2023 ANNUAL REPORT FOR CHARITY COMMISSION
For OPERATION RESCUE UK & IRELAND
NIC 100397
REGISTERED ADDRESS :
51 Mullaghmeen Road
Enniskillen
Co. Fermanagh
BT74 4GH
ANNUAL REPORT FOR PERIOD: 1[st] January 2023 - 31[st] December 2023
Purposes of the charity
Operation Rescue [UK & Ireland] was set up in 2012 to raise funds and channel support to the projects which are run by Operation Rescue, an indigenous NGO which seeks to help street children and other destitute children and families who are living in great poverty in the northern part of Tigray province in Ethiopia. Currently Operation Rescue runs three community-based day centres in Mekelle, Adigrat and Adwa. During 2023, the total of children cared for was just short of 700.
ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
As is clear from the accompanying financial report, during 2023, £75,000 was sent to Operation Rescue to enable them to continue with this work.
The ongoing civil war which began in November 2020, which followed the onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, meant that no trustees were able to visit the project for some time so, following the announcement of the cease fire in November 2022 and the opening up of air travel to Mekelle in January 2023, two trustees Merville and Shannon Boyd paid a much valued visit to Operation Rescue centres in February 2023 , travelling through checkpoints and seeing burnt out vehicles as they travelled north to Adwa and Adigrat. They were able to see at first hand something of the trauma caused by the civil war which cost 1 million lives over that 2-year period. However, they also had the joy of seeing that all three centres had not suffered much infrastructural damage and were up and running, providing services to the children and their families. Staff in the centres were in good heart, given their experiences, giving thanks to God for His protection and provision.
ORE supporters have continued to be amazing in their financial and prayer support. During the year money has continued to flow into our account even though we made no specific appeal for funds.
During 2023 all remaining links with the Nationwide Building Society came to an end, due to them being unable to provide us with an appropriate charity account and now all finances are being managed appropriately and efficiently through the Danske Bank. It is a great relief to be able once more to send money through the banking system to the project.
In September 2023, three Trustees, Merville and Shannon Boyd and Kate Doherty, Chair of Trustees, were able to make a longer visit to the project. This was invaluable in several ways. Firstly, the two Trustees who had visited in February were able to see considerable progress in terms of coping with the trauma of the war and to see staff and children operating in a more normal environment. It was an opportunity to spend time with the staff and to affirm them for their work and a celebration event for them and a lively activity day for the children were organised during the visit. Responding to requests from senior staff at the project the trustees brought out significant numbers of sports kits which were distributed to children in all three centres, encouraging them to get involved in these restorative activities.
Secondly, it was an invaluable opportunity to spend time with Getachew Tesfay, General Manager and other senior staff to discuss plans for the future, most notably the completion of a fourth centre at Maichew and the building of a centre at Adwa where rental costs and cramped accommodation limit the potential of that vibrant centre. Those discussions then fed into a valuable meeting of Trustees in the autumn enabling decisions to be made re the allocating of finances to the project.
Plans are now in place for one of the senior staff Abadi Tesfay, Project Manager to visit Northern Ireland in February 2024 to update Trustees directly on progress .
We continue to entrust all at ORE into God’s loving care and protection, thanking Him for enabling the work to continue even after such traumatic events.
In setting our objectives and planning our activities during 2023, the trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland’s guidance on public benefit to ensure that our activities have helped to achieve the purposes of our charity and provided benefit to the beneficiaries of the charity – the many children supported by Operation Rescue in Ethiopia.
There are no private benefits. There is no harm
Charity Trustees on the date the Annual Report was approved:
Mr Merville Boyd
Miss Shannon Boyd
Miss Sylvia Cooper
Miss Kate Doherty
Mr Denis Ferguson
Dr Irvine Lavery
Mr Victor Magowan
Ms Lesley Matchett
Miss Cherith Watson
The charity is administered according to its constitution which was initially adopted at a meeting of the charity on 21[st] February 2012. It was amended in accordance with Article 6 on 1[st] August 2014 and was further amended in accordance with Article 6 on 28[th] March 2015.
Signed:
Kate Doherty Date 9[th] March 2024
…………………… Kate Doherty ………………………….. …………………………
Chairperson Operation Rescue UK & Ireland