Kurikindi Foundation CIO Annual Return for the year 07.12.20 – 31.03.22.
Trustees’ Annual Report Annual Accounts
Organisation type: Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registered charity number: 1192677 Principal address: Apartment 316, Building 50, Argyll Road, LONDON, SE18 6PP
Trustees
Patricio Hualinga, Chair (16.12.20 – present) Ann-Marie Black, Treasurer (16.12.20 – present) Shaun Higgins, Secretary (17.06.21 – present)
PLEASE NOTE: the term “indigenous” is recognised by the people it describes as an oppressive term coming from the language and culture of those who colonised the peoples of the Americas from the 15[th] Century onwards. Instead, these people have chosen to be described as the “original” people. It is this term that the Kurikindi Foundation embraces and refers to in this document.
Governance and Management
The charity is operated under the rules of its CIO (Foundation) constitution adopted on
07.12.20. Our organisation was founded and is chaired by a master shaman of the Kichwa people of Ecuador. One unique and important aspect of the Kurikindi Foundation is that it is founded-upon the shamanic values of the original people. These are practised in life and work by every one of our trustees. Trustees are appointed in accordance with our constitution, and with regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for our effective governance.
Our Aim
The Kurikindi Foundation aims to work in collaboration with original people communities across the globe in developing initiatives for people living in the Amazon rainforest. This is to facilitate vital outcomes in improved education, health, citizenship and community development, sustainable living and protection of the rainforest. The foundation delivers its projects in Ecuador.
Objectives
(1) To promote sustainable development for the benefit of the public by:
-
(a) the preservation, conservation and the protection of the environment and the prudent use of resources;
-
(b) the relief of poverty and the improvement of the conditions of life in socially and economically disadvantaged communities;
-
(c) the promotion of sustainable means of achieving economic growth and regeneration.
Sustainable development which addresses the needs of the present communities without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
-
(2) To advance the education of disadvantaged and wider global communities, in subjects related to sustainable development and the protection, enhancement and rehabilitation of the environment. To promote a platform of exchange, study and research in such subjects provided that the useful results of such studies are disseminated to the public at large.
-
(3) To promote for the public benefit the human rights of Indigenous people, as set out in the universal declaration of human rights and subsequent united nations conventions and declarations including ILO conventions 107 and 169 by all or any of the following means:
-
Obtaining redress for the victims of human rights abuse;
-
Relieving need among the victims of human rights abuse;
-
Research into human rights issues;
-
Providing technical advice to government and others on human rights matters;
-
Contributing to the sound administration of human rights law;
-
Raising awareness of human rights issues;
-
Promoting public support for human rights.
In furtherance of that object but not otherwise, the trustees shall have power to engage in political activity provided that the trustees are satisfied that the proposed activities will further the purposes of the charity to an extent justified by the resources committed and the activity is not the dominant means by which the charity carries out its objects.
Summary of Activities Undertaken for the Public Benefit
No activities were undertaken in this financial year. For the record, our future work will address:
Education
To provide educational facilities and resources for indigenous children in rainforest c ommunities, supporting the provision of state education.
Health
To establish small, funded Primary Care medical centres for indigenous rainforest communities, offering medical care integrating both modern and traditional medicine.
Citizenship and Community Development
To support indigenous rainforest communities in developing their understanding of the outside world and find sustainable, community-led ways to protect their cultural identity, knowledge and wisdom, and conserve their values and way of life.
Human and Legal Rights
To support indigenous rainforest communities in developing their knowledge and understanding of their legal rights and find community-led ways to maintain sovereignty and guardianship over their ancestral lands.
Environmental Regeneration
To develop and share effective methods of environmental regeneration with indigenous rainforest communities, that work in synergy with the local environment, achieved using local research, education and community decisionmaking processes.
Environmental Protection
To support and educate communities in their guardianship responsibilities towards preserving and protecting the rainforest and its diverse ecosystems. Disaster response and prevention strategies will also be developed to address the threat of oil spills and other external environmental threats.
Public Benefit Statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in Section 4 of the
Charities Act 2011, having due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
Summary of Main Achievements
This annual report describes the Kurikindi Foundation’s main achievements in its first (extended) financial year. During this time, we did not receive or spend any funds, or offer any services directly to the public. As a small team of trustees working part-time on the charity, this year was spent focussed upon sufficiently developing the foundations of the organisation in order for it to fulfil its intended charitable function in service to the public benefit. During those months we developed:
1) Our organisational strategy
We chose to use the Charity Governance Code, as endorsed by the Charity Commission, as the foundation upon which to build our governance practices and to unite our policies and their procedures. From here, we have developed our own Strategic Plan, creating a clear cascade between our vision, mission, strategic priorities and focal areas of action, as expressed in the pyramid below:
Drawing-upon expertise from the business world to utilise the Balanced Scorecard methodology, we created our Strategic Map: a flow-chart outlining how people, systems and resources within our organisation all join-up in the most-effective way to fulfil the goals described in our action plan. The map allows:
-
us to understand the interconnectedness of all things within our charity
-
- us to track and improve-upon our whole organisational function, being able to recognise how changes in one area impact upon another
-
all team members to understand their roles from within a whole organisational framework and therefore work in a more considered and joined-up way
-
external stakeholders to understand clearly how it is we go about our work
What’s important to point-out is that the map is developmental, in that it outlines what we optimally wish to become over the next three years. Looking at the strategy map below, you will see that we pay attention in particular to the interconnectedness between four segments within the organisation:
-
Team, Knowledge and Resources : having a well-trained, knowledgeable, skilled and resourced team
-
Organisational Processes : having strong internal systems and processes
-
Financial Management : having strong financial management systems, methods and expertise
-
Beneficiaries : creating effective outcomes and satisfaction for those we serve and building trusting relationships with them
2) Our organisational policies and procedures
To meet our legal requirements and create the safest, most-effective programmes of work, we began the process of writing our own core policies and procedures, most notably in:
- Equalities and Anti-Discrimination
-
Healthy and Safety in our UK-based work
-
Health and Safety when working Overseas in Ecuador — based upon British Standard 8848: the specification for the provision of visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the United Kingdom. This was a very big piece of work that required thorough consideration of the health & safety implications for travelling and working in the rainforest, including measures needed if and when taking groups from the UK to the forest. We are continuing to develop our procedures in this area into a comprehensive administrative system that generates an expedition logbook taken to Ecuador when delivering projects
-
Privacy
-
Safeguarding of Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults , written in context of
our work with original people communities
-
Risk Management
-
Reserves Management
-
- Conflicts of Interest
-
- Ethical Fundraising
-
- Complaints
3) Our administrative infrastructure
Putting flesh onto the bones of our Strategic Map, we began to develop our administrative systems. With no physical office and trustees based in different locations, all our data systems needed to be cloud-based, with all communications and general meetings held digitally. From this, we have developed a work-in-progress virtual office system that allows us to work from anywhere in the world, combining platforms that offer secure, private email, phone calls, text messaging, video conferencing, cloud storage, and real-time collaborative document editing and publishing.
We decided in this year to use Xero.com for online account management services, to support our needs as a cloud-based organisation. We also decided to build our marketing activities and track our beneficiary/member/donor engagement using Beacon CRM, which was awarded best charity CRM by charitydigital.org.uk.
4) A unique offer to our donors and members
Our intention is to offer engaging, growth experiences not only to our beneficiaries but also to our donors and members who support our work. Like most charities, we chose to offer our donors/members ways of having a sense of belonging to the charity as a community, and having a sense of intimacy and connection with all our projects and their outcomes made possible by their financial contribution. However, as a charity with a commitment to supporting rainforest people playing their vital part in making global change, we want our donors and members to be touched and transformed by the wisdom the forest people have for the world. So all our members and donors will have different opportunities to engage with the culture and understanding of the rainforest, and its implications for how we personally and collectively choose to live and be in the world, be it through online gatherings hosted by wisdom-keepers, live events in the UK, or journeys to Ecuador visiting rainforest communities.
5) Our first project proposals
During this year we identified two possible first projects, which are still under review. These are:
Charapa Turtle Project
Choosing to focus upon serving the interwoven needs of tribal communities and the local environment, we explored creating a scheme where local Kichwa families living along the River Curaray in Eastern Ecuador would be employed to protect endangered Charapa turtle populations by relocating their eggs to a protected artificial lake within community grounds, then releasing all the young once sizeably grown back into the wild. Similar projects worldwide have visibly increased local turtle populations and successfully discouraged poachers from
returning to strip habitats of all eggs and kill many turtles for meat, to sell on lucrative black markets.
Puyo House Project
Knowing that many rainforest children, living in extreme isolation, are unable to continue with their educational studies after primary school due to a lack of teachers and schools in their community, and a lack of funds to instead study in a major town, we explored building a house in the city of Puyo where academically-able children could stay whilst completing their studies in the city. This would be a self-sufficient dwelling, where the children grow their own food and manage livestock, alongside making a living producing artisanal rainforest arts & crafts items, whilst being cared for and supervised by a resident caretaker, and supported in their educational studies and learning English by resident international volunteers. With a quality modern education, these children can later become a part of building sustainable forest-based businesses that generate enough wealth and prospects to sustain their communities, their sovereignty over their ancestral lands and their wisdom traditions that are the key to protecting and preserving the Amazon rainforest, itself.
6) A change to our board of trustees
On the 27th May 2021, two of our trustees resigned from the Kurikindi Foundation. On the 17[th] June 2021, Shaun Higgins was then elected to join the charity, maintaining our constitutional minimum of three trustees.
CHARITY ACCOUNTS
Financial Overview
From 07.12.20 – 31.03.22, no funds were received or spent by the charity. The charity held no assets or liabilities. Most running costs (such as electricity, stationery or internet use) were negligible and were covered personally by the trustees. We had some start-up expenditures (professional consultation on our application to the Charity Commission; freelance writing services for the development of our constitution, objects and activities; and website development costs), the costs of which were covered personally by Patricio Hualinga. These costs have been recognised in signed written statements and will be paid back to Patricio when the charity has sufficient unrestricted funds. No trustee received any expenses remuneration or benefits in this financial period.
Financial risks and reserves
There were no deficits held or financial risks posed towards us as a charity during the financial year. As a going concern, alongside accruing restricted funds in the coming financial year, it will be our aim and responsibility to accrue unrestricted funds to help us further develop our infrastructure and build sufficient reserves. We have written a reserves policy, that will be developed next year as our project and running costs are better understood.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Shaun Higgins, Secretary 09.01.23.
----- Start of picture text -----
Charity No:
Kurikindi Foundation 1192677
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
Period start date Period end date
For the period
To
from 07.12.20. 31.03.22.
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the to the nearest to the to the
to the
nearest £ £ nearest £ nearest £
nearest £
A1 Receipts
None 0 0 0 0 0
- - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 0 0 0 0 0
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
None
0 0 0 0 0
- - - - -
Sub total 0 0 0 0 0
Total receipts 0 0 0 0 0
A3 Payments
None
0 0 0 0 0
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total
0 0 0 0 0
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
None
0 0 0 0 0
- - - -
Sub total
0 0 0 0 0
Total payments
0 0 0 0 0
Net of receipts/(payments)
0 0 0 0 0
A5 Transfers between funds
- - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end
- - - - -
Cash funds this year end
0 0 0 0 0
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted Restricted
funds funds Endowment
funds
Categories Details
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds None
0 0 0
- - -
- - -
Total cash funds
0 0 0
----- End of picture text -----
| (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) OK OK OK |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds |
|||||||
| Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £ |
|||||||
| B2 Other monetary assets | None | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | |||||
| Details Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) Current value (optional) |
|||||||
| B3 Investment assets | None | - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| - | - | ||||||
| Details Fund to which asset Cost (optional) Current value |
----- Start of picture text -----
belongs (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the None
charity’s own use - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to Amount due When due
which (optional) (optional)
liability
Details relates
B5 Liabilities None
-
-
-
-
----- End of picture text -----
----- Start of picture text -----
-
Signed by one or two trustees on Date of
behalf of all the trustees Signature Print Name approval
Shaun Higgins 09.01.23.
----- End of picture text -----