Transform a Life
Transform A Life Annual Trustee Report 2023/24
Dec 7[th] 2024
Name: Transform A Life
Registra;on Number: 1204244
Address:
16 Ashville Avenue Eaglescliffe Stockton-on-tees TS16 9AX
Telephone: +250780341446
Website Address: transformalife.co
Trustee Names:
Chair: Jane Powell Vice-Chair: Carol AbboO Secretary: Gillian Bruce-Knight Treasurer: David Locke Director-at-large: Katharina (Kasia) Patzelt
Structure and Management:
grew out of an unofficial sponsorship arrangement between one of our trustees and a family in Rwanda. Their child Jonas Nsengiyumva was sponsored through schooling and university by Kasia Patzelt. Since then, he has wanted to repay this by facilitaYng the sponsorship of other children. As such, we have created this charity to facilitate this, and to begin to create a structure to allow stability for these children throughout their educaYon journey.
The charity is based in the UK, but operates in Rwanda. 3 trustees are in the UK, while one is in Holland and another in Canada. Money comes in to our UK accounts, and is transferred to Rwanda so that school fees and other bills may be paid.
Jonas Nsengiyumva is our CEO. He is responsible for ensuring school fees are paid on Yme, as well as uniforms and books being purchased for the children. He tracks expenses and reports to the trustees, ensuring we have enough funds to cover our exisYng students each term. Jonas is also responsible for selecYng future students when new funds are available. Jonas keeps track of our sponsors and ensures safeguarding measures have been addressed. This occurs along with our safeguarding trustee and our board in general. Some sponsors have been given permission to have video phone contact with children and their families. This is an important part of our charity, as the iniYal relaYonship between Kasia and Jonas’ family has led to a longterm interacYon that has been beneficial to the lives of all involved. It has been the impetus for the creaYon of this charity. Transform a Life aims to safely facilitate these kinds of interacYons with current sponsors and families, if both parYes are consenYng to this. Any contact between sponsors and families is supervised by our CEO, Jonas. Any concerns are reported to the board at one of our meeYngs, which occur 4 Ymes annually. Any urgent concerns can be brought up immediately via direct contact between Jonas and the board, and a special meeYng can be called as needed.
Because we are a small, new charity, we have not needed to recruit trustees as yet. The iniYal trustees are sYll present and acYve, and all began as sponsors of children. They were all part of the charity’s formaYon. The CEO was unanimously elected by the trustees, as Jonas has had a large part to play in the creaYon Transform A Life. Our CEO is currently unpaid, though we would like to remedy this as soon as able. We are exploring opYons for this. No trustee receives any compensaYon for their work.
Presently, most of our money goes towards student sponsorship, with a small amount paying for office and operaYonal bills. Money comes in via our website paypal, and is then transferred to our UK charity bank account. From here, we have an unsaYsfactory process, but one borne out of necessity. We have had to transfer to one of our trustee’s personal accounts and then via money transfer to our CEO’s personal account in Rwanda. We acknowledge that this is not an ideal situaYon, but it is the only way that we have been able to conYnue to ensure the children’s school fees are paid on Yme.
This process occurs because we have been unable to set up a Rwandan bank account as yet. To do this, we much first have a Rwandan branch of Transform a Life, but currently do not earn enough money to saYsfy the Rwandan requirements for branch applicaYon. Our CEO is exploring avenues for us to acquire an operaYonal bank account. There is potenYal that we may be able to be ‘parented’ by a larger charity while we are sYll in our infancy. They would then be able to provide us with an official channel for transferring our money to Rwanda. We would then be able to open our own branch once we saYsfy the income requirements. Jonas is in talks with an organizaYon currently in regards to this.
Ac;vi;es, Achievements, Performance in 2023/2024
This has been a big year for us.
an official charity saw us officially sponsor 37 children in various levels of educaYon ranging
work from here, and also supervise phone calls in a safe environment for all parYes.
bank account. We have unsuccessfully aOempted to do the same in Rwanda, and we are sYll working towards making this happen.
We have also developed a safeguarding policy and begun to implement processes outlined within. We are now a member of ‘Keeping Children Safe’, and have had our policy individually reviewed by this organizaYon. We aim to conYnue to develop and improve our policies and implementaYons around safeguarding.
Objec;ves in 2024/2025
big objecYve for us in this current financial year. We do not have enough income to saYsfy the opening of an official branch in Rwanda, therefore cannot get a bank account as yet. We have an objecYve of being temporarily parented by an exisYng charity in order to legiYmize our financial transacYons in Rwanda. Discussions are in process regarding this.
well tracked. Our CEO in Rwanda is learning the processes needed to saYsfy the UK reporYng standards. We conYnue to make these improvements and expect to have them streamlined during this financial year.
much energy, and money, on the creaYon and operaYon of this charity and he deserves to be fairly compensated. We have a goal to facilitate this during this financial year, perhaps by monthly donaYons not Yed to specific students, or perhaps by paying him a percentage of income up to a certain total. We conYnue to explore the possibiliYes and parameters.
We also aim to build resiliency for our students’ educaYon by growing a reserve fund. Currently, this would also come from donaYons not Yed to specific students. Once we have an official way to accept money in Rwanda, we will begin to explore grant possibiliYes. In this way, we can look to pay our CEO, set up a reserve fund, and expand our student reach.
We also have a conYnued objecYve to keep improving our safeguarding processes, and conYnue to take safeguarding direcYon from ‘Keeping Children Safe’, as well as the UK government.
Financial review including any debts and details of the reserves policy:
See uploaded financial statement for numbers.
We do not have any current debts.
We do not have any reserves. Our current policy is that sponsors donate and money goes direct to student fees. We are working at developing a reserves policy this year, as we recognize the importance in terms of the future success of Transform A Life.
Note, that we have no funds held by any custodian trustee. Funds currently transfer through a trustee, in order to successfully reach Rwanda. The trustee receives it, then sends the same amount on the same day, minus transfer fees. No payment is received, and no money is held by them for any length of time. Resolution of this unsatisfactory process is one of our primary objectives going forward. We are all working on the solutions currently.
Sincerely,
Jane Powell (Chair)
David Locke (Treasurer)
Statement Of Financial Activity: Transform a Life Year ended Feb 28th 2024
Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Income Funds Funds INCOME Donations and Legacies £ 200 £ 10,901 £ 11,101 Charitable Activities £ - £ - £ - Total Income £ 200 £ 10,901 £ 11,101 EXPENSES Fundraising expenses £ 200 £ 540 £ 740 Charitable Activities £ - £ 10,898 £ 10,898 Total Expenses £ 200 £ 11,438 £ 11,638 RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS Net income/expenses £ - £ - £ - Total funds brought forward £ - £ - £ - Total funds carried forward £ - £ - £ - STATEMENT OF NET ASSETS Cash at bank £ - £ - £ -
Cash at bank
NOTE: Expenses are more than income, as our CEO spent some of his own money on admin. This was not officially received as a donation in the UK.
These accounts were approved by the trustees on Dec 7th 2024 and signed on their behalf by:
Susan Jane Powell (Chair)
David Brian Locke (Treasurer)