2023-03-31-accounts

Company no. 01861434 Charity no. 326859

Year end 31 March 2023

2023 Annual Report and Audited Accounts

Celebrating 39 years of changing lives

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

We are Able Child Africa

We work towards a world in which no child with a disability is left behind.

We do this by bringing together a network of organisations that protect, educate and amplify the voices of children and young people with disabilities, so they are able to thrive.

We work across Africa, breaking down barriers to inclusion so that children with disabilities are safe, thriving and heard.

We are:

Collaborative.

We believe we can achieve more by working together.

Courageous.

We are bold and agile, with the courage to innovate.

Accountable.

We are accountable to the children we work with.

And we use the expertise we have built up across Africa over the last 40 years to make lasting change for children with disabilities.

Introduction 3

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

What’s in this report?

Welcome from our Chair	05
Why we exist	06
What we do	08
Protect & Educate	10
Amplify	11
Our Impact	12
Uganda	14
Kenya	16
Tanzania	18
Rwanda	20
Malawi	22
Zambia	24
Peace’s Story	27
Advocating for Change	28
Financial Report	30
Celebrating You	31
Looking Ahead: Our 2030 Strategy	33
Able Child Africa Network	34
The Network Journey	35
Safe. Thriving. Heard.	36
Report of the Trustees	38
Audited Accounts	46

4 Contents

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Welcome from our Chair

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our 2023 Annual Report. Over the last year, Able Child Africa continued its vital work to protect, educate and amplify the voices of children with disabilities across Africa. We supported over 1,000 children and worked with over 1,750 parents, teachers and government officials across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.

Last year represented the first time the organisation has raised over £1 million in charitable funds. This is a fantastic achievement and a testament to all the hard work of the team, our partners and network members. While this has been a long-term goal though, there is still much more work to do.

Jim Sellars Chair

Children with disabilities continue to be left behind. Through no fault of their own, they are consistently excluded, discounted and discriminated against in all walks of life, leading to health inequalities, a lack of basic education and financial deprivation.

As part of our desire to enhance our impact and ultimately support more children, we are launching a new 2030 Strategy. We are excited to announce that this year we will launch the Able Child Africa Network, where eight of the leading organisations working with children with disabilities in Africa will be coming together as the founding members. Able Child Africa is starting a journey to further put decision making in the hands of those who are closest to the work we do. Not only do we believe this the right thing to do for the children we work with, we also believe this supports the organisation’s ambitions to reach many more children and triple in size by 2030.

Able Child Africa’s past and future success is driven by our past partners and new network members with their commitment, vision, and knowledge; without them none of our work would be possible. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the organisations we work with in Africa for everything they have done this year and throughout our many years of successful partnership.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the entire Able Child Africa team. Karl, our CEO, and Lauren, our Director of Impact and Advocacy, provide inspirational leadership to the whole organisation and drive the long-term vision of Able Child Africa. We are also indebted to the Board of Trustees, whose diverse skillsets and experiences have been crucial in navigating the challenges of operating a charity.

Despite the organisation reaching £1 million in fundraising last year, the external fundraising environment remains difficult. We do not underestimate the challenge ahead, and our final thanks are reserved for all our donors, whether individual, corporate or institutional, small and large. Your generosity is the organisation's lifeblood, and we remain indebted to your continued support. This has enabled Able Child Africa to deliver all the work described in the following pages and to continue our vital mission to protect, educate and amplify the voices of children with disabilities.

We are really excited about the future and sincerely hope you will continue to feel moved to support us in our vital work.

Best wishes,

Jim Sellars

Welcome from our Chair 5

Able Child Africa 202 32 Annual Report

Why we exist

1 in 10 children globally have a disability - that is 240 million children, and this number is expected to double by 2050.

Despite the decades of work since the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention of the Right of Persons with Disabilities, children with disabilities continue to be left behind. Through no fault of their own, they are consistently excluded, discounted and discriminated against in all walks of life, leading to health inequalities, a lack of basic education and financial deprivation.

The impact for children with disabilities is devastating.

Children with disabilities are:

• More likely to live in poverty .

• Twice as likely to never attend school .

• Three times more likely to be underweight .

Girls with disabilities are at particular risk of violence. An estimated 70% of girls with intellectual disabilities will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday, which contributes to girls with disabilities being 10 times more likely to experience gender-based violence than those without disabilities.

Children with disabilities are also less safe. They are:

• Four times more likely to experience physical violence .

• Three times more likely to be sexually assaulted ; and

• 17 times more likely to be institutionalised .

6 Why we exist

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Children with disabilities are not a homogenous group. Each child is unique and lives with a distinct set of circumstances which determines their ability to thrive.

A child’s age compounds with their socioeconomic background, gender, and race to deepen and complicate the exclusion they experience, and their perceived naivety means they are given little opportunity to communicate their needs or determine the types of support they receive.

Services for children with disabilities still fail to recognise or respond to the intersectional barriers children with disabilities face. Healthcare, education and social protection services remain inaccessible with physical, communication and attitudinal barriers limiting their participation and allowing children with disabilities to fall through the cracks.

We know that these inequalities can lead to additional and lifelong psychosocial barriers. Over 41% of children with disabilities are more likely to feel discriminated against, over 51% of children with disabilities are more likely to feel unhappy and 1 in 5 children with disabilities are less likely to have expectations of a better life. The emotional impact of exclusion can embed feelings of inadequacy which silence and disempower children with disabilities all the way through adulthood.

The state of play for civil society

Despite the evident need, only a small fraction of aid funding is targeted towards children with disabilities, which has meant that disability-focused organisations in Africa have long been under-resourced and under-supported. Traditionally receiving a large portion of its funding from overseas, the recent introduction of legislation constraining funding to NGO’s, along with the unprecedented scale of Covid-19 has forced many of these organisations to close all together.

For African Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) the situation is particularly difficult. As organisations representing a marginalised group, they also experience discrimination and prejudice, receiving fewer invitations to participate or influence and even fewer opportunities to receive funding. Even where specific disability-focused funding or support is available, OPDs that work for children with disabilities are usually the last to receive it, unable to compete for space with larger players.

Why we exist 7

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

What we do

We protect , educate and amplify the voices of children and young people with disabilities, so they are able to thrive. We do this by:

The role for data.

Evidence underpins all of our work. We work together to collate data on the barrier’s children with disabilities experience and generate evidence of what works for inclusive programming. We then use this information to deepen our impact with children with disabilities and to influence governments and other international allies.

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8 What we do
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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Zambia

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Zambia
Uganda
Tanzania
We have over 39 years’
experience working
with local organisations
across Africa to improve
the lives of children
with disabilities.
Kenya Our mission is to promote the
realisation of equal rights for
Malawi children and young people with
disabilities in Africa and to facilitate
their meaningful inclusion in all
Rwanda
aspects of life.
What we do 9
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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Protect.

We stand up for the rights of children and young people with disabilities to ensure they are protected and included in their communities.

Children with disabilities are at a higher risk of violence, abuse or exploitation due to the multiple barriers that prevent them from protecting themselves or reporting incidents of abuse. We work across the network to improve and support local safeguarding practices that ensure the protection of children.

We support families to break down the stigma and discrimination around disability, to ensure the inclusion of children with disabilities within their communities. We have been working to do this in Uganda…

Improving child safeguarding in Uganda:

We have been supporting Ugandan Society for Disabled Children (USDC) to build a more robust safeguarding culture. Through a Comic Relief funded grant, we delivered a workshop with staff to identify gaps in their knowledge, culture, policies and practices in relation to the different stages of the safeguarding cycle. This enabled the team to identify short- and long-term solutions to address these gaps, ensuring USDC is better placed to adopt better safeguarding practices across every aspect of their work.

We were able to utilise our expertise in disability inclusive child safeguarding to support USDC to develop their own set of safeguarding standards. This has ensured there is a shared understanding of USDC’s commitments to safeguarding across the organisation and for all staff.

Educate.

We ensure that children and young people with disabilities have access to an education and the services they need to succeed.

In low-income countries, over 90% of children with disabilities do not attend formal school. To tackle this problem, we have developed inclusive education projects that support children with disabilities to access mainstream education alongside their peers, improving their educational outcomes and ensuring they are able to thrive.

We have been working in Kenya to change the lives of children with disabilities through education…

10 What we do - Protect & Educate

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Using inclusive play as a tool for inclusive education in Kenya:

We have been working with Action Network for the Disabled to develop and implement a disability inclusive play programme for children with disabilities to improve their access to quality Early Childhood Education.

Using our inclusive play approach, children attending early childhood centres are encouraged to play and interact with each other, bringing a sense of joy and laughter within the school environment. Crucially, this also helps the children to engage with their surroundings, develop communication skills and self-awareness, and connect with others. Play is a fundamental part of childhood for all children, with the development of an inclusive play programme ensuring teachers are equipped with the knowledge to effectively include children with disabilities in pre-school activities.

We have been working with 10 early education centres in Nairobi over four years, with the inclusive play programme playing an important role in supporting nearly 100 children with disabilities to access education for the first time.

Amplify.

We work with children and young people with disabilities to be confident and resilient, amplifying their voice to demand their own inclusion.

For too long children with disabilities have been forgotten, hidden and systematically excluded. One of the key reasons for this is that children and their parents have been unaware of their rights and are therefore disempowered in the fight for justice. By providing children and young people with disabilities with knowledge of their rights and then amplifying their voice to speak out, they are able to break down the barriers to inclusion for themselves and their peers.

We have been working in Rwanda to amplify the voices of young people with disabilities …

Amplifying the voice of young people with disabilities in Rwanda:

Partnering with Euromoney Institutional Investor and Uwezo Youth Empowerment (UWEZO), we have been amplifying the voice of children and young people with disabilities to demand more inclusive child protection systems in Rwanda.

In partnership, we developed a youth-led model, providing training and other support to young people with disabilities to be the main implementers of the project. Young people with disabilities have led on parent workshops, meetings with government officials, and providing mentoring for younger children with disabilities. Through this approach, we have supported young people with disabilities to take ownership of the project and to draw on their own experiences to become key advocates for inclusion within child protection systems.

This has created new mechanisms, networks and support groups, where children and young people with disabilities are coming together to campaign for their inclusion in child protection systems, ensuring these systems are as inclusive and accessible as possible.

What we do - Amplify 11

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Our impact

Over the last year, we have been working across six countries in Africa to improve the lives of children with disabilities.

Children & young people with disabilities directly supported

We directly supported children and young people with disabilities through enrolling out-of-school children into schools, providing disability aids, making school premises more accessible, establishing mentoring networks and activities to break down damaging myths about disability.

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255 Uganda
83 Kenya
202 Tanzania
94 Rwanda
288 Malawi
94 Zambia
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Total
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1,016

12 Our Impact

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Teachers we trained

We trained teachers in inclusive teaching

methods, providing the necessary training and tools to help teachers support all children in the classroom and ensuring children with disabilities can participate in lessons alongside their peers.

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56 Uganda
38 Kenya
17 Tanzania
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0 Rwanda

106 Malawi 18 Zambia

Total 235

Parents we supported

We supported parents of children with disabilities through parent support groups or community events, giving parents the opportunity to discuss the challenges they face, support each other and work together to advocate for their children’s inclusion.

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676 Uganda
126 Kenya
90 Tanzania
73 Rwanda
219 Malawi
68 Zambia
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Total 1,252

Government officials we worked with

We worked with government officials

and ministers advocating for improvements in disability inclusion at a local and national level in key government services in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwand, Malawi and Zambia.

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130 Uganda
15 Kenya
Total
5 Tanzania
262
28 Rwanda
71 Malawi
13 Zambia
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Our Impact 13

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Uganda

We have been working in

Uganda since 1984 alongside Uganda Society for Disabled Children

(USDC), supporting children with disabilities and their families to break down the barriers to inclusion.

Many people living with disabilities in Uganda lack resources and access to services. Where we work in northern Uganda, 80% of people with disabilities have been identified as living in chronic poverty . Despite significant progress at a policy level in Uganda, there is an implementation gap. With a policy of Universal Primary Education, school enrolment has reached 90%. However, this is not the case for children with disabilities, where only 2% are graduating to secondary level .

What we’re proud of

We know that children with disabilities are at an increased risk of being left behind in school when their needs are not properly identified. Early detection of their needs therefore allows for the correct intervention and ensures better outcomes for children with disabilities. In partnership with Marr Munning Trust, we have successfully supported six schools to adopt and improve access to learning for children with disabilities through the combined use of Individualised Learning Plans and Early Screening tools. Through this project, over 60 children were identified and supported with Individualised Learning Plans (ILP) based on their specific needs. To date, 70% of the children have achieved their ILP objectives and are progressing to higher classes, which is a significant achievement in enabling children to realise their full potential.

Improving school enrolment through inclusive Early Childhood Education

Children with disabilities often remain hidden, with those around them more likely to hold low expectations for their future. Getting them into early childhood settings and breaking down these negative stereotypes is vital to ensure they are able to thrive . Having successfully opened 18 Community Learning Centres in partnership with Comic Relief, the past year has seen considerable progress in improving the school-readiness of children with disabilities through our community-led learning programme. The existing curriculum used in the centres was refined to ensure it was accessible for children with disabilities, and multiple trainings were delivered to the centre caregivers. There are now 724 children enrolled across the 18 Centres, of which 20% are children with disabilities, far exceeding our expectations at the start of the project . As a community-led project, we have seen several instances where members of the community have donated time, materials and food to help ensure the successful running of the Centres. Awareness raising events have also ensured people in the community understand the importance of education for children with disabilities.

14 Our Impact - Uganda

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

We advocated to

Through our current projects

2,781 community members

on disability awareness, early identification and early intervention for children with disabilities.

We advocated to

We supported 676 parents

130 government officials

through Parent Support Group meetings

at district and national level on disability inclusive education policy

Abasi’s How we Story

Abasi is a four-year-old boy living in a village in northern Uganda. When Abasi was three weeks old, he became extremely unwell, and his health continued to deteriorate. He was referred to the general hospital for treatment and while there, he had several seizures. It wasn’t until much later that his parents realised that Abasi was unable sit upright or crawl, like other children the same age were able to do. They were extremely worried and unsure what was wrong.

When Abasi was three, his mother heard about the inclusive Early Childhood Education (ECE) project, where children with disabilities were being enrolled alongside children without disabilities in a community-led programme . She expressed her interest and Abasi was immediately enrolled. Abasi received a formal medical assessment through the project, where he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Abasi’s parents received support through the project’s parent support group, as well as regular home visits from project staff. They learnt about basic physiotherapy exercises that they could do with Abasi at home to aid his development.

Now, Abasi is able to crawl and can stand upright when holding onto an object for support. He is doing well at the centre and enjoys playing with the other children. Abasi’s parents are extremely pleased and have a restored hope for his future. A future where he can continue to go to school and play an active role in society , just like other children with disabilities reached through the project.

Abasi’s parents are extremely pleased and have a restored hope for his future . A future where he can continue to go to school and play an active role in society .

Our Impact - Uganda 15

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Kenya

We have worked in Kenya since 2009 with Action Network for the Disabled

(ANDY) supporting children and young people with disabilities to be included in

all aspects of their lives.

While Kenya has a system of free primary education, the curriculum requires basic skills that most children with disabilities do not have. Very few have accessed early education, meaning young people with disabilities are less likely to be employed, and more likely to be living in poverty. With limited access to education or health care, these young people continue to face injustice, stigma and sometimes abuse and violence. This is magnified in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum where ANDY is based, and home to thousands of people with disabilities.

What we’re proud of

This year, we kickstarted a new project specifically looking to improve the inclusion of female young people with disabilities in vocational training and employment in Kenya . This represents the first focused employability programme that we have delivered. The project aims to address the discrimination that many young women with disabilities in Kenya face in trying to access employment due to their gender and disability. The project, titled ‘We Can! Women’s employability and employment programme’, commenced in December 2022 in partnership with the British and Foreign Schools Society, where 20 young people with disabilities were identified to become employability mentors. Through vocational skills training, mentoring, entrepreneurial business development and business leadership, the 20 young people will mentor a wider group of 180 young people with disabilities across the duration of the project. They will also identify specific solutions to the barriers young people with disabilities face in developing employability skills and entering employment , drawing on their own experiences to educate business leaders on how to create channels for employment.

Improving personal and social capabilities for lifelong learning

Creating platforms and spaces for children to express themselves provides a strong foundation for learning. This is why ANDY has been implementing Child Rights Clubs (CRCs) in Kenya for the last few years. In partnership with Comic Relief, we have implemented inclusive play sessions to over 60 targeted children with disabilities through our Ready Steady Go! project. Here, children with and without disabilities learn how to play together in a disability inclusive way, and how to support each other using child to child methodology. Teachers have received training and continual support to deliver the inclusive play sessions, with an inclusive play guide developed to ensure teachers can deliver activities that tailor to the needs of the individual children with disabilities. These platforms not only create a space for children with disabilities to be aware of their rights but allow for increased positive interactions between children with and without disabilities.

16 Our Impact - Kenya

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Through our current projects

We trained 38 teachers on inclusive teaching practices and disability rights

We trained 126 parents

We advocated for the rights of children with disabilities with

to better equip them to support the early childhood development of their children with disabilities

15 government officials

The impact of Parent Support Groups

Moses is a nine-year-old boy who has a hearing impairment and uses sign language to communicate. Prior to being enrolled into his current school as part of our Ready Steady Go project, he was unable to communicate effectively and never went outside unless one of his parents was with him.

Due to the delays in enrolling him into a school, Moses started his journey with a number of difficulties. He had a short attention span, difficulty with his memory, low exposure to Kenyan sign language and a lack of cognitive skills. He also struggled to play with other children since he had never done so before, experiencing little to no interaction with his peers. He could also not express his needs to his parents easily, and they struggled to communicate with him, which was extremely frustrating for Moses.

Through our project, one of Moses’ parents joined the Parent Support Group, where they participated in trainings focused on disability, early intervention services and home-based learning . The trainings highlighted the importance of inclusive education and play for children with disabilities and Moses’ parents began the formal assessment process so that Moses could be placed in a school that could support him.

Since joining the school, Moses has flourished . His confidence has increased significantly and with the support and encouragement from his parents, he is much happier at home. He interacts well with his peers and can communicate his needs more effectively. Through their engagement with the Parent Support Group, his parents have benefited hugely. Their attitudes towards disability have completely changed and they have a much more positive outlook regarding their child’s future, which has allowed Moses to thrive.

Since joining the school, Moses has flourished ... He interacts well with his peers and can communicate his needs more effectively.

Our Impact - Kenya 17

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Tanzania

We have been working in Tanzania since 2007 alongside our partners

(CST) to change the lives of children and young people with disabilities through

inclusive education.

Many children and families in Mbeya (south-west Tanzania) are living in poverty, often exacerbated by disability, HIV/AIDS and high mortality rates. Here, services for children with disabilities are severely lacking and poorly resourced. Although primary education is free in Tanzania, children with disabilities often do not develop the basic early learning skills needed to succeed in this environment and are continually left behind when it comes to accessing primary education.

What we’re proud of

This year we worked with Child Support Tanzania to open inclusive libraries in three primary schools in Mbeya. With funding and books provided by Book Aid International. These libraries are now providing nearly 3,000 children with access to a range of books , including textbooks, storybooks, novels, and sensory books. Together with Book Aid International, we trained a cohort of teachers to act as librarians, with the teachers now ensuring children of different ages and reading abilities are able to access quality books to aid with their learning. One of the libraries is situated within Child Support Tanzania’s own school, with regular reading sessions taking place to complement the school curriculum.

Enhancing access to physiotherapy

Early intervention through rehabilitation therapies can significantly increase the functional independence of children. It is crucial that children with rehabilitative needs are provided with this support at

the earliest possible stage in their development. However, there is generally a poor level of understanding of disability among healthcare workers and very few trained therapists provide adequate rehabilitation services. With many children with disabilities living in poverty, the cost of travel to rehabilitative appointments and the fees incurred also exclude most families from accessing these vital services.

In response to this, we have been working with Child Support Tanzania to develop a physiotherapy and occupational therapy project within Child Support Tanzania’s brand-new physiotherapy room, which was constructed as part of the Irma Skeele’s legacy project. The project aims to improve the health and education of children with disabilities at Child Support Tanzania’s school through improved rehabilitative support.

Occupational therapy and physiotherapy training was provided for teachers, while direct support was provided to parents to provide therapeutic support for their children at home. The school was also equipped with sensory tools, and speech and language therapy tools, to ensure better retention rates for children and reduce educational inequalities between children with and without disabilities.

18 Our Impact - Tanzania

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Through our current projects

We supported 90 parents

of children with disabilities through Parent Support Groups

We supported 202 children with disabilities

We trained 17 tachers

on inclusive libraries management and rehabilitative support for children with disabilities

through access to quality inclusive libraries and physiotherapy support

Individual Case Study: Mary

Mary , a new pupil at Child Support Tanzania’s Inclusive Early Childhood Centre, used to crawl. She could occasionally use a walking frame for a short period of time but was unable to move around unattended and could only move a few steps at a time. But, through our project we have been trying to change that.

A physiotherapist, funded through the project has been supporting Mary in school and at home. Mary’s mother has been trained on how to help her continue her rehabilitation at home and Child Support Tanzania have conducted several home visits to help monitor her progress outside of school.

With the help of the physiotherapists, teachers and her parents, there has been a significant improvement in Mary’s mobility. Mary is now able to walk without her frame with little support . She has gained considerable confidence and both her teachers and family are continually encouraging Mary to keep progressing.

Everyone is now confident that Mary will be able to stand up and walk with no assistance , something that would not have happened without the support she received - a result we are aiming to realise for many more children like Mary.

Our Impact - Tanzania 19

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Rwanda

We have been working in Rwanda with Uwezo Youth Empowerment (UWEZO) since 2016 , supporting

children and young people with disabilities to stand up for their rights to access inclusive education, inclusive WASH, and accessible child

protection systems.

Nearly half of all people with disabilities in Rwanda are under 35. Two-thirds are not in education or employment and over 90% fall below the national poverty line. Children with disabilities comprise less than 1% of all primary school students, and this rate drops further at secondary level. As they grow older, these inequities remain. Rwandan young people with disabilities are far less likely to participate in the workforce, with 18.5% unemployed. While Rwanda has a good track record of inclusive policies and has taken many strides towards better inclusion of its population, many children with disabilities are still unable to access basic services and face stigma and discrimination, and 30% of children with disabilities have never attended school.

What we’re proud of

This year we are proud to be making child protection systems in Rwanda more inclusive in partnership with Euromoney Institutional Investor. Children and young people with disabilities are at much higher risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Exacerbating this is the lack of appropriate mechanisms to prevent, report and respond to child protection cases for children with disabilities.

Through our project with UWEZO, we are supporting child protection systems to be more sensitive to the needs of children with disabilities, particularly girls . We are working to ensure that parents of children with disabilities are better

supported to prevent abuse through ‘positive parenting’ workshops. We are training young people with disabilities to mentor children with disabilities to inform them of their rights. We are also undertaking an extensive mapping of existing child protection services and systems in Rwanda, assessing the existing levels of disability inclusion. This will form an evidence base to promote inclusive child protection systems across Rwanda and more widely.

Inclusive mental health provision

Children with disabilities are at an elevated risk of mental health issues and psychosocial disabilities due to the high levels of stigma and exclusion they experience. Despite this, research has shown that there is very little mental health provision for children and young people with disabilities.

This year we started an exciting new mental health-focused project in Rwanda with UWEZO, in partnership with Network for Social Change, which will directly respond to Rwanda’s mental health service provision gap for children with disabilities. We held participatory workshops with children and young people with disabilities to help us understand their experiences and access to mental health services. This research is now informing the design of tools for an inclusive mental health ‘toolbox’, as well as a Disability-Inclusive Child Mental Health Guide. The pack will contain practical advice for practitioners on supporting the mental health of children and young people with disabilities, which we hope will be rolled out nationally.

20 Our Impact - Rwanda

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Through our current projects

We have trained 12 young people with disabilities in mentoring, inclusive child protection and safeguarding

We facilitated 73 parents

We provided 94 children with disabilities

disabilities to attend training workshops on positive parenting and child protection

with one-to-one mentoring from older young people with disabilities

Individual Case Study: Safia

Safia is a 13-year-old girl with a hearing impairment, who is sociable and has always enjoyed school. As part of our inclusive child protection project in Rwanda, young people with disabilities have set up child protection clubs in schools, which children with and without disabilities are invited to attend. Safia started attending these clubs regularly, giving her the opportunity to share her own experiences and to learn from her peers .

The groups are facilitated by the project’s mentors, who lead discussions in a safe environment about disability rights for children and young people with disabilities. They discuss how any harm or abuse can be reported appropriately in disability inclusive and accessible ways. The group discussions have offered Safia the opportunity to learn more about child protection in a safe and comfortable environment, something she had not experienced before as topics such as sexual abuse are often taboo, and rarely spoken about openly. Safia has been able to share her own worries about how despite generally feeling included and safe while at home or school, having a hearing impairment can mean she can feel unsafe at times when she is out in her community.

Safia has developed so much in the group that she has volunteered to lead some sessions herself , such as mapping existing child protection systems in her community and making a presentation on the rights of children with disabilities to her classmates. She has even said that she now wants to become a social worker when she leaves school, so that she can focus on protecting children with disabilities in her community.

Our Impact - Rwanda 21

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Malawi

We began working in Malawi in 2020 with Federation of Disability Organisations in Malawi (FEDOMA).

Since then, we have worked together to strengthen FEDOMA’s organisational capacity and to create a more inclusive environment for children and youth with disabilities in Malawi.

What we’re proud of

Following on from the accessibility audits we completed led by people with disabilities, we have now improved the accessibility of Community Childhood Centres as part of our Early Childhood Education project in Malawi. We have supported the modification of these centres to ensure they are safe and inclusive for children with disabilities to learn and thrive. We have equipped the centres with inclusive play equipment to encourage pre-school children with disabilities to develop key skills in a fun and inclusive environment , preparing them for further learning.

We have also delivered trainings to Malawian government officials on disability inclusive child safeguarding and child protection, as well as on inclusive monitoring, evaluation and learning. These trainings have also offered the opportunity to reflect on existing strengths and opportunities in our Early Childhood Education programme and share best practice among staff.

Disability inclusive play schemes

Children with disabilities are often excluded from early childhood education, an exclusion which can lead to educational and social inequalities that can persist through their lifetime. As part our three-year project in Malawi, we developed a disability inclusive play scheme, which is being implemented across multiple Community Centres. This scheme incorporates elements of play alongside more traditional teaching methods to develop valuable skills. To support this scheme, we have co-developed an inclusive play guide with Malawian education officials and organised multiple trainings for teachers on how to implement the play scheme in their centres in a disability inclusive way.

Bi-weekly sessions are being held for children with and without disabilities in the centres, where the children are led through games, music and other activities to encourage the development of their social and motor skills. This provides an valuable opportunity for children with disabilities to build their confidence, while creating an entry point for their integration into primary education.

22 Our Impact - Malawi

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Through our current projects

We enrolled 288 young children with disabilities

into early childhood education

We trained 106 teachers

We enrolled 219 parents

of children with disabilities into parent support groups

in disability inclusive teaching methods

Faith’s journey to primary school

Faith is a seven-year-old girl who lives in a village in one of our project districts with her family. When she was three years old, she contracted cerebral malaria, which led to her developing a physical impairment. This impacted her ability to move independently, particularly her ability to walk.

As part of our Early Childhood Education project, Faith started attending the inclusive play scheme at her local Community Centre , where she was able to play with other children and develop critical motor skills, social skills, pre-numeracy and literacy skills. Faith also attended a screening programme where physical and occupational therapists were able to suggest ways she could be supported. As a result, parallel bars were installed in her home so she could practise walking independently and her parents were taught physiotherapy exercises to help Faith build her strength in a safe environment.

Through the inclusive play scheme, Faith has met new friends and has grown in confidence . As a result of the support she received, Faith has now successfully transitioned to primary school along with her peers and continues to thrive in school .

“There is a great improvement in Faith . We are now very hopeful because the changes we have seen.”

Faith’s mother

Our Impact - Malawi 23

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Zambia

We began working in Zambia with Zambia Association of

Disabilities (ZAPCD) in 2020.

Since then, we have worked together to understand the barriers children with disabilities face in accessing inclusive education in the country and have developed a new inclusive education programme.

In Zambia, it is estimated there are just over 1 million people with disabilities, which equates to 7.2% of the population. No policy or statement which outlines the need for inclusive education exists in Zambia. As few as 22% of children with disabilities are in Early Childhood Education, 52% are in in primary education and only 12% are recorded as having completed secondary education. The needs of children with disabilities are not fully considered in government plans, with national data and evidence desperately needed to influence the government to address the needs of children with disabilities.

What we’re proud of

Our new three-year Early Learning Programme in partnership with Vitol Foundation, ensures young children with disabilities have equitable access to Early Childhood Education . Working across six pre-primary schools in in the east of the country, the project is tackling the barriers children with disabilities face. Activities in the first year of the project have targeted parents, teachers, government officials and community leaders, while child-centred activities have encouraged children with and without disabilities to better support each other.

The project has also seen the formation of Parent Support Groups, which equip parents with the knowledge and skills to provide Early Childhood Education support at homes . The six centres will become ‘centres of excellence’ through teacher trainings, the incorporation of inclusive play and the use of Individualised Education Plans. A community awareness campaign has started to create greater demand for inclusive Early Childhood Education, while local and national advocacy activities have targeted government decision makers to realise IECE for children with disabilities.

Training the media on disability inclusive reporting

As part of our Inclusive Early Childhood Education programme in Zambia, we are working with ZAPCD to change the narrative of stigma and misunderstanding that can often surround children with disabilities. To tackle this, the project has included multiple community awareness events and media campaigns to spread awareness about the rights of children with disabilities, especially in their right to access Early Childhood Education.

As part of the programme’s media campaign, a multi-day training was organised for media professionals to inform them of the rights of children with disabilities and identify different strategies for reporting on disability in an inclusive and empowering way. The professionals included representatives from both radio and television, covering local and national programming. Over two days, the participants were invited to learn about different models of disability, common myths and misconceptions about disability. At the end, participants organised a press conference where they discussed the rights of children with disabilities, which was broadcast across Zambia on both television and radio.

24 Our Impact - Zambia

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Through our current projects

We enrolled

94 young children with disabilities

into early childhood education.

We consulted with

We have

13 government officials

supported 68 parents

throughout the set-up of the project to ensure their buy-in and ownership of the project.

parents of children with disabilities to register in parent support groups.

Helping Mary to betterHow we support her child

Mary is a mother of a child with disabilities who is part of our Early Childhood Education project in Zambia. She is a single parent as her husband left the home shortly after their child was born. Mary had assumed that her child would always stay at home with her due to his disability, as she had no knowledge of other children with disabilities in her village who had attended school.

However, when Mary’s child was three years old, she was contacted by ZAPCD about the inclusive childhood education programme in her local community centre . Despite her initial reservations, and after discussing it with the teachers, Mary agreed to enrol her son in the centre for a few hours per day.

Mary immediately began to see a change in her son’s confidence and progress in his speech . Mary became more active and got involved in the project’s Parent Support Group, where she was able to share her experiences with other parents in her community . As part of the group, Mary also joined a savings group and received financial training, to help raise funds to be used to support their children.

Since their involvement in the project, Mary has greatly appreciated the positive changes she has seen in her son, but in addition, she has seen the benefit of the project’s advocacy and awareness raising activities, which have changed the way her community treats her and her son. The Parent Support Group has given her a renewed sense of belonging and confidence to raise her son . Mary’s story has shown the power of involving parents and communities to help support children with disabilities to access IECE.

“This project has really changed the way I see my child. I really used to feel hopeless, and no one gave me respect. Now when people see me attending meetings and workshops and my child going to school, they ask me how I did it .”

Mary – Parent of a child with disability

Our Impact - Zambia 25

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

“The project has changed our attitude towards Peace’s participation in education . We better understand that a child with a disability has all the same rights as any other child.”

– Peace’s Father

26 Peace’s Story

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Peace’s story

Peace is a joyful and energetic six-year-old girl, the middle of three siblings. At an early age she was diagnosed with Down Syndrome which can sometimes make

. communication a challenge

Peace’s parents didn’t know how best to support her, and for much of Peace’s early life, she was not allowed to interact with other children and kept close to home. Her parents had limited resources to support and unaware of what rights Peace had, she was not enrolled into early education. Peace was in danger of falling behind.

This is where Able Child Africa came in.

Through our project, Peace and her family were approached with information of the new Inclusive Early Childhood Education project being implemented across her community. Following conversations with the project staff, Peace’s parents agreed to enrol her in the centre. Once at the centre, Peace reacted positively to the environment and quickly began to interact more freely with other children and started to make friends . Her parents were also informed of financial support they were entitled to and were able to source funds and equipment to help her attend school.

Peace’s parents attitude to their daughter’s disability has changed entirely . Peace’s father now chairs his local Parent Support Group and leads them to collectively improve their community’s awareness and understanding of their children’s rights and needs.

PeacLuke’s Story 2 97

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Advocating for Change

We are committed to raising awareness of the unique barriers that children with disabilities face and actively advocate for recognition of their rights and the funding associated with their inclusion .

We believe our partners are best placed to advocate locally and seek to strengthen their capacity to influence change. As such we work primarily through our partners to advocate for the inclusion of children with disabilities in local policies, procedures and budgets. We stand alongside them to hold their governments to account for their stated obligations and commitments as outlined in national charters, constitutions and international frameworks and ensure it is them, not Able Child Africa who are recognised for projects that deliver local advocacy. We also work with partners to deliver local community level campaigns and awareness raising strategies to ensure children with disabilities grow up in supportive unprejudiced environments.

This year, our partners have we have had some significant success in influencing and strengthening national level policies .

In Uganda , USDC have been able to gain further support from the District Inspector of Schools in Lira, with Inspector agreeing to use the Individualised Learning Plans (ILPs) developed in the project across all schools in Lira. USDC visit the district education department on a monthly basis to ensure officials are updated regularly, with further awareness raised through involving officials in project trainings, government working groups and Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) meetings.

In Kenya , as a result of continued lobbying activities and the establishment of two Community Based Rehabilitation groups, which bring together government officials, education and other professionals, parents and community members, there have been several successes with officials. Several children have received additional support, such as bursaries and assistive devices. Parents have also received additional training and grants to strengthen their businesses, with this income in turn support the inclusion of their children with disabilities in schools.

In Tanzania , Child Support Tanzania (CST) continue to be a leading voice in Tanzanian civil society for the inclusive education of children with disabilities. This year, CST have continued to be recognised by the government as a model centre of excellence for disability inclusive education, with government officials in Mbeya bringing their visitors to the CST school as a way of demonstrating the district government’s commitment to inclusive education. CST continue to be consulted by national government on guiding the implementation plans of the National Strategy for Inclusive Education (NSIE) 2022-26 period, which they supported the initial development of. Advocacy continues to be high on CST’s agenda, with several opportunities capitalised on to maximise their impact and subsequent awareness raising of disability inclusive education for children with disabilities.

28 Advocating for Change

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

In Rwanda , as part of our inclusive child protection programme, our partner UWEZO have continually engaged with local government officials to ensure their support for making Rwanda’s child protection systems more disability inclusive. As a result, the officials have helped to facilitate the identification of children and youth with disabilities in their communities and have attended community meetings to talk about the importance of protecting and empowering children with disabilities. UWEZO have also created a system with local government officials to rapidly share information about safeguarding and child protection issues, allowing officials to draw on UWEZO’s expertise to enable more disability-sensitive responses to child protection cases involving children with disabilities. In Malawi, our partner FEDOMA have been working closely with the district governments in the project regions to support the design of the District Development Plan (DDP), which will guide all development activities in the districts over the next five years. FEDOMA have been brought on to the DDP committee as disability inclusion experts and have been advocating to ensure the DDP is inclusive of children and youth with disabilities. FEDOMA have also led on disability inclusion trainings for the team who will oversee the DDP’s implementation to ensure the plan is rolled out in a disability sensitive way. This will have a huge impact on the inclusion of many people with disabilities in the regions who will benefit from the many development activities over the course of the next five years.

In Zambia , we have engaged with government officials during the first year of our Inclusive Early Childhood Education programme to ensure their support for the programme’s outcomes. Representatives from multiple government departments have shared commitments to better include children with disabilities in Early Childhood Education across Chadiza district. Our partner ZAPCD have supported the establishment of a disability inclusion committee involving several government departments, which will serve as an accountability mechanism to ensure these commitments are carried out.

Advocating for Change 29

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Financial Report

Overview

Able Child Africa’s total income this year was £1,035,086 which represents a growth of 50% from the previous financial year. This is comprised of £626,604 in restricted funding (including grants) and £408,482 in unrestricted flexible funding.

Total expenditure this year was £909,023, which is a 23% growth from the previous financial year.

Income and Expenditure

----- Start of picture text -----
||||| |---|---|---|---| |Income and Expenditure|Unrestricted Funds|Restricted Funds|Total Funds| |Income|£408,482|£626,604|£1,035,086| |Expenditure|£382,271|£526,752|£909,023| |Net Income (Expenditure)|£26,211|£99,852|£126,063|

----- End of picture text -----

Spending on Charitable Activities

----- Start of picture text -----
||||| |---|---|---|---| |Expenditure Split|Charitable Activities|Raising Funds|Total Expenditure| |Total|£748,661|£160,362|£909,023|

----- End of picture text -----

Raising Funds

Expenditure on charitable activities amounts to 83p for every pound raised and comprises costs of our projects in Africa, our advocacy and influencing.

Charitable Activities

----- Start of picture text -----
17%
83%
----- End of picture text -----

Reserves

We ended March 2023 with £225,593 of unrestricted reserves, well above our 6-months reserves target. We have continued to maintain a strong unrestricted reserves position throughout this unstable period and predict a growth in our unrestricted income levels over the next year.

Our full report and accounts are available at this end of this report.

30 Financial Report

Celebrating You

Nothing we do would be possible without the many people who support or fund us, complete challenges for us or provide in-kind support. So, to all of you, a massive thank you!

Our Patrons

We are lucky to have some amazing patrons who continue to support our work and raise the profile of what we do. We want to thank Anne Wafula-Strike, Ellie Robinson, Keith Nethercot and Emeli Sandé for all their support over the last year and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.

Our Ambassadors

There are a small group of people who go above and beyond in their support of our work. Our Ambassadors are incredibly dedicated individuals who understand the importance of our work and are willing to back us on a personal basis and over a long period of time. We want to say a huge thank you to Azad Ayub, to Clare Persey, to Vijay Parikh for your unwavering support and personal connection to what we do. Your support is not taken for granted and we are proud to call you part of the Able Child Africa family.

Our Corporate Supporters

We are very fortunate to have some amazing corporate partners, whose continued support through a challenging environment over the last few years has been vital. To The Exile Group, to Dan Sheriff, Dom Kloiber, Katy Rose and Hesham Zakai and all the team, a huge thank you not only for your continued generosity of support, but your willingness to make us part of your family. The Exile Group currently provide us with an office space free of charge, which means a significant saving to the charity and means more money can get to where it is needed most.

To PenCarrie, thank you for once again not only continuing your support but for increasing your support and commitment to the work we do. It means a lot.

To Hassell Inclusion, to Rosnah and Jonathan Hassell for quietly providing an incredibly generous and long-term commitment to the charity and buying in to what we do. Your support is valuable, and it is great to have you with us on this journey.

To American Century and Paul Harrison, who have now provided five years of support through their grant donation and matching scheme, allowing us to build a base on which we hope to be able to grow our support in the US.

To Cargill and Juwon Sofola for your significant and continued annual donation towards our work.

We would also like to thank everyone that donates their services free of charge or at reduced rates to help us keep our costs down and ensure as much money as possible goes to where it is needed most. A big thank you to the team at Penelope for their IT support; to Raihan Islam, Bakhtiyar Islam and everyone at Iirth for their brand and website support; to Michèle Renée Creative for design support; and to Peter Weiss at Simon Muirhead Burton for pro-bono legal advice a huge thank you.

Our Challenge Takers

Every year we are so lucky to have an amazing group of fundraisers who take on the challenge of the London Marathon and raise funds for our work. This year, we had another big team with 38 runners. We want to thank each and every one of you that ran and raised money for us this year. We know how difficult both parts of that challenge can be and it was great to be able to cheer you all on, on the day.

We also want to say a special thank you to a few of you who went the extra step this year. To Krishan Basra, who raised an incredible sum of over £7,500 for Able Child Africa - a huge achievement. To Edward Joudrey, who ran for us for the second year in a row and as well as raising over £3,700. And to Alastair Cotterell and Steve Leighfield who both went above board in raising over £2,500. We also send a special thank you to David Cowie, Gary Cowie, and young Raf who independently raised over £2,000 during a five-day cycle across Holland, from the Hook to Amsterdam. The funds and awareness you raised are hugely appreciated. Thank you.

Our Individual Supporters

There are so many of you that support our work. From regular monthly donations to spreading the news of our work. Each and every one of you is an inspiration and we thank you for the role you play in changing the lives of children with disabilities. A special thank you goes out to Cath Ford and Tony Shubrook, Steve Smith, Heather Barr, Tunji Akintokun, Patricia Balogun and Kunle Fagbenro for supporting us for so long and for your unwavering support to help us achieve our mission.

Celebrating You 31

Celebrating You

Nothing we do would be possible without the many people who support or fund us, complete challenges for us or provide in-kind support. So, to all of you, a massive thank you!

Our Trustees

None of what we do would be possible without the support of an incredibly passionate Board of Trustees, who all give up their time to make us a better organisation. We are incredibly lucky to have such a supportive and engaged group of individuals who create a positive environment that allows the organisation to flourish.

So, to our UK Board - to Jim Sellars who has been a driving force as Chair over the past three years. To Mitul Shah as Treasurer, Martin Hill, Emily Bueno, Cat Carter, Maria Omare, Miiro Michael, Bharat Mehta and Abigail Viljoen we want to say a massive thank you for everything that you do, we couldn’t do it without you.

We also want to thank our US Board of Trustees, who are working very hard to help us establish our base in the US. To Paul Harrison, Liz Macfadyen, Rachelle Gregory and Neil Hankinson, a huge thank you for the time, energy and commitment to help us build something new, and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.

Our Staff

And finally, a huge thank you to the whole staff team, who work tirelessly to bring to life the vision of the charity. We are very lucky to have such a passionate, hardworking, and skilled team, who help drive forward the organisation to make it what it is. We think they are all great and would like to thank them for making Able Child Africa feel like a family and a positive place to work.

We would like to thank the following donors for their support in the last year

American Century Investments Azad Ayub Ltd. The Bartlett Foundation Book Aid International Cargill Comic Relief Euromoney Institutional Investors Exile Group Hassell Inclusion Irma Skeeles Legacy James Tudor Foundation Network for Social Change PenCarrie Rangoonwala Foundation Souter Charitable Trust The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Trust The British and Foreign Schools Society The Marr Munning Trust Tula Trust Vitol Foundation

32 Celebrating You

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Looking Ahead: Our 2030 Strategy

With a changing landscape comes a changing role for Able Child in how to best support children with disabilities in Africa.

For the last 40 years Able Child has been part of a progressive change to support African organisations working to improve the lives of children with disabilities. As our reach grew over the last ten years, we began a process to analyse what our role has been, what it is now and what it should be in the future.

Following an extensive 18-month consultation and review process, we have developed a new way forward. A direction that creates an organisation that is fit for purpose, that builds a model aligned with the interests of our current partners in Africa, and ensures we are best placed to achieve our vision of ensuring no child with a disability is left behind.

This is our 2030 Strategy.

We are undergoing an operational shift . Able Child has always been a ‘vehicle’ for African registered organisations to build expertise, access funding and to advocate for change. Our new strategy takes this role to the next logical step as we transition ourselves into a network , cementing our partners at the centre of who we are.

This is a journey that will begin with the incubation of the new network model within our current structure, ensuring a supportive environment for the network to learn and grow. Once up and running, the network will have greater decision making over the organisation and decide how we prioritise our activities. At the same time, we will be expanding to new regions, confirming our presence in Southern Africa as well as expanding into West Africa, as we look form a wider network across Africa.

To support this growth, we will embark on an international expansion of our operations. The new strategy will see a significant expansion in our activities in the US as we look to build new funding partners and influence in the run up to 2030. Following the expansion in the US we will then look for future growth opportunities as we raise the profile of the brand so we can secure more fundings and have greater influence on the international stage.

We have identified two strategic priorities. We want to have greater reach and expand our influence across Africa, and we believe transitioning to a network model is the best way to achieve this.

Growth & Influence

Expanding our reach and impact across Africa, working with more organisations in more countries.

Expansion of our income portfolio outside the UK, moving first into the US and then looking at future opportunities.

Raising the profile of the organisational brand, so we have greater influence on the international stage.

Building a Network

Implementation of a new network model, for African organisations supporting children with disabilities.

Creation of a new body or structure that meaningfully shifts power to member organisations within the network.

Development of a powerful joint voice to speak with expertise on the issues of children with disabilities.

Looking Ahead 33

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa Network

We are implementing a new network model to bring together the leading African based organisations working with and for children with disabilities across the continet.

Why we need the network

Broaden our impact.

Principally we want to do more. We are really proud of our partnership model and it has been a strong driver of our success over recent years. But we believe we can achieve greater impact as a wider network of likeminded organisations across Africa.

Changing landscape.

There have been social shifts in relation to our work that requires us to change. The anti-racism movement, alongside dialogues about unequal power-dynamics and outdated, colonial approaches to development brings with it a need to be self-critical and a responsibility to adapt to new ways of working.

Positioning ourselves.

We will be the leading network working solely to improve the lives of children with disabilities in Africa. We will bring the expertise from the best African-registered NGOs to shape the landscape for what works for children with disabilities in development programming.

Listening to our partners.

Our partners told us they wanted to do things differently. They want to take the lead and make decisions about how we support and allocate our funds. They wanted to challenge extractive reporting and to have direct relationships with donors. They believed they were stronger together. So, we listened.

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Uganda

Kenya

Tanzania

The Network Journey

Malawi

Rwanda

Where the network will operate.

We want to work across Africa. In order to be a fully representative African network, we need to broaden our reach. By 2030 we are looking to have active members in at least three regions on the continent, growing our presence in Southern Africa, alongside an expansion to West Africa.

Zambia

This growth will be led by the network themselves, who will choose how and where we grow. Our priority will always be focussed on working with African organisations who work for children with disabilities and see value in joining the Network.

Currently working in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia , we foresee working across more countries in East and Southern Africa as well as West Africa by 2030, as demonstrated by the map.

Safe. Thriving. Heard.

Safe.

Thriving.

Heard.

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Report of the Trustees

The Trustees present their report along with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2023. The financial statements have been prepared based on the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with Able Child Africa’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, applicable law, and in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

1. Structure, Governance and Management

1.1 Legal Status

Able Child Africa is a company limited by guarantee registered in England, not having a share capital, incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 (company number 01861434). The company is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 326859). Able Child Africa was previously known as the Uganda Society for Children with Disabilities.

1.2 Trustees

The Trustees (who are also Directors of Able Child Africa for the purposes of Company law) who held office during the financial year are set out in this document. They represent a diverse skill set with experience in finance, law, HR and the third sector, including programme delivery, safeguarding and advocacy. The Board of Trustees is led by the Chair, James Sellars. The Trustees delegate the day-to-day operation of the charity to the staff team, managed by the CEO, Karl Hankinson. The CEO also acts as Company Secretary. During the year two Trustees left the Board, and one new Trustee was appointed. One further Trustee was appointed in July 2023.

Trustees are appointed in accordance with the provisions in Able Child Africa’s Articles of Association, which allow for appointment at any time. New trustees are nominated by current members of the Board of Trustees, following an open and competitive recruitment process, and approved by a majority vote of the Board. Once appointed, Trustees undergo a thorough induction process. Trustees do not receive any remuneration but may claim for incidental expenses, such as travel to board meetings.

The full Board meets on a quarterly basis. We also have one sub-committee, the Resources Sub-Committee that meets quarterly to oversee finance, unrestricted fundraising and give recommendations to the board. The Resources Sub-Committee has its own identified terms of reference, nominated chair and reports to the full board. The chair of the Resources Sub-committee is currently Martin Hill, appointed in March 2020.

The Board of Trustees is primarily responsible for setting and maintaining the strategic direction of Able Child Africa, setting policies and managing resources, risk and staffing. Trustees ensure appropriate procedures and safeguards are in place and take reasonable steps to ensure that these are followed, and they review the Articles of Association, last revised in 2017, to ensure they remain fit for purpose. They carefully monitor finances to ensure viability and sustainability of existing commitments and future plans; they oversee decisions relating to non-budgeted commitments in excess of £1,000; and budgeted commitments in excess of £5,000. Trustees also oversee and ensure compliance of statutory and legal requirements, both internally within Able Child Africa as well as to our beneficiaries and donors.

The Board oversees staff remuneration and sets the pay scales and any benefits package, currently limited only to pension payments, for the organisation. Salary scales are benchmarked using the Croner Charity Rewards Report, which provides the most comprehensive set of data on salary and benefit packages for the Charity Sector in the UK. The last pay scale review was completed in 2017 and amended in 2020.

Audited Accounts 39

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

1.3 Staffing

Able Child Africa maintains a small staff team in the UK. For most of the financial year we had eleven staff members, which included the Chief Executive, a Director of of Impact & Advocacy, a Head of Fundraising & Communications, a Programmes Manager, a Senior Programme Officer, a Programme Officer, a Finance & Operations Manager, a Programmes Funding Officer, an Individual Giving & Events Officer and a Trusts & Foundations Executive. We also had one part-time Advocacy & Communications Assistant for the full year.

Able Child Africa is an equal opportunities employer, committed to equality of opportunities regardless of gender, disability, race, religion, or sexual orientation. We are also proud to be a registered ‘disability confident’ committed employer. In our recruitment processes we particularly encourage applications from people with disabilities and people with direct experience of living or working with children with disabilities; those meeting essential criteria are guaranteed an interview.

1.4 Fundraising Performance

Following our prior year drop in grant funding due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2022/23 saw us rebound and deliver our highest annual income total to date, with over £1million of total income. We saw our second-best unrestricted income result, with over £400,000 secured for the year, a level which is expected to be maintained in 2023/24.

We also have over £300,000 of multi-year grants secured for delivery for 2023/24 already and we are in a strong position to deliver against our strategic objectives with a similar income level to 2022/23 predicted. There are still challenges in securing continued large scale grant funding over the next strategic cycle and have invested in our fundraising team in order to diversify our fundraising to ensure our sustainability over this period. This is part of our new 2030 Strategy, which we are launching later in 2023.

1.5 Public Benefit Statement

Able Child Africa works for the public benefit through its international development and advocacy work, in support of children with disabilities in Africa.

The Trustees confirm that they have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity’s objectives and aims and in planning future activities for this year and those contained in the next Strategic Plan.

Our charitable object as outlined in the Articles of Association is:

To relieve charitable need, promote health, advance education and promote the social integration of disabled children for the public benefit, with a focus on (but without limitation) promoting such disabled children achieving their human, social, cultural and economic rights (as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“UNCRC”), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations and in regional codes of human rights which incorporate the rights contained in the UNCRC, the UDHR and those subsequent conventions and declarations) by any means the Trustees in their absolute discretion choose and in particular by raising awareness as to the needs of disabled children and advocacy as to how those needs can best be met.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

2. Financial Review

We are proud that our work offers real value for money to our donors. Our expenditure on ‘charitable activities’ amounts to 83% of total expenditure. As a small bespoke charity, we recognise the value of every penny donated and reaffirm here our continuing commitment to carefully managing support costs in order to ensure that we maximise expenditure on charitable activities. However, we also recognise the need to invest in new activities as we grow and are committed to making reasonable and timely investments in order to respond to increasing regulatory requirements and securing our own financial sustainability through unrestricted fundraising in an increasingly difficult and uncertain external environment.

2.1 Income

Able Child Africa’s total income this year was £1,035,086 which represents an increase of 50% from the previous financial year. This is comprised of £626,604 in restricted funding (including grants) and £408,482 in unrestricted flexible funding.

The higher proportion of income (61%) for the financial year was restricted through grants from institutional donors and corporate partnerships. including Comic Relief, and Vitol Foundation - see note 4 for more details.

Unrestricted income amounted to 41% of total income, which was raised from individual donors, through unrestricted corporate support from TXF, The Bartlett Foundation, Cargill Financial Services Europe Ltd, PenCarrie, Hassell Inclusion and American Century Investments; and through our fundraising events including our annual gala fundraising event and the London Marathon.

2.2 Expenditure

Total expenditure this year was £909,023 which is a 23% increase from the previous financial year. Restricted expenditure totalled £526,752, which was spent delivering projects to benefit children with disabilities in Africa; these are detailed in note 6.

Expenditure on charitable activities amounts to 83p for every pound raised, and comprises costs of our projects in Africa, our advocacy and influencing work as well as related support and governance costs. Our fundraising costs, 17p for every pound raised, are kept as low as possible whilst still allowing us to raise sufficient funds to deliver against our mission. This year cost of raising funds primarily includes fundraising staff time. Support costs, which cannot be solely attributed to either charitable or fundraising expenditure, are allocated in proportion to estimated staff time spent on each activity.

2.3 Reserves

It is our policy to retain sufficient reserves to safeguard ongoing commitments and operations. Trustees regularly review our reserves policy in line with ongoing plans, budgets and cash flow forecasts.

The reserves policy states that the organisation should hold a minimum of 3-months of unrestricted expenditure at all times, with the aim to maintain reserves at a level above 6-months unrestricted expenditure. This decision is overseen by the Resources Sub-Committee.

Based on the 2022/23 budget this indicated a target reserves of £191k. Having carried forward unrestricted reserves of £199,382 at the start of the year, we ended March 2023 with £225,593 of unrestricted reserves.

Audited Accounts 41

Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

2.4 Going Concern

The Trustees reaffirm that Able Child Africa is a going concern, indicated both by the financial review contained here as well as forecasting for the next 12-months. While the external environment over the last three years has been difficult, we have maintained a strong unrestricted reserves position throughout this period (above six-months reserves) and have demonstrated an ability to grow our unrestricted income base.

While we have just recorded our biggest year, we still foresee challenges with restricted grant-based funding. However, our expansion into the US and diversification of our unrestricted income portfolio should ensure we continue the growth trajectory seen over the last ten years; a move that will ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of our organisation going forward.

2.5 Voluntary Help and Gifts in Kind

We would like to thank all our generous volunteers and supporters for their work this year. We would like to thank the Exile Group for their continued in-kind support, most notably providing us with a long-term office space; and Simons Muirhead Burton for providing us with pro-bono legal support. We would also like to thank Kunle Fagbenro and every person and company that donated a prize or service for our events auctions.

2.6 Investment Policy

The Trustees have the power to invest in such assets as they see fit. At the present time we do not have any funds invested but may review this position in future should resources allow.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

3. Risk Management Statement

The Trustees have overall responsibility for ensuring that Able Child Africa has the appropriate systems of control in place, financial and otherwise. Through the implementation of the Strategic Risk Register, the Trustees interrogate and proactively seek to reduce, eliminate or mitigate risks. The major risks to which Able Child Africa is exposed to are identified by the senior management team and nominated board members and reviewed by all Trustees at each quarterly board meeting.

The Trustees remain satisfied that current internal systems provide reasonable assurance that the organisation operates efficiently and effectively, safeguards its assets, maintains proper records and complies with relevant laws and regulations. At present the Trustees consider the two most significant risks are around financial sustainability and preventing child safeguarding incidents. These main risks, together with agreed mitigation strategies, are summarised below.

Risk of insufficient funding and economic instability preventing us from delivering against our mission

In the current climate, risk to income, both restricted and unrestricted is high. At present we have a strong unrestricted reserves position, with over 6-months reserves at March 2023 and a stable unrestricted income portfolio. This has helped us manage navigate the turbulent period over the last three years. However, the risk of a sustained reduction in grant-based funding remains high in the sector. While this wouldn’t affect our continued operations, it would affect our ability to make impact on scale. Changes in grant donor arrangements or preferences, particularly regarding our largest and most regular donors, could have a significant impact on our output. At present we have approximately £300k of funding already secured for the next year but are working to identify new donors and diversify our funding streams. We are preparing for this new external environment with the launch of our new strategy as we look at how we future proof our organisation as the donor landscape changes. All this has been done collaboratively and transparently with the Board of Trustees to ensure proper oversight and a strategic response to a changing situation. Financial oversight is provided by the Treasurer (monthly) and Resources Sub-Committee (quarterly) who review rolling cash flow projections and annual budgets. This regular monitoring ensures we regularly monitor performance against targets, as well as implement strategic shifts early when required.

Risk of compliance in the implementation of projects by our partners

Able Child Africa’s strategy and theory of change both clearly lay out why we have chosen to work as a network of African-led organisations. Principally, we believe we are a vehicle for African organisations to achieve higher impact; we also believe this offers greater value for money to our donors. However, taking responsibility for the implementation of projects by our African partners, particularly where we are the primary grant holder, carries financial and reputational risk. We seek to mitigate this risk by developing collaborative, working relationships and transparent lines of communication; and having in place overarching Network and Grant Agreements. Our Programmes Team also conduct multiple in-person visits each year to check compliance of grants and improve systems. During these visits, the team regularly review activity delivery and project expenditure for specific grants, interrogating the quality of delivery and spend against outcomes. Project specific risk registers are developed collaboratively for each project; these inform Able Child Africa’s overall risk register and are reviewed and updated on an annual basis. We have also developed a bespoke Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy, as well as a summary for the organisations we represent, which is in compliance with the UK Bribery Act 2010.

Risk of safeguarding incident causing harm to one or more of the vulnerable people we work with

As an organisation working with some of the world’s most vulnerable children and young people, Able Child Africa understands the importance of our role in their safeguarding. We also understand the threat of an incident involving one of our or our partner's staff, volunteers, or Trustees. While we do everything in our power to minimise the risk involving a staff member,

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

volunteer or Trustee, we accept that due to the nature of our work, there is an increased likelihood of the witnessing or reporting of abuse. We aim to deal with this risk in an honest and transparent way that puts the child or vulnerable adult at the centre of any action. We updated all our safeguarding policies and procedures in 2023, to ensure they are not only fit for purpose, but best practice. These procedures outline the measures in place to reduce a safeguarding incident that affects a child or vulnerable adult; and to appropriately act on any reported incident or suspicion of abuse. We have robust recruitment processes, with DBS checks on all staff, Trustees and volunteers upon appointment. All our staff are trained in safeguarding with regular team workshops where staff can discuss thoughts and facilitate learning and we have recruited a safeguarding professional onto the board as the nominated lead.

Risk of loss of business continuity through unexpected sudden departure of key members of the team

The success of Able Child Africa’s results and impact lies with its small and dedicated staff team. The unplanned and sudden loss or departure of staff therefore places a risk to our ability to operate efficiently, particularly given the size of the team. To mitigate this, we have taken a number of steps both to improve staff retention and to ensure the loss of institutional knowledge is reduced. Over the course of the last three years, we have placed an emphasis on staff wellbeing and organisational culture to improve staff retention and provide an attractive and supportive environment for staff. To protect institutional knowledge, we have built processes into our CRM system and have started to implement a change in culture to document the organisational knowledge away from individual staff members. We have a comprehensive Business Continuity Policy which works to ensure we are well-equipped to manage this risk, particularly in the current unstable external environment.

Risk to Able Child Africa staff or volunteer safety during travel

Although Able Child Africa does not currently work in conflict areas, political instability, violence and kidnapping risks associated with travel to our chosen countries cannot be completely eliminated. We take our duty of care to our staff, Trustees and volunteers very seriously through robust travel policies and procedures to identify security risks and provide reasonable but not absolute assurance against any occurrence. Ahead of each trip the Programmes Manager undertakes an internal risk assessment, documents travel plans and movements, and provides a travel briefing. Staff, Trustees and volunteers who travel have access to a security and emergency travel app on the smartphone they are provided for travel and this is available to download on personal devices. Our latest security procedure review and staff training was undertaken in 2021/22 following the pandemic, with a new Travel Safety and Security Policy developed following an internal review.

Risk of ineffective management of staff, volunteers, supporters’ and/or beneficiaries’ personal data

As a small organisation with limited resource to cover IT infrastructure, we understand the potential risks of ineffective IT systems or a cyber security attack that leads to a potential data breach. As part of the GDPR regulations, Able Child Africa has improved its IT policies, systems and infrastructure to better ensure that individual’s data held by Able Child Africa is consensual, relevant for its purpose and secure. We have revised Data Protection Policies to bring them up to date with GDPR legislation and ensured their effective implementation across the organisation. We have developed new IT Usage and Security Policies and Procedures to provide effective guidelines to staff on using IT and people’s data within the organisation. We have developed a data register outlining the data we collect, the purpose for collecting it and where it is stored. Staff receive annual Data Protection training and we review our data retention policies annually. We have developed Privacy Notices for all stakeholders to the organisation, including staff and Trustees. All our Privacy Notices and practices underwent an external review by a specialist law firm in 2020 to ensure we are fully GDPR compliant. This is due for review and update end 2023.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

4. Statement of Trustee Responsibilities

The Trustees (who are also Directors of the charity for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the income and expenditure of the charity for that period. In preparing those financial statements the trustees are required to:

• Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently

• Observe the methods and principles in the applicable Charities SORP

• Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent

• State whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

• Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. The Trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. In so far as the trustees are aware:

• There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company's auditors are unaware

• The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 March 2023 was eight. The Trustees are members of the charity, but this entitles them only to voting rights. The Trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditors

Godfrey Wilson Ltd were appointed as the charitable company's auditors in 2017 and have acted in that capacity for the last five years. They have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity.

Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf on 07 October 2023:

JAmes sellars

James Sellars – Chair

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Company no. 01861434 Charity no. 326859

Able Child Africa

Report and Audited Financial Statements Able Child Africa Report and Audited Financial Statements 31 March 2022 31 March 2023

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa

Reference and administrative details

For the year ended 31 March 2023

Company number 01861434 Charity number 326859 Registered office and Unit 6 Madeira Tower operational address 34 Ponton Road London SW11 7BA

Trustees

Trustees, who are also directors under company law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:

Heather Barr resigned 29 November 2022 Emily Bueno Catherine Carter Martin Hill Bharat Mehta appointed 17 September 2022 Miiro Michael Maria Omare Catherine Turner resigned 8 July 2022 James Sellars Mitul Shah Abigail Viljoen appointed 15 July 2023 Company secretary and CEO Karl Hankinson Bankers CAF Bank Barclays Bank 25 Kings Hill Avenue 1 Churchill Place Kings Hill London West Malling E14 5HP ME19 4JQ Solicitors Bates Wells & Braithwaite 2-6 Cannon Street London EC4M 6YH Auditors Godfrey Wilson Limited 5th Floor Mariner House 62 Prince Street Bristol BS1 4QD

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

Able Child Africa

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Able Child Africa (the 'charity') for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and the related notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charity's affairs as at 31 March 2023 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

Able Child Africa

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinion on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the Trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ report) have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us;

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns;

• certain disclosures of Trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• ▪we have not obtained all the information and explanations necessary for the purposes of our audit.

Responsibilities of the Trustees

As explained more fully in the Trustees’ responsibilities statement set out in the Trustees’ report, the Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

Able Child Africa

Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The procedures we carried out and the extent to which they are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, are detailed below:

(1) We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, and assessed the risk of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Throughout the audit, we remained alert to possible indications of non-compliance.

(2) We reviewed the charity’s policies and procedures in relation to:

• Identifying, evaluating and complying with laws and regulations, and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;

• Detecting and responding to the risk of fraud, and whether they were aware of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud; and

• Designing and implementing internal controls to mitigate the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud.

(3) We inspected the minutes of trustee meetings.

(4) We enquired about any non-routine communication with regulators and reviewed any reports made to them.

(5) We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and assessed their compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

(6) We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected transactions or balances that may indicate a risk of material fraud or error.

(7) We assessed the risk of fraud through management override of controls and carried out procedures to address this risk. Our procedures included:

▪Testing the appropriateness of journal entries;

• ▪Assessing judgements and accounting estimates for potential bias;

• ▪Reviewing related party transactions; and

▪Testing transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. Irregularities that arise due to fraud can be even harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

Able Child Africa

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charityʼs members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charityʼs members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditorʼs report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charityʼs members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Alison Godfrey

Date: 9 October 2023

Alison Godfrey FCA

(Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of:

GODFREY WILSON LIMITED

Chartered accountants and statutory auditors 5th Floor Mariner House 62 Prince Street Bristol BS1 4QD

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa

Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2023

Note Income from: Donations 3 4 Other trading income 5 Investments Total income Expenditure on: Raising funds Total expenditure 6 8 Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward Charitable activities Charitable activities Net income / (expenditure) and movement in funds	Restricted Unrestricted £ £ - 349,609 626,604 36,505 - 19,078 - 3,290 626,604 408,482 - 160,362 526,752 221,909 526,752 382,271 99,852 26,211 245,473 199,382 345,325 225,593	2023 Total £ 349,609 663,109 19,078 3,290 1,035,086 160,362 748,661 909,023 126,063 444,855 570,918	2022 Total £ 233,619 436,832 18,253 67
			688,771
			125,215 612,430
			737,645
			(48,874) 493,729
			444,855

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in note 15 to the accounts.

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Able Child Africa

Balance sheet

As at 31 March 2023

Note Fixed assets Tangible assets 11 Current assets Debtors 12 Cash at bank and in hand Liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due within 1 year 13 Net current assets Net assets 14 Funds 15 Restricted funds Unrestricted funds Designated funds General funds Total charity funds	£ 123,152 459,721 582,873 (15,929)	2023 £ 3,974 566,944 570,918 345,325 - 225,593 570,918	2022 £ -
			36,677 424,518
			461,195 (16,340)
			444,855
			444,855
			245,473 17,764 181,618
			444,855

These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies' regime.

Approved by the trustees on 7 October 2023 and signed on their behalf by

JAmes sellars

James Sellars - Chair

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2023

Cash used in operating activities: Net movement in funds Adjustments for: Depreciation charges Dividends, interest and rents from investments (Increase) / decrease in debtors Decrease in creditors Net cash used in operating activities Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of tangible fixed assets Dividends, interest and rents from investments Net cash provided by investing activities Decrease in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year	2023 £ 126,063 - (3,290) (86,475) (411) 35,887 (3,974) 3,290 (684) 35,203 424,518 459,721	2022 £ (48,874) 1,869 (67) 3,374 (1,872)
		(45,570)
		- 67
		67
		(45,503) 470,021
		424,518

The charity has not provided an analysis of changes in net debt as it does not have any long term financing arrangements.

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

1. Accounting policies

a) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities in preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Able Child Africa meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

b) Going concern basis of accounting

The accounts have been prepared on the assumption that the charity is able to continue as a going concern, which the trustees consider appropriate having regard to the current level of unrestricted reserves. There are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

c) Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item(s) of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from the government and other grants, whether 'capital' grants or 'revenue' grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor(s) to the Trust that a distribution will be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be measured reliably and the charity has been notified of the executor's intention to make a distribution. Where legacies have been notified to the charity, or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is treated as a contingent asset and disclosed if material.

Income received in advance of provision of earned income, sales, and consultancy is deferred until criteria for income recognition are met.

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

1. Accounting policies (continued)

d) Donated services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item, is probable and the economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), general volunteer time is not recognised.

On receipt, donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

e) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity: this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

f) Funds accounting

Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of the charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds of the charity which the Trustees have decided at their discretion to set aside to use for a specific purpose. Restricted funds are donations which the donor has specified are to be solely used for particular areas of the charity's work or for specific projects being undertaken by the charity.

g) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

h) Grants payable

Grants payable are recognised as expenditure on the earlier of a) when the charity has a present obligation to transfer resources; and b) when the charity ceases to control the resource (e.g. via transfering funds to the grant recipient).

i) Allocation of support and governance costs

Support costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity, including the costs of complying with constitutional and statutory requirements and any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities. These costs have been allocated between cost of raising funds and expenditure on charitable activities on the basis of staff numbers, as follows:

	2023	2022
Raising funds	27%	18%
Charitable activities	73%	82%

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

1. Accounting policies (continued)

j) Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Computers, database and website Furniture and fittings

3 years straight line 5 years straight line

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £500.

k) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

l) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

m) Creditors

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

n) Financial instruments

The charitable company only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently recognised at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

o) Pension costs

The company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for its employees. There are no further liabilities other than that already recognised in the SOFA.

p) Foreign currency transactions

Transactions in foreign currencies are translated at rates prevailing at the date of the transaction. Balances denominated in foreign currencies are translated at the rate of exchange prevailing at the year end.

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

1. Accounting policies (continued)

q) Accounting estimates and key judgements

In the application of the charity's accounting policies, the Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods.

The key sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements are depreciation as described in note 1(j).

2. Statement of financial activities: prior period comparatives

Income from: Donations Investments Total income Expenditure on: Raising funds Charitable activities Total expenditure Net income / (expenditure) Transfers between funds Net movement in funds Other trading income Charitable activities	Restricted £ £ - 233,619 436,832 - - 18,253 - 67 436,832 251,939 - 125,215 376,749 235,681 376,749 360,896 60,083 (108,957) 2,676 (2,676) 62,759 (111,633) Unrestricted	2022 Total £ 233,619 436,832 18,253 67
		688,771
		125,215 612,430
		737,645
		(48,874) -
		(48,874)

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

3. Income from donations

Gifts in kind Legacy income Total* Fundraising events and community Individual donors Corporate donors Sponsored challenge events	2023 Total £ 134,923 14,222 47,181 102,733 39,050 11,500 349,609	2022 Total £ 67,343 16,004 41,487 93,626 15,159 -
		233,619

All donation income in the current and prior year was unrestricted.

*Gifts in kind relate to the following goods and services provided free of charge:

Rent Prizes for gala dinner Gifts in kind	2023 £ 34,800 4,250 39,050	2022 £ 14,000 1,159
		15,159

4. Income from charitable activities

Grants > £10,000: Vitol Foundation Comic Relief Euromoney The Bartlett Foundation The British & Foreign School Society The Marr Munning Trust The Network for Social Change Rangoonwala Smaller grants < £10,000 Total	Restricted £ £ 272,338 - 235,897 - 35,000 - - 30,000 29,924 - 20,170 - 15,775 - 12,500 - 5,000 6,505 626,604 36,505 Unrestricted	2023 Total £ 272,338 235,897 35,000 30,000 29,924 20,170 15,775 12,500 11,505
		663,109

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

4. Income from charitable activities (continued) Prior period comparative

Grants > £10,000: Comic Relief Vitol Foundation Euromoney The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Trust Book Aid International Jersey Overseas Aid Commission The British & Foreign School Society Smaller grants < £10,000 Total	Restricted £ £ 183,994 - 127,959 - 35,000 - 20,000 - 18,860 - 13,485 - 14,920 - 22,614 - 436,832 - Unrestricted	2022 Total £ 183,994 127,959 35,000 20,000 18,860 13,485 14,920 22,614
		436,832

Government grants

The charitable company receives government grants, defined as funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Jersey Overseas Aid Commission to fund charitable activities. The total value of such grants in the period ending 31 March 2023 was £Nil (2022: £18,485). There are no unfulfilled conditions or contingencies attaching to these grants in the prior year.

5. Other trading income

Other trading income
Auction sales Sales income	2023 Total £ 11,692 7,386 19,078	2022 Total £ 12,560 5,693
		18,253

All other trading income in the current and prior year was unrestricted.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

6. Total expenditure

Total expenditure
Sub-total Prior period comparative Sub-total Running costs Fundraising and events Non-salaried personnel Programmes and operations Fundraising and events Governance Governance Programmes and operations Total Grants payable (note 7) Staff costs (note 9) Non-salaried personnel Total Allocation of support and governance costs Grants payable (note 7) Staff costs (note 9) Allocation of support and governance costs Running costs	£ - 77,686 - - 52,936 - - 130,622 29,740 160,362 £ - 64,395 - - 45,006 - - 109,401 15,814 125,215 Raising funds Raising funds	£ £ 373,364 - 256,119 33,787 12,824 9,220 - 53,530 - - - 14,722 24,835 - 667,142 111,259 81,519 (111,259) 748,661 - £ £ 268,643 - 242,944 34,553 4,618 2,463 - 45,326 - - - 6,552 23,145 - 539,350 88,894 73,080 (88,894) 612,430 - Support and governance costs Charitable activities Support and governance costs Charitable activities	2023 Total £ 373,364 367,592 22,044 53,530 52,936 14,722 24,835
			909,023 -
			909,023
			2022 Total £ 268,643 341,892 7,081 45,326 45,006 6,552 23,145
			737,645 -
			737,645

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

7. Grants payable to institutions

Grants were paid to the following overseas partner organisations in pursuit of the charity's objects:

objects:
Action Network for Disabled Youth (ANDY) Zambia Association of Parents for Children with Disabilities (ZAPCD) Uganda Society for Disabled Children (USDC) Child Support Tanzania (CST) UWEZO Youth Empowerment Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi (FEDOMA) Total	2023 £ 63,411 38,088 138,470 23,584 26,964 82,847 373,364	2022 £ 68,737 17,225 66,229 36,145 2,822 77,485
		268,643

8. Net movement in funds

This is stated after charging:

Net movement in funds This is stated after charging:
	2023	2022
	£	£
Depreciation	-	1,869
Trustees' remuneration	Nil	Nil
Trustees' reimbursed expenses	Nil	Nil
Auditors' remuneration:
Statutory audit	6,360	5,220
Other services	300	300

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

9. Staff costs and numbers

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs and numbers Staff costs were as follows:
Salaries and wages Social security costs Pension costs Other staff costs Total	2023 £ 322,384 29,022 14,678 1,508 367,592	2022 £ 303,511 25,699 11,292 1,390
		341,892

One employee earned between £60,000 and £70,000 during the year (2022: one).

The key management personnel of the charitable company comprise the Trustees and the CEO. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel, including gross salary, employer national insurance contributions and employer pension contributions were £75,494 (2022: £69,909).

Average head count	2023 No. 8.90	2022 No. 8.03

10. Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

11. Tangible fixed assets

£ £ Cost At 1 April 2022 17,860 666 Additions 3,974 - Disposals (1,912) (666) At 31 March 2023 19,922 - Depreciation At 1 April 2022 17,860 666 On Disposals (1,912) (666) At 31 March 2023 15,948 - Net book value At 31 March 2023 3,974 - At 31 March 2022 - - 12. Debtors 2023 £ Trade debtors - Accrued income 105,758 Prepayments 17,394 Other debtors - Total 123,152 13. Creditors: amounts due within 1 year 2023 £ Trade creditors 997 Accruals 6,871 Other taxation and social security 8,061 Total 15,929 Computers, database and website Furniture and fittings	Total £ 18,526 3,974 (2,578)
	19,922
	18,526 (2,578)
	15,948
	3,974
	-
	2022 £ 774 15,226 20,657 20
	36,677
	2022 £ 90 8,423 7,827
	16,340

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

14. Analysis of net assets between funds

Analysis of net assets between funds
Tangible fixed assets Current assets Current liabilities Net assets at 31 March 2023	£ - 345,325 - 345,325 Restricted funds	£ 3,974 237,548 (15,929) 225,593 General funds	Total funds £ 3,974 582,873 (15,929)
			570,918

Prior period comparative

Prior period comparative
£ Tangible fixed assets - Current assets 245,473 Current liabilities - Net assets at 31 March 2022 245,473 Restricted funds	£ - 17,764 - 17,764 Designated funds	£ - 197,958 (16,340) 181,618 General funds	Total funds £ - 461,195 (16,340)
			444,855

19

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

At 31 March	2023	£		-	-	9,160	3,134	15,000	47,500	-	31,218	4,773	37,210	60	29,872	-	1,908	11,992	15,775	-	(3,665)	67,147	74,241	-	345,325
	Expenditure	£		(3,365)	(10,063)	(5,764)	(11,866)	-	-	(30,000)	(81,849)	(2,842)	(115,804)	-	(38,670)	(2,046)	(2,282)	(16,684)	-	(2,938)	(16,165)	(124,741)	(59,673)	(2,000)	(526,752)
	Income	£		-	-	14,924	15,000	15,000	47,500	30,000	75,179	-	68,218	-	35,000	-	-	20,170	15,775	-	12,500	138,424	133,914	5,000	626,604
At 1 April	2022	£		3,365	10,063	-	-	-	-	-	37,888	7,615	84,796	60	33,542	2,046	4,190	8,506	-	2,938	-	53,464	-	(3,000)	245,473
			Restricted funds	Aberdeen Asset Management Charitable Foundation - CST	Book Aid International - CST	The British and Foreign School Society - ANDY	The British and Foreign School Society - USDC	Comic Relief - Cost of living Grant	Comic Relief - Deepening and Scaling	Comic Relief - Organisational Strengthening – USDC	Comic Relief – Ready, Steady, Go - ANDY	Comic Relief – Take All My Friends to School - CST	Comic Relief - IECE 4 ME! - USDC	Child Support Tanzania (CST) – Other	Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc. – UWEZO	James Tudor Foundation – FEDOMA	Jersey Overseas Aid Commission	The Marr-Munning Trust - USDC	Network for Social Change - UWEZO	The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust - FEDOMA	Rangoonwala Foundation – CST	Vitol Foundation - FEDOMA	Vitol Foundation - ZAPCD	Other Restricted - FEDOMA	Total restricted funds

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

At 31 March	2023	£		-	225,593	225,593	570,918				At 31 March	2022	£		3,365	-	-	37,888	7,615	-	84,796	-	60	-	133,724
	Expenditure	£		(17,764)	(364,507)	(382,271)	(909,023)			Transfers	between	funds	£		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Income	£		-	408,482	408,482	1,035,086					Expenditure	£		-	(306)	(17,485)	(76,643)	-	(4,555)	(84,295)	(1,063)	-	-	(184,347)
At 1 April	2022	£		17,764	181,618	199,382	444,855					Income	£		-	-	14,920	74,108	9,768	(2,327)	102,444	996	-	5,001	204,910
											At 1 April	2021	£		3,365	306	2,565	40,423	(2,153)	6,882	66,647	67	60	(5,001)	113,161
			Unrestricted funds	_Designated fund:_Irma Skeeles Legacy	General funds	Total unrestricted funds	Total funds	Prior period comparative						Restricted funds	Aberdeen Asset Management Charitable Foundation	Aletheia Foundation	The British and Foreign School Society	Comic Relief – Ready, Steady, Go	Comic Relief – Take All My Friends to School	Comic Relief – Promoting Inclusive Education	Comic Relief - IECE 4 ME!	The Commonwealth Foundation	Child Support Tanzania (CST) – Other	Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office	Sub-total of restricted funds

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	At 31 March	2022	£			133,724		-	4,190	-	8,506	-	-	53,464	2,046	33,542	2,938	10,063	-	(3,000)	-	245,473		17,764	181,618	199,382	444,855
Transfers	between	funds	£			-		2,676	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,676		-	(2,676)	(2,676)	-
		Expenditure	£			(184,347)		(139)	(5,965)	(5,284)	(15,387)	(3,136)	(2,500)	(99,049)	(1,894)	(1,458)	(17,062)	(8,797)	(23,081)	(3,000)	(5,650)	(376,749)		(67,236)	(293,660)	(360,896)	(737,645)
		Income	£			204,910		-	13,485	4,528	-	-	2,500	104,878	3,940	35,000	20,000	18,860	23,081	-	5,650	436,832		-	251,939	251,939	688,771
	At 1 April	2021	£			113,161		(2,537)	(3,330)	756	23,893	3,136	-	47,635	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	182,714		85,000	226,015	311,015	493,729
				Restricted funds (continued)		Sub-total of restricted funds from prior page		Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office - Safeguarding	Jersey Overseas Aid Commission	Laureus Foundation	The Marr-Munning Trust	Network for Social Change	The Carmela and Ronnie Pignatelli	Vitol Foundation - FEDOMA	James Tudor Foundation	Euromoney	The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust	Book Aid International	Vitol Foundation - ZAPCD	The Souter Charitable Trust	Other Restricted - FEDOMA	Total restricted funds	Unrestricted funds	Designated fund: Irma Skeeles Legacy	General funds	Total unrestricted funds	Total funds

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

15. Movements in funds (continued) Purposes of restricted funds

Aberdeen Asset Management Charitable Foundation - CST

This three-year grant supports the second phase, larger development of CST’s purpose-built, fully inclusive school site including architectural design, construction and school equipment. Capacity building support is also provided to CST in terms of strategic and business planning, training and capacity building as needed to transition to a larger profile, purpose-built school.

Book Aid International - CST

This one-year grant is for the project “Quality School Libraries for All”. This project will set up three inclusive libraries across three schools. This will include the donation of 9,000 books to the three schools (3,000 books each), once of which be CST’s inclusive school. The project will also provide funding to enable the schools to make inclusive adaptations to the library rooms to make them accessible for all children and will train teachers and school librarians on inclusive education techniques to ensure the inclusion of children with disabilities in the new libraries.

The British and Foreign School Society - ANDY

This two-year project seeks to improve disability-inclusion of female youth with disabilities in vocational training and employment. It aims to do so by addressing the triple discrimination that many young women with disabilities in Kenya face in trying to access employment due to their gender, disability, and state of being youth. Female youth with disabilities will gain from training opportunities in employability skills, entrepreneurial business development and business leadership. The project will utilise a mentorship model, with female youth with disabilities also being supported to establish tested enterprises through seed funding or being matched with employment opportunities.

The British and Foreign School Society - USDC

This two-year project seeks to improve access to inclusive education for children and youth with disabilities in northern Ugandan refugee settlements. The children of refugees and displaced people living with disabilities face many challenges in accessing basic human rights including access to quality education. Using a multifaceted approach, working with children and youth with disabilities, teachers, and duty-bearers (government officials, community members, parents), activities include the identification and enrolment of out-of-schools children with disabilities, mentoring of children to keep them in education, training of teachers on inclusive methodologies and advocacy with local and national government officials.

Comic Relief - Cost of living Grant

This funding was provided by Comic Relief to support its existing grant recipients with additional funds to cover some of the cost-of-living rises seen in the UK and the countries where we work.

Comic Relief - Deepening and Scaling

This project will enable Able Child Africa to better support organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) or disability-focused organisations through the implementation of our new strategic vision. The grant will allow us to strengthen our network’s systems and governance, deliver higher-impact inclusive education programmes for children with disabilities and effectively communicate our partner’s work to maximise their visibility and advocacy outcomes.

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

15. Movements in funds (continued) Purposes of restricted funds

Comic Relief - Organisational Strengthening – USDC

This project will facilitate organisational strengthening support for USDC. This project has been realised through the All In, All Learning Extension project, with USDC invited to apply for additional budget to facilitate staff trainings and strengthen the organisation’s systems to deliver their programmes more effectively. Focus areas include developing a new monitoring, evaluation and learning system, the development of a child safeguarding policy, which Able Child Africa is supporting the team with, and the advancement of USDC’s financial management systems.

Comic Relief – Ready, Steady, Go - ANDY

This three-year grant supported seeks to improve access to quality inclusive ECE for children with disabilities aged four to six in Nairobi, Kenya. This project will develop effective early identification systems, build the capacity of key ECD duty-bearers, and design an innovative Inclusive Play Programme to sustainably and holistically address barriers to their inclusion.

Comic Relief – Take All My Friends to School - CST

This four-year grant funded by Comic Relief scales up two Inclusive Education projects currently delivered with our partner Child Support Tanzania within Mbeya, Southwest Tanzania. Working in a consortium with two other international disability organisations funded under the same grants stream, the project seeks to increase the access, quantity and quality of inclusive education. The project utilises the Child-to-Child methodology developed with our partner USDC to ensure activities are participatory and determined by children.

Comic Relief - IECE 4 ME! - USDC

This three-year project funded by Comic Relief will improve the primary school readiness of children with and without disabilities aged three to six years old in Uganda through the development of a communityled inclusive Early Childhood Education (IECE) model with caregivers, capacity building of key ECE dutybearers and communities and a focused government advocacy campaign. This IECE model will be delivered through 18 community learning centres (CLCs) with activities delivered alongside local government schools to aid inclusion and break down barriers.

Child Support Tanzania (CST) – Other

This consisted of a 1-year grant from the The Leggatt Trust. The grants provided top-up funding to support our inclusive education programme in Tanzania and ensured children with disabilities received medical assessments during the project lifecycle.

Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc. – UWEZO

This two to three-year grant is in support of the project “I Matter Too: Making Rwandan child protection systems disability-inclusive for children with disabilities”. The project will adopt a community-based inclusive development approach to target child protection systems in Gasabo, Rwanda to ensure that children with disabilities, as the children most at risk of neglect and abuse, are able to equitably access child protection systems.

James Tudor Foundation – FEDOMA

This six-month project aims to improve children with disabilities’ (three to five years old) access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) through the provision of medical screenings, assessments and provision of assistive devices which will support them to better access education services.

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Able Child Africa 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

15. Movements in funds (continued) Purposes of restricted funds

Jersey Overseas Aid Commission

This 3-year project funded by Jersey Oversees Aid contributed to the government’s commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ through the advocacy for disability inclusive WASH policies and programmes for girls with disabilities in education. This multifaceted and youth-led project identified out of schoolgirls with disabilities and trained female youth with disability (YwD) mentors to design and implement a twofold peer to peer mentoring programme using child-friendly resources.

The Marr-Munning Trust - USDC

This three-year project with our implementing partner USDC, expands on our prior Marr Munning Trust funded programme to directly support the Early Childhood Education (ECE) of 60 children with disabilities across six schools in Northern Uganda (Lira and Nebbi). It will support the government’s need to scale-up the Individualised Learning Plan (lLP) by adapting our ILP and disability screening tool for an Early Childhood Education context and delivering a focused multi-year government advocacy campaign. The campaign will target a network of district- and national-level government officials; supporting them to make the 'business case' for adopting the tools at all government schools.

Network for Social Change - UWEZO

This innovative one-year pilot project directly responds to a significant gap identified in Rwanda’s mental health service provision for children with disabilities. This project will aim to make mental health provision more inclusive through the creation and testing of an innovative mental health guide, as well as a ‘toolbox’ of inclusive mental health tools for children and youth with disabilities.

The Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust - FEDOMA

This one-year project aims to build on the Vitol Foundation-funded project to improve children with disabilities’ (three to five years old) access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) through the introduction of innovative, inclusive, caregiver-run play schemes and the capacity building of actors responsible for children with disabilities’ early years development including government, (in)formal ECD service providers, communities, parents & children with disabilities themselves.

Rangoonwala Foundation – CST

The ‘Let’s Get Functional - Improving the Occupational Therapy and rehabilitative interventions for children with disabilities in Tanzania’ project aims to improve the health and education of children with disabilities in Mbeya, Tanzania. Utilising the brand-new physiotherapy room at Child Support Tanzania’s Early Childhood Education Centre, the project will facilitate teacher trainings and mentorship by physiotherapists, with children with disabilities then supported both at school and in their homes, where their parents will also receive guidance to better support their children’s rehabilitative needs. The project will enable children with disabilities to receive rehabilitative support at their school, helping to prevent missed learning and to reduce educational inequalities between children with and without disabilities.

Vitol Foundation - FEDOMA

This three-year project aims to improve children with disabilities’ (aged three to five years old) access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) through the introduction of innovative, inclusive, caregiver-run play schemes and the capacity building of actors responsible for children with disabilities early years development including government, (in)formal ECD service providers, communities, parents and children with disabilities themselves. Through their increased cooperation that ensures long-term systemic change, these actors will holistically break down barriers to ECD inclusion.

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Able Child Africa

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2023

15. Movements in funds (continued) Purposes of restricted funds

Vitol Foundation - ZAPCD

This project has a primary aim of ensuring children with disabilities aged three to six equitably access inclusive Early Childhood Education (IECE). Within six ECE Centres in Chadiza district, Zambia, the project’s innovative inclusive ECE methodology will holistically tackle the complex barriers children with disabilities face in accessing IECE through targeted interventions with children with and without disabilities, parents, ECE teachers, other service providers, community leaders and members, and the Zambian government.

Other Restricted - FEDOMA

Consisted of grants from The Souter Charitable Trust and Tula Trust. Top-up funding for the FEDOMA Vitol project for the design and development of two trainings for Community-Based Childcare Centre staff on disability inclusion, child protection, the use of Individualised Education Plans, and the delivery of a weekly inclusive play scheme for children with disabilities.

Purpose of designated fund

Designated fund: Irma Skeeles Legacy

The legacy funding will facilitate the third phase of CST’s purpose-built, fully inclusive school site including architectural design, construction and school equipment. Specifically, the funds will realise the construction of an additional fully accessible classroom and physiotherapy unit.

Funds in deficit

Funds in deficit represent recoverable overspends in the current year, to be recovered via further restricted income in 2023/24.

16. Related party transactions

During the year, 5 Trustees made donations to the charity totalling £2,850 (2022: £3,955 from 6 Trustees).

72 Audited Accounts

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Able Child Afric(J 2023 Annual Report

Able Child Africa 2022 Annual Report

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[e-mail] ablechildafrica.org

A registered UK charity (No. 326859), a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (No. 01861434) and a US 501 (c)(3) public charity (EIN 47-5435034).