SPaCE Annual Report 2024 January 1[st] to 31[st] December
It was a year in which the projects funded by SPaCE fell victim to the devastation experienced throughout Gaza. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion had during 2024 killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, of which around one-third were children.
The widespread destruction had displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often several times. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people were packed into tent camps along the coast with little food or water and exposed to poor sanitary conditions and, from November, to cold weather. Aid organisations struggled to deliver food and reported acute shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
The main projects we had supported over a number of years, until October 2023, namely the Never Stop Dreaming Centre in Khan Younis, the Mobile Library which it ran, as well as the Qayis Centre for Psychological and Community Support, in Khu’za, all had their premises destroyed. However, the co-ordinator of the team of volunteers which ran these centres, Suzanne Aby Khatir, remained in contact with SPaCE and towards the end of the year, began to relaunch play activities for children and young people. On October 7[th] 2024, UNICEF reported:
“In Gaza, least 14,000 children have reportedly been killed, many more injured, while thousands are likely under the rubble, and an estimated 17,000 others are unaccompanied or separated from their caregivers. More than 55 displacement orders remain in effect, covering up to 86 per cent of the Gaza Strip. Children have lost access to quality healthcare, education, and other services. All children are now in need of mental health and psychosocial support. One year into - the war, children’s most basic needs remain unmet.” https://www.un.org/unispal/document/a year-of-tears-12-months-of-war-on-children-unicef-report/
Notwithstanding the very real threat that the entire Gaza Strip might be made unlivable and its people expelled, we saw evidence that some community activities were being maintained by Palestinian self-help groups.
The new situation
By the end of 2023, the Trustees had news that the Never Stop Dreaming Centre (NSD) had been badly damaged and the centre and the Mobile library had ceased to operate. The scale of destruction and displacement even at that stage meant that we could not foresee an imminent restart to the projects that we had supported. We nevertheless anticipated that with donations to SPaCE continuing we would, once the war stopped be able to relaunch the projects we supported and resume the charity’s main goal of supporting the cultural end educational activities of children and young people. We were pleased to learn that the coordinator and volunteers at NSD had survived and were planning to do outreach playtherapy among the displaced as soon as the conditions allowed.
As the war continued and the humanitarian situation in Gaza became increasingly desperate, Trustees were placed in the difficult situation. They had to balance, on the one hand, the expectation of donors and supporters that SPaCE, given its past work and contacts in Gaza, could respond to the immediate crisis, rather than hold off for an indefinite period and, on the other, the Trustees’ responsibility to ensure that funds are deployed in a manner that is aligned with the charity’s overall aims even in a situation in which the specific projects it has promoted in the past have been largely destroyed.
Trustees were also mindful of a communication that they received on 17[th] November 2023 from the International Charities Engagement Teams and the additional guidance for the charity sector referenced in that letter.
Against the background noted above, the trustees took the decision to carefully monitor what form of support work we might be able undertake in Gaza. As part of a consultation process we contacted three charities which also work in the Occupied Territories and a solicitor with some experience in the charity sector.
Emergency aid
In November 2024, after much discussion, the Trustees decided to support the work of the Sheffield Gaza Emergency Aid. This was set up in November 2023 by a Palestinian-British citizen from Gaza living in Sheffield who was visiting Khan Younis, his home town, when the war broke out on 7[th] October 2023. Before leaving Gaza, in mid-November, he was able to establish a network of community activists, with previous experience in the NGO sector, who were willing to coordinate and carry out the distributing of food and other basic items to the neediest and to provide regular and detailed reports, accompanied by photographs, on this work. The emergency supplies were transported across the Israeli/Gaza border through private traders with a record of reliability and accountability.
It was in the light of the Trustees being satisfied that this fundraising by Sheffield Emergency Gaza Aid was delivering on its stated objective of providing emergency relief in an effective and transparent way that, at the end of 2024, they decided to also provide emergency aid to Gaza. SPaCE used the same traders and network of community workers in Gaza that, by then, had demonstrated their reliability, over a period of 12 months. In mid-November, SPaCE transferred £9972 for the purchase of purchasing winter clothes and milk powder. The same month SPaCE also transferred £6590 to the Vanguard film unit with which SPaCE has had a longstanding relationship. The unit provides training in video journalism to young people in filming and editing. All the equipment which SPaCE had provided, in September 2023, including cameras, batteries for solar panels etc. had been destroyed in an aerial bombardment. The group reestablished itself in a building nearby and started to function again although with a reduced capacity and operating mainly as a mobile unit among the displaced in the Khan Younis area. Fundraising
SPaCE continued to raise funds initially mainly in the hope that the war would stop and we could help rebuild the shattered lives of Gazans but resign ourselves to the fact that, for the time being, to remain relevant, we would have to focus on emergency relief.
A number of fundraising activities such as cultural activities, auctions and socials were organized throughout the year. The most successful in terms of engaging a large number of Sheffield people was a mid-June weekend of community sports activity, the Small Park Big Run. From this event half the proceeds, £9000, were donated to Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund and the other was retained by SPaCE.
From January 1[st] 2024 to the end of the year our funds grew through collections and fundraising activities from £60,328 to over £85,000. With hopes of a ceasefire fading and little prospect, in the near future, of being able to make full use of our increased income, in mid-November, the Trustees took the decision to transfer £50,000 from its current account
with Virgin Bank to Unity Trust Bank’s 6-months deposit account which carried an interest rate of 2.25%.
30[th] October 2025
Charity Name No (if any) Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 1/1/2024 12/31/2024
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 62,244 155 - - - - - - 62,399 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - |
Total funds to the nearest £ 62,244 155 - - - - - - 62,399 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 62,244 | - | - | 62,244 | - |
| Interest | 155 | - | - | 155 | - |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
62,399 | - | - | 62,399 | - |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
- - - 62,399 |
- - - - |
- - - - |
- - - 62,399 |
|
| - | |||||
| - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||
| **Total receipts ** | |||||
| 62,399 | - | - | 62,399 | - |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (see table). | |||||||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| **Total receipts ** | 62,399 | - | - | 62,399 | - | ||||
A3 Payments
| A3 Payments | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events and operations | 5,917 | - | - | 5,917 | - | |||||||
| Marketing | 5,139 | - | - | 26,032 | - | |||||||
| Grants | 26,032 | - | - | #REF! | - | |||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | 37,088 | - | - | #REF! | - | |||||||
| A4 Asset and investment | ||||||||||||
| purchases, (see table) | ||||||||||||
| - | - | - | - | |||||||||
| - | - | - | - | |||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||
| **Total payments ** | 37,088 | - | - | #REF! | - | |||||||
| Net of receipts/(payments) | 25,311 | - | - | #REF! | - | |||||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | 50,000 | 50,000 | - | - | - | ||||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 60,329 | - | - | 60,329 | - | |||||||
| Cash funds this year end | 35,640 | 50,000 | - | #REF! | - | |||||||
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
10/30/2025
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds CCXX R2 accounts (SS) |
Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Bank Account Deposit Account Details Details Details 2 |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 35,485 50,155 - 85,640 Agreement Error Unrestricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates |
Restricted funds to nearest £ - - - - Agreement Error Restricted funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Amount due (optional) - - - - - |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| OK | ||||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| Current value (optional) |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| When due (optional) |
||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| 2 | - | 10/30/2025 |
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
| Signature | Name | Date of approval |
|
|---|---|---|---|
CCXX R3 accounts (SS)
10/30/2025
3
| Digital | £91.77 | |
|---|---|---|
| Donation | £9,342.16 | |
| Equipment | £707.07 | |
| Equipment hir | £2,740.00 | |
| Printing | £2,581.88 | |
| Room hire | £471.75 | |
| spBR merch | £1,817.38 | |
| Sundries | £740.32 | |
| Transfer to Pa | £16,689.10 | £26,031.26 |
| Digital | £91.77 | |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | £707.07 | |
| Equipment hire | £2,740.00 | |
| Travel | £1,906.50 | |
| Room hire | £471.75 | £5,917.09 |
| Printing | £2,581.88 | |
| spBR merch | £1,817.38 | |
| Sundries | £740.32 | £5,139.58 |
| Donation | £9,342.16 | |
| Transfer to Palestine | £16,689.10 | £26,031.26 |
| £37,087.93 |