity
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Christopher John Lindsay Teesdale
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Suhir Helal
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Dr Paul Stuart Mitchell
Independent examiner
Alex Friede BA ACA of Philip Friede & Co Ltd, 5[th] Floor, 30-31 Furnival Street, London EC4A 1JQ
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
TRUSTEES’ REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
The directors present their report together with the financial statements for the period ended 31 December 2021.
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).
Structure, governance, and management
Governing document
Memorandum and articles incorporated 30 January 2020 as amended by special resolution registered at Companies House on 2 September 2020 as amended by certificate of incorporation on change of name dated 7 October 2020.
Appointment of directors/trustees
The directors have the power from time to time to appoint new or additional directors for the company.
Induction and training of directors/trustees
New directors undergo induction training as required and are given documentation to brief them on their legal obligations under charity and company law, the content of the Articles of Association.
Organisation
The Board of Directors meets regularly to administer the company.
Objectives and activities
The company’s objects are specifically restricted to such purposes which are exclusively charitable and for the benefit of the public under the laws of England and Wales as the Trustees shall in their absolute discretion determine, including (but not limited to): the relief of poverty or financial hardship among refugees and asylum seekers by providing grants, items and services to individuals in need and/or charities or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty; acting as a resource for refugees and asylum seekers by providing advice and assistance and organising programmes of physical, educational, arts and other activities as a means of:
(a) advancing in life and helping young people by developing their skills, capacities, and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals.
(b) advancing education.
(c) relieving unemployment.
(d) providing recreational and leisure time activity in the interests of social welfare for refugees and asylum seekers who have need by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disability, poverty, or social and economic circumstances with a view to improving the conditions of life of such persons.
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
TRUSTEES’ REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
The company aims to provide public benefit by the relief of poverty or financial hardship among refugees and asylum seekers by providing grants, items, and services to individuals in need and/or charities or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty.
Throughout this process, the directors have regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit contained in section 17(5) of the 2011 Charities Act and ensure that the company’s services meet these criteria.
Investment powers and policy
The charity’s directors, having regard to the liquidity requirements of the operation and to the reserves policy as stated below, have the power to invest in any way that they deem to be appropriate.
Financial review and performance
Since January 2020 Alsama Project UK has raised funds and provided support to Alsama Project Lebanon. Alsama Project Lebanon educates Syrian refugee teenagers and empowers Syrian refugee women. It sets up secondary education institutes, sport hubs and social enterprises in refugee camps in Lebanon.
Alsama Lebanon began in January 2020 as a small girls’ empowerment centre, teaching awareness, cricket and yoga to a few dozen teenage girls in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut.
Many of the girls could barely read and write. But it did not take long, and they had caught the scent of education, wanting more. When they asked to be taught English, budgeting, to properly learn to read and write their mother tongue, Arabic., Alsama Lebanon decided to establish an education institute and expand their cricket hubs.
Now, Alsama Lebanon is running two full-time teenager education institutes for 400 students (girls and boys) in the Shatila and Bourj al Barajneh refugee camps in Beirut, 9 cricket hubs for 450 players (200 players are also attending the education institutes) across 6 refugee camps (including in the Bekaa Valley), and a social enterprise – Alsama Studio – that provides employment to 25 refugee women. In addition, Alsama Lebanon supports their most talented students at partner secondary schools towards university and provides vocational training in IT and coding to 200 of their students.
Alsama Project UKs spend is carried out in Lebanon under the direct supervision of Meike Ziervogel. The spend in the coming financial year to 31 December 2022 is forecast to average £25,000 a month. Approximately £17,000 per month represents regular payments to 60+ teachers and coaches who work in the two education institutes and nine cricket hubs. All these teachers and coaches have been specially selected and receive training and on-going supervision to ensure that Alsama Project’s objectives are progressed and in furtherance of the three Alsama Project Values of collaboration, ambition, and excellence. Most teachers and coaches are themselves refugees and therefore the payments they receive help support the refugee community. As refugees cannot be employed directly, they are paid on a freelance basis by Alsama Project UK. Remaining amounts spent in Lebanon cover such costs as monthly rental of school rooms and cricket playgrounds, stationery and equipment, local secondary school fees for advanced student tuition and the transportation costs bringing children to and from the cricket playgrounds as these are mostly situated outside the refugee camps.
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
TRUSTEES’ REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
Financial review and performance – continued
Alsama Lebanon sets a high bar on the quality of education. They work closely with a leading global consultancy firm and have developed their own challenging education curriculum and teacher training programmes which allow illiterate teenagers and/or students with little previous school experience to reach Year 9 level Arabic, Maths and B2 CEFR English level in three to five years. Moreover, Alsama Lebanon has an overall no frills bootstrapping approach with their HQ in a small room in the Shatila centre and their “per student” annual cost of US$756 is 72% of the global average of US$1,051(World Bank/UNHCR). This comes in at less than 1 dollar per hour. Their educations institutes teach 5 days a week for 44 weeks a year, and cricket takes place all year round.
Strategic aims
Since continuity is the basic principle of any education system, it is paramount for Alsama Project Lebanon to run their educational and sports programmes with sustainable continuity in mind. So, it is essential for Alsama Project UK to raise and secure sufficient funding reserves to ensure this continuity
Listening to their community’s needs, Alsama Lebanon has big ambitions for the future - they intend to >3x their impact in terms of lives transformed within the next two to four years, and to ‘go big’ on helping these at-risk teenagers & their families become productive members of the society in which they live - may this be in their host society, Lebanon, or when they return to their home country, Syria.
To achieve these aims, Alsama Lebanon throughout 2022 will consolidate and institutionalise their current programmes - including curriculum development for education institutes, coding and cricket, and development of strategic impact framework, based on Alsama’s strategic objectives & enablers (including OKRs & targets).
Alsama Project Uk throughout 2022 will continue to provide funds and support to Alsama Project Lebanon. Alsama Project UK’s long-term strategic goal is to provide funds and support for Alsama Project Lebanon’s expansion of secondary education institutes, cricket hubs and vocational training for Syrian refugee teenagers living in camps in Lebanon.
PAUL MITCHELL Chair of the board of trustees
16 June 2022
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ALSAMA PROJECT
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES
I report on the accounts of the charitable company for the period ended 31 December 2021 which are set out on pages 8 to 13.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Charities Act”) and that an independent examination is needed.
It is my responsibility to:
examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act;
to follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act; and
to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner’s report
My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and the seeking of explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
Independent examiner’s statement
In connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:
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(a) to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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(b) prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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(c) the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement to give a “true and fair” view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
ALEX FRIEDE BA ACA
Philip Friede & Co,
- 5[th] Floor, 30-31 Furnival Street, London EC4A 1JQ
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ALSAMA PROJECT STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted TotalTotal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds FundsFunds | ||
| 1.2.21-30.1.20- | |||
| 31.12.2131.1.21 | |||
| £ | £ £ £ | ||
| Charitable income: | |||
| Donations from private individuals and | |||
| financial institutions | 161,650 | 98,683 260,333 193,711 | |
| ___ | __ __ _____ | ||
| Total income | 161,650 | 98,683 260,333 193,711 | |
| _ | _ ___ | ||
| Expenditure | |||
| Expenditure on charitable activities | |||
| Grant payments to Alsama Project | |||
| Lebanon | 4,761 | 35,385 40,146 99,217 | |
| Freelance staff costs operating | |||
| in Lebanon | 4,732 | 75,616 80,348 - | |
| Charitable expenditure - other | 2 | 24,324 | 2,316 26,640 30,891 |
| ___ | __ _ _ | ||
| Total expenditure | 33,817 | 113,317 147,134 130,108 | |
| ___ | _ _ _ | ||
| Net movement in funds for the period | 127,833 | (14,634) 113,199 63,603 | |
| Transfer between funds | (11,860) | 11,860 - - | |
| Fund balances brought forward | |||
| at 1 February 2021 | 57,103 | 6,500 63,603 - | |
| ____ | _ _ _ | ||
| Fund balances carried forward | |||
| at 31 December 2021 | 173,076 | 3,726 176,80263,603 | |
| _ | _ __ _____ |
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ALSAMA PROJECT BALANCE SHEET
FOR THE PERIOD 1 FEBRUARY 2021 TO 31 DECEMBER 2021
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | 31.12.21 | 31.1.21 | |||
| £ | £ | £ |
£ |
|||
| Current assets | ||||||
| Bank account funds | 182,295 | 3,726 | 186,021 | 63,603 | ||
| Liabilities | ||||||
| Creditors: amounts falling due | ||||||
| within one year – accrued costs | (9,219) | - | (9,219) | _ | ||
| _ | _ | _ | _ | |||
| Net current assets |
173,076 | 3,726 | 176,802 | 63,603 | ||
| _ | _ | _ | _ | |||
| Total net assets | 173,076 | 3,726 | 176,802 | 63,603 | ||
| _ | _ | _ | __ | |||
| The funds of the charity: | ||||||
| Restricted funds | 5 | - | 3,726 | 3,726 | 6,500 | |
| Unrestricted income fund | 173,076 | - | 173,076 | 57,103 | ||
| _ | _ | _ | _ | |||
| Total charity funds | 173,076 | 3,726 | 176,802 | 63,603 | ||
| _ | _ | _ | _ |
These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions for small companies under Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.
For the financial period ended 31 December 2021 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under Section 477 Companies Act 2006 and no notice has been deposited under section 476.
The trustees/directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 with respect to the accounting records and the preparation of the financial statements.
These financial statements were approved by the directors/trustees on 16 June 2022 and were signed on their behalf by:
…………………………………………… Paul Mitchell– Chair
The notes on pages 10 to 13 form part of these accounts
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the period ended 31 December 2021
1. Accounting policies
(a) Basis of preparation and assessment of going concern
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these financial statements. The financial statements 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 United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.
The trust constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.
The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the Trust’s ability to continue as a going concern.
(b) Reconciliation with previous Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
In preparing these financial statements the trustees have considered whether in applying the accounting policies required by FRS 102 and the Charities SORP FRS 102 a restatement of comparative items was needed. No restatements were required.
(c) Funds’ structure
Fund accounting
The Company’s funds are:
Unrestricted general fund s which are available to be spent in accordance with the charitable objects of the company.
Restricted funds which are donations or grants received that have specific restricted conditions placed on them by the donor or a specific object attached to them. These funds may therefore only be used for the specific object to which they have been given. Any balance remaining unspent at the end of the year is carried forward as a balance on that particular fund.
(d) Income recognition
All income is recognised once the charitable company has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received, and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the period ended 31 December 2021
(e) Expenditure recognition
Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that settlement will be required, and the amount of obligation can be measured reliably.
All expenditure is accounted for on the accrual’s basis.
Grants payable are payments made to third parties in the furtherance of the charitable objects of the Trust. Grants are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the period in which they have been paid.
2. Charitable expenditure - other
1.2.21- 30.1.2031.12.21 31.1.21 £ £ Charity operating costs in Lebanon 16,286 Accountancy and legal fees 4,074 - Bank charges 159 - Discovery Summer -English Language Classes - 20,000 Lebanese Yoga School Training costs - 787 Cricket equipment 2,316 333 UK Legal fees for charity setting up - 4,500 Lebanese legal fees - 848 Website development costs - 3,288 Business subscription payments - 345 Alsama studio label payment - 170 Other costs - printing 3,805 620 _ 26,640 30,891 ___
3. Trustees’ expenses and remuneration
The trustees all give freely their time and expertise without any form of remuneration or other financial benefit in cash or kind.
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DocuSign Envelope ID: C609D524-FD68-477B-BDB2-F4DC2DADCCE5
ALSAMA PROJECT
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the period ended 31 December 2021
4. Staff costs
The charitable company does not employ any UK staff. The teachers and coaches in Lebanon are primarily paid as freelancers by the UK charity.
5. Statement of funds
Unrestricted funds
£ General funds Balance at 1.2.21 57,103 Income 161,650 Expenses (33,817) Transfer to restricted funds (11,860) Balance at 31.12.21 173,076
Restricted funds Balance at 1.2.21 6,500 Income 98,683 Expenses (113,317) Transfer from Unrestricted funds 11,860 Balance at 31.12.21 3,726
The restricted funds and the
balances held in these funds as at 31 December 2021 are:
Academic Excellence Fund £2,709 Studio £0 Vocational Training £1,017 Cricket £0 Education £0
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ALSAMA PROJECT NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the period ended 31 December 2021
| 6. Analysis of net assets by fund | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31.12.21 | 31.1.21 | |||
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | Total | |
| general funds | funds | |||
| Represented by: | £ | £ |
£ | £ |
| Tangible fixed assets | - | - | - | - |
| Current assets | 182,295 | 3,726 | 186,021 | 63,603 |
| Current liabilities | (9,219) | - | (9,219) | - |
| 173,076 | 3,726 | 176,802 | 63,603 |
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