## **TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT**
**Women Empowerment, Networking and Development Organisation (WENDO) 1205737** Charity Registration Number:
**15 November 2023 to 31 March 2025** For the financial period
**Registered Charity Name:** Women Empowerment, Networking and Development Organisation (WENDO)
**Charity Registration Number:** 1205737 **Governing Document:** Constitution adopted on 28 July 2023
## **Trustees during the period:**
- Virginia Saoke (Chairperson)
- Lavender Mwamba
- Lilian Ochieng
All trustees served for the entire reporting period and were appointed on 28 July 2023. Trustees act in a voluntary capacity and receive no remuneration.
**Bankers:** Cooperative Bank
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
WENDO is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) governed by its constitution. The charity is overseen by a Board of Trustees who are responsible for setting strategy, ensuring compliance with charity law and safeguarding the charity’s assets.
Trustees are recruited through professional and personal networks and are appointed based on skills, experience and commitment to the charity’s objects. An induction programme is in place to support new trustees in understanding their legal duties, governance responsibilities and the charity’s work.
During the financial period, the trustees met on a quarterly basis to review progress, oversee governance matters and agree future priorities.
All operational and advisory roles within the charity are currently undertaken on a voluntary basis. Trustees retain ultimate oversight and control of all activities, including those planned to be delivered overseas in Kenya.
To improve on the range of skills of the board of trustees, a new trustee was recruited in February 2025 who has extensive experience in business strategy, organisational development and stakeholder engagement. The new trustee was appointed and incorporated into the board after the end of the financial period.
## **Objects and Public Benefit**
The objects of the charity are the prevention or relief of poverty, suffering and distress in Kenya by:
- Providing grants, items and services to individuals in need and/or to charities or organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty; and
- Supporting income generation schemes among socially and economically disadvantaged communities, with a particular focus on women.
The trustees have had due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Throughout the reporting period, the trustees considered how the charity’s activities would deliver public benefit, particularly in relation to women’s empowerment, girls’ education, access to healthcare, food security and access to clean drinking water.
Although no charitable projects were delivered during the period due to limited funds, trustees undertook planning and exploratory work to ensure that future activities will be targeted, effective and aligned with identified community needs in Kenya.
## **Strategic Objectives**
The charity’s long-term strategic objectives are:
1. Women are empowered to generate income and support their families.
2. Girls are empowered to seek and excel in education.
3. Women and children access quality healthcare.
4. Women have safe access to portable water for household and agricultural use.
These objectives guide the charity’s future programme design and fundraising priorities.
## **Activities and achievements during the period**
During the reporting period, WENDO did not undertake direct charitable projects due to insufficient funds. Activity during the year focused on organisational development and preparatory work, including:
- Completion of charity registration and establishment of governance structures;
- Development of a range of key policies and procedures to support good governance, safeguarding and accountability;
- Recruitment of volunteers to support programmes, finance, communications, fundraising and compliance;
- Development of a website and establishment of social media channels;
- Initiation of a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for an initial project;
- Identification of potential geographical areas of operation in Kenya and informal exploration of possible partner organisations.
The trustees consider these activities to be essential groundwork to ensure that the charity is well governed, compliant and prepared to deliver effective charitable activities once funding is secured.
## **Financial Review**
The charity had no funds at the start of the financial period. Fundraising activities commenced in March 2024, resulting in total income of £331.54 during the period. No expenditure was incurred.
As at 31 March 2025, the charity held a bank balance of £331.54, all of which represents unrestricted funds.
The trustees have not designated any reserves, reflecting the charity’s early stage of development and limited income. The charity’s income is below the threshold for audit or independent examination, and the accounts have therefore been prepared on a receipts and payments basis.
The trustees recognise that fundraising has been challenging for a newly established charity with no prior financial history. Lessons learned during the period will inform future fundraising approaches.
## **Risk Management**
The trustees have reviewed the major risks facing the charity, particularly those relating to fundraising, overseas operations and safeguarding. A suite of policies has been developed and adopted to mitigate these risks, including:
- Financial controls and fundraising policies;
- Safeguarding and whistleblowing policies;
- Conflict of interest and code of conduct policies;
- Data protection and complaints procedures.
The trustees will continue to review risks regularly as the charity begins to implement charitable activities.
## **Plans for Future Periods**
Over the next 12 months, the trustees intend to:
- Apply for grants from trusts, foundations and corporate donors;
- Identify one initial thematic area of focus to enable targeted and effective delivery;
- Formalise partnerships with suitable organisations in Kenya;
- Commence charitable activities once sufficient funding is secured;
- Build a track record of delivery to support future fundraising and growth.
## **Trustees’ Responsibilities Statement**
The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations. The trustees confirm that the report has been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011 and the Charity Commission’s guidance.
## **Approval**
This report was approved by the Board of Trustees on 13 January 2026 and signed on its behalf by:
Virginia Saoke Chair of Trustees
Signed:
Date: 14.01.2026
**Women Empowerment Networking and 1205737 Development Organisation (WENDO) Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period** 11/15/2023 3/31/2025 **To from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**
Donations
**332**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**332**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 332**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**|**to the nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**332**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**332**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**332**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**332**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**332**|**-**|
||||||
|||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**||
||||**-**|**-**|
||||**-**|**-**|
||||||
||**-**|**-**|**332**|**-**|
## **A3 Payments**
|**A3 Payments**|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**|||||||||||
|**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||||||||||
|**_Total payments_**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ **|**332**||**-**||**-**||**332**||**-**||
|**A5 Transfers between funds**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||
|**_Cash funds this year end_ **|**332**||**-**||**-**||**332**||**-**||
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|**Details**
Cash in Bank
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))|**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**332**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**332**
**-**
OK
OK
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Virginia Saoke
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
|||Virginia Saoke|13.01.2026|
|||||