Annual Report for May 2023- March 2024
The Prayer Shop Initiative (TPSI) commences life as a Charity in May 2023 when it was registered with the Charity’s Commission and Companies House UK. We commence our work of promoting TPSI and fundraising to meet the overall objective of providing needful services to woman and children living with the trauma of rape in Ghana. Critical to this is the need for pastoral care counselling for victims and survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) and adult victims of rape. Of equal importance is information sharing to mitigate male-directed sexual violence amongst special groups such as children and young people within school settings, where rape is also frequently reported. Ideally, adult men constitute a principal group to receive information geared at promoting protection for vulnerable groups in society amongst which children and women are strongly featured. Because Ghana boasts a robust cultural patriarchy, which is readily recognised with its Traditional Counsel of Elders and Church Groups, which are exclusively male dominated.
We hosted a Prayer Breakfast on March 9th, 2024, which was in effect, the launch of TPSI at the Limelight Community Hub in Old Trafford, Manchester. We had 120 persons in attendance. The features of this meeting were the presentations of: 1) special prayers for victims and survivors of rape and other forms of sexual abuse and violence, and those who perpetrate such heinous crimes; 2) presentation of a video produced and volunteered by a survivor of CSA; 3) sharing an “agape meal”; 4) the presentation of a special charge from a keynote speaker, which highlights the plight of women and children who have become dislocated and homeless due to war and domestic violence; 5) an appeal was made for the attendees to give their ongoing support in monetary gifts and other means to help TPSI achieve their objectives.
We have secured a five-year lease on a property in Ghana from which TPSI will deliver its mission objectives. The property is currently being refurbished and should be completed 2025, once we are able to successfully register the charity in accordance with Ghanian legislation.
We are still working to launch a website for TPSI and hope this will come on stream by 2025 once we are able to secure funding for it.
Some trustees have become dormant. We are actively seeking to recruit at least two additional trustees come 2025 two of those who signed up for the role at the outset have now become dormant.
As this is a new venture for all of us, we are managing teething challenges by reading literature provided by the Charity’s Commission and sourcing training from Third Sector and other training providers, which is helping and will continue to help TPSI maintain its registration as a charity.
End of Report.
Financial statement is attached for your attention.