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2024-03-31-accounts

Al Wahda Charity – Annual Report of Trustees

CharityNumber 1200782
From - ReportingPeriod StartDate April 2022
To- ReportingPeriodEndDate March 2024

Purpose of this Report

Al Wahda Charity is a registered charity and is a public benefit entity. Al Wahda has followed guidance set out in the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP FRS 102) for charities in the UK. This is a crucial framework that has enabled us to prepare financial statements and our annual report.

This report provides:

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1. Objectives and Activities

Summary of the purposes of Al Wahda Charity as set out in its governing document. ( Requirement set out under SORP reference: Para 1.17 )

  1. To advance the religion of Islam by means of, but not exclusively, the provision of facilities of worship and Islamic education in accordance with the teachings of the Quaran and the Sunnah of The Prophet Muhammad (Peace & Blessings Upon him) as interpreted by the Ahle Sunnah Wal Jammah - school of thought.

  2. To advance education for benefit of the General Public by means of, but not exclusively, the Provision of the Assistance in the provision of Educational Activities and facilities, such as a supplementary school.

  3. To provide or assist in the provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disability, financial hardship or social circumstances with the object of improving their conditions of life.

  4. To relieve financial hardship among poor people and other people in need by means of, but not exclusively, making grants for providing or paying for items, equipment, services and facilities including the provision of food, clean water, and other necessities for the benefit of the said persons.

  5. Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts ( Requirement set out under SORP reference: Para 1.17 and 1.19 )

Al Wahda has undertaken the following activities to demonstrate its purposes. Note, all of Al Wahda’s activities have been funded through donations from members of its communities. There have been no grant funded activities.

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Al Wahda has delivered food parcels to households at their doorstep and offered a collection service from its premises at 15 Highview Close. Financial assistance has also been given to households faced with arrears with their energy bills. This assistance has been granted by Al Wahda to eligible households on a discretionary basis where extreme hardship has been proved. In addition, Al Wahda has carried out campaigns to raise awareness about keeping warm in the winter through its ‘Winter Warm Zone’ initiative.

3. Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit (SORP reference: Para 1.18)

The trustees of Al Wahda have given regard to the guidance issues by the Charity Commission on public benefit

4. Grant Making

Note, Al Wahda has not been allocated grants or public funds to deliver its services to meet its purposes and/or objectives. All funds have been raised through charitable donations made voluntarily by members of our communities.

5. Volunteer Activities and its contribution to meeting aims/objectives

Al Wahda has relied on volunteers to deliver its objectives. Volunteers have played an integral role. From raising awareness of Al Wahda, to designing and publishing our website, to collecting donations to promoting its services, delivering food parcels and the upkeep of our premises. Note – that Al Wahda has only one paid staff member: a teacher at one of our Madrassa Classes.

6. Summary of the Main Achievements of Al Wahda, the positive difference it has made to people’s lives, (service users, volunteers, beneficiaries)

  1. Al Wahda website – the development and publishing of our website has meant that people are able to access our services and support, online if they are unable to physically attend our premises at 15 Highview Close or any of our events. Service Uses can refer themselves to our Charity by completing an enquiry form. Our website promotes our root values ‘Harmony’, ‘Growth’ and ‘Success’ and it encourages our service users to focus on their self-development to make a positive impact on our Society. Our content on our website ranges from educational material to video tutorials to signposting people to our help and support. Our website has helped us connect and engage with all our communities and

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establish our presence in the digital world and raise the awareness of our brand. We have noticed an increase in referrals from service users from various religious backgrounds outside of Islam.

  1. Establishment of our premises at 15 Highview Close, Hamilton, Leicester. Our premises has enabled us to deliver services on site to our communities. It has also given us more scope to hold a wide range of events including Tea & Talk Sessions with specialist guest speakers, training/workshops, food bank provision, congregational prayers and hold events for Ramadhan and other spiritual blessed months of the Islamic Calendar. Our premises enabled us to support service users with counselling sessions which in turn has helped improved their mental health and well-being and improved quality of life. Over the reporting period we supported 40 service users through counselling. As a result, these service users were able to enjoy a better quality of life.

  2. Food bank provision has been made available with the support from financial and food donations made by our communities. During the reporting period we helped 13 households, and this enabled them to prepare and eat meals during a crisis.

  3. Al Wahda has worked hard to promote its work and has received regular sponsorship/donations from 1 local business, namely Bon Adams Solicitors. This funding has helped Al Wahda cover its overheads and rising costs related to the premises throughout the period of this report. The total value of donation received from Bond Adams Solicitors was £1,200.

  4. Our volunteering team has been able to offer and provide a wide range of skills and experiences to help the work of the Charity. This includes teaching, website development, facilities management/caretaker duties, administration and fundraising.

  5. Fundraising targets to cover costs related to premises and activities. Our strong fundraising has helped us achieve our target of £2,000 to manage our overheads and sustain the delivery of our services.

  6. Our Madrassa class grew by 20 students due to the establishment of our premises at 15 Highview Close. Based on this student intake we were able to receive approximately £800.00 as income to help meet our costs. The Madrassa has played a vital part of our purpose and objectives as it enables us to ensure children have access to a Islamic Education and are able to develop spiritually in an every changing and challenging society.

7. Charting Progress

Our main objective was to become financially sustainable so we could plan our activities and deliver our services confidently. One of our key objectives next year will be to measure donations vs regular income as % of our funding.

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We will also be setting realistic targets for provision of food bank support and free counselling support over the next year. This will ensure we are focused and committed to our objectives and demonstrate accountability to our communities we serve.

A key cost pressure we have had to manage is the rising costs of utilities and rates for our premises. We are regularly monitoring these to ensure we get best value and can mitigate this pressure on the work of the charity.

8. Financial Review for January 2022 to March 2024

Please refer to the Accountants financial report prepared by Mr Adeel Chogtai for our Accounting data for the reporting period.

The table below shows a summary of our financial performance from 1[st] December 2022 to March 2024. The rise in costs and overheads has been attributed to the premises we rented and its associated utility charges from December 2023.

1st January 2023 31st March 2024
Opening Balance £106.00 £9305.90
Donations received £106.00 £5041.25
Costs/Overheads £0.00 £4768.72
Surplus £0.00 £272.53

9. Outline future plans - April 2024 to March 2027

As we look to the future, Al Wahda is committed to broadening its impact and furthering its services to the Community. A key goal is establish a secular education facility in Leicester, providing quality education to meet the diverse needs of our community. We also aim to continue offering a safe, supportive space for counselling, ensuring individuals facing challenges have access to guidance and care.

Additionally, we remain dedicated to addressing hardship by expanding our food bank and distribution efforts, ensuring that that the needs of all our food bank referrals are met.

These goals fit in in with our values and reflect our mission to foster unity, compassion and growth in the lives with touch.

10.Explanation on how our Charity is constituted, its governance and management structures and day to day management of operation of

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charity. How does the Charity makes its decisions? What decisions are made at Trustee level? What training have the trustees and staff undertaken? What policies and procedures are in place?

We are a small charity organisation with a team of 3 trustees. Amongst 1 has been appointed as our CEO. The day-to-day operational decisions are made by our Volunteering team comprising of the 3 trustees. This is mainly for the management of the premises. All strategic and financial decisions are made by the trustees and are documented at meetings that are held once a month.

All volunteers and trustees are DBS checked and are expected to follow strict guidelines with Safeguarding of Children and Adults, lone working and Health & Safety.

11.What are the charity’s main/principal sources of funds?

Our main principal sources of fund comprise of the following;

These combined sources enable us to continue providing vital services to our communities.

12.What are the main risks being faced by Al Wahda as a charity?

The main risks impacting on Al Wahda are summarised as follows:

  1. Reduction in student intake for Madrassa. Should we see a drop in number of children learning at Madrassa then this will reduce our income and will create financial pressure on sustaining our overheads and costs associated with our premises.

  2. Equally rise in rents, energy and water rates and utilities will add pressure on us to raise funds to meet our costs.

  3. Lack of donations and sponsorship from local businesses

  4. Societal issues – we live an ever-changing society, and this could mean that a downturn in our economy may result in more people experiencing hardship or being affected by cost of living. This will create further demand on our physical support services. Which may require us to think about additional resources such as volunteers and increasing supply of food parcels and provision.

  5. Reduction in volunteers impacting the operations of the charity to meet objectives and contributions to the community

13.Any contracts entered by Al Wahda

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Al Wahda have signed a 5-year lease agreement for 15 Highview Close in Hamilton which commenced from 19[th] December 2023. We are committed to the term of the lease, and we will review our financial performance regularly to ensure we can meet our costs to sustain the Charity and deliver on our objectives.

Declarations

Trustees declare that they have approved the Annual Report set out as above. Signed on behalf of the Charity’s trustees

Signature: Zulkarnain

Name: Mohammed ZulKarnain Raji

Position: CEO

Date: 22/01/2025

Signature: Irfan

Name: Mohammed Irfan Kadri

Position: Trustee

Date : 22/01/2025

Signature: Farhan Adam

Name: Farhan Adam Position: Trustee Date : 22/01/2025

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