Shades of Hope Annual Report
for the year to 31st December 2022
Registered with the Northern Ireland Charities Commission No. NIC 103169
SHADES OF HOPE
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Took place on 30 June 2022
Trustees present:
Zara Ssenyonga (Chair) (ZS), Samuel Ssenyonga (SS), Shirley Lougheed (SL) and Colin Lougheed (SL)
Apologies : Paul Topping (PT), Kimberley Topping (KT),
Highlights as follows:
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Silverbirch Evangelical Church and a couple of small local businesses continue to support the charity with regular and donations.
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65 children are now sponsored all school fees, school equipment, uniform and PE kit, school lunches covered and Medicals when required.
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An extra 10 children being put through school which is a big step for us as a small charity.
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Gift for life/sustainable businesses seeing good success as SoH continue to help people to become self-sufficient.
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3 of our boys from the street reach program were involved in Football and athletics competition and progressed from District to regional and National level, again really pleased with their progress at all levels.
Report on Activities
Fundraising events.
Shades of Hope is a small local charity, and we rely on fundraising events to help finance the work we do. We managed to Run our annual Quiz night and swiftly aiming to resume our annual fundraiser activities in the new year.
Silverbirch Evangelical Church (SEC) Support.
SEC has continued to support Shades of Hope through 2022 on a monthly basis. The church has continued to generously and regularly give. This regular giving has enabled us to undertake a number of activities and continue with some of the projects that are impacting
the people in Uganda. This set amount also eliminates the fluctuation that is symptomatic of actual physical giving as it would previously have been dependent on congregation attendance figures.
Silverbirch has increased its giving which has enabled us to channel those funds to meeting the needs of our boys at the halfway house in Kampala and simultaneously plan to resettle all 11 of them.
Uganda Team
One of the UK Trustees, Samuel Ssenyonga, continues to be in regular contact with the team in Uganda i.e. the Project Co-ordinator, and as usual, no policy decision is taken without recourse to the Trustees.
Samuel visited the charity in the Spring of 2022 to meet with the volunteers and to review activities. He also had the opportunity to meet with those boys and young people and their families who benefit from the charity. Samuel gave a report on his visit to the other Trustees upon his return.
The team in Uganda is small and their work is diverse. We have designated volunteers responsible for receipts and finance, a qualified Social Worker to address social, emotional and spiritual needs of the
sponsored children and associated families, and one responsible for distributing school supplies and materials to the children. There are other volunteers who help part-time with the charity, but all volunteers are vetted, trained and have signed up to our policies that includes the child protection policy as laid down by the CCPAS.
To ensure the wellbeing of the children that are supported through our sponsorship programmes and due to the unreliability of internet access, communication network and roads infrastructure in Uganda, our team/volunteers must travel to where the children are located. This is necessary to assess their progress, any needs as well as travelling to oversee charity activities. The charity reimburses volunteers for expenses in carrying out their role. Receipts and expenses are shared with the UK volunteers and Trustees via a secure online portal (Dropbox) and Email.
The reimbursement and expenses incurred by the Uganda team carrying out their roles in relation to the charity is acceptable to the Trustees as they recognise the importance of acquiring firsthand reports of progress for reporting back to the UK volunteers and Trustees. This is, of course carefully monitored by the co-ordinator and trustees on the UK side.
Updates on existing Projects
1. Child sponsorship
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55 children now fully sponsored (all school fees, school equipment, uniform and PE kit, school lunches covered)
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10 partially sponsored (school fees only)
A total of 65 children sponsored. These are made up of the following:
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43 in day school – for primary school children this includes stationery materials, school fees, school uniform and a school lunches and dinners.
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16 in boarding schools – for the children in primary school boarding includes 3 meals a day, school fees and stationery and all toiletries required.
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6 in college/University/Vocational school – for these all-tuition expenses, materials including books at college and accommodation covered.
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Also, and outside of the 65, 11 boys and from the street program are in process of rehabilitation at the Halfway House with their families.
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All children in day-school are provided with scholastic materials, books, school uniform and sportswear and a lunch meal every day.
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During the year all sponsors were provided with updated photographs, hand-written letters, and a Christmas card. Shades of Hope supplement this with a brief progress report on each
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child.
2. Street/Slum Outreach project,
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With things back to normal after COVID, we have resumed our street reach and interaction with the street boys, and it is good to be back to interact with these boys and reaching them with the Gospel and some day today counselling about day today challenges.
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11 of the boys that joined us during the Pandemic are now all in school boarding in one of our partner schools, with a caretaker who is there to meet their needs on a day today basis and this is fully funded by Shades of Hope, and it makes us proud that they are progressing well in school and other after school programs they are involved in.
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Our life skills program is progressing well and in this we able to give the boys a chance to do what they like, For example Some of the boys have an interest in farming and we were able to get them to intern with one of the volunteers in our programme growing food and crops that they have since harvested. We hope to continue with this skill development programme in addition to interacting with the boys through football and other games.
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Each day consists of provision of sports and games, Bible discussion, prayer, life skills and lunch. Those that require medical attention we take to the local medical clinic for treatment.
Our major objectives for this programme are:
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a. To rehabilitate street children
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b. To provide a safe environment
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c. To teach and develop life skills.
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d. To show them in a practical way that God cares amidst the chaos of life around them,
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e. And finding a safe Home to resettle them in.
We have been able to continue renting a property/Halfway House in Kampala for some of the boys to stay in as they are waiting on the process of being resettled. We continue to work with the council in Kampala in relation to our work with these boys by caring for them and resettling them. The boys go to primary school or a secondary school and some to technical schools now, as they await resettlement back with their families and are provided with school supplies and food. This is all overseen by our Social Worker and reports are provided to the necessary offices in Uganda.
3. Gift for Life/Entrepreneurship
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We believe in helping families becoming self- sufficient and this is a valuable and efficient use of resources and helps encourage sustainability.
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We have continued to set finance aside to be used for further entrepreneurship projects, for example, for mothers whose children are in our child sponsorship programme.
4. Youth camps and work shops
In previous years we have been running young people’s camps and workshops so we can continue to inspire the young people both socially and spiritually. In August 2022 it was no different as we supported a camp in a village of Tabiro with over 350+ young people attending.
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Business start-ups and sustainability
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Social change and character building
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General discussions and questions about based around the Bible.
We look forward to the full restoration of our programmes as well as the ability to raise funds to sustain and further develop our programmes in 2023.
Accounts year ending 31st December 2022 Receipts and Payments Account
| Brought forward 2022 | £5161.57 |
|---|---|
| Receipts | |
| Silverbirch Evangelical Church | £7500.00 |
| Hannover Systems | £1600.00 |
| Standing Orders/Stewardship/Private | £12810.44 |
| Donatons | |
| G&T Holding | £ 500.00 |
| Quiz Night 2022 | £1080.00 |
| Total Income | £23490.44 |
| Total Reciepts(total B/F + Income) | £28652.01 |
Payments:
UGANDA Outgoings:
| Child Sponsorship (incl’d Uni/School fees & supplies | £7350.00 |
|---|---|
| Uganda Team | £2885.00 |
| Street Reach/Boys Home | £7126.30 |
| Gif of Life (empowerments e.g., entrepreneur | £4500.00 |
| projects,food relief medicaton) | |
| Ofce Administraton | £1364.20 |
| Transport & others(visitngschools etc) | £1774.50 |
| Uganda Expenditure | £25000 |
UK Outgoings:
| Quiz Night expenses | £80.00 |
|---|---|
| Website renewal(paypal) | £91.09 |
| UK Expenditure | £171.09 |
SUMMARY:
| Balance brought forward | £ 5161.57 |
|---|---|
| Receipts | £23490.44 |
| Total | £28652.01 |
| Total Expenditure | £25171.09 |
| Balance in the bank 31st December 2022 | £ 3480.92 |
References and Administrative Details
Charity name: Shades of Hope
Registered with the Northern Ireland Charities Commission No. NIC103169
Principal address: 69 Navar Drive,
Bangor,
Co Down,
N. Ireland, BT19 7SW
Charities Trustees as of December 31st 2022
| Mrs Zara Ssenyonga | Chairperson |
|---|---|
| Mr Colin Lougheed | Secretary |
| Mrs Shirley Lougheed | Treasurer |
| Mr Samuel Ssenyonga | Deputy Chairperson |
|---|---|
| Mrs Kim Topping | Fundraising |
| Mr Paul Topping | Fundraising |
Structure, governance and management
Shades of Hope is a charity established by trust Deed Registered with the Charities commission for Northern Ireland. Charity number NIC103169.
Objectives and Activities
Charitable Objectives
Shades of hope is established for relief of poverty, advancement of education and to promote the preservation and protection of health of children, young people and the inhabitants (“hereinafter called the beneficiaries”) of Uganda.
In particular, the areas of Kampala and Mpigi (“herein after called the area of benefit”) without distinction of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity identity, political or religious background.
Public Benefit Statement
The trustees of Shades of hope confirm that they have read, understood and complied with their duty under the Charities Commission Public Benefit Requirement Statutory Guidance. In setting our objectives and planning, our Team have given careful consideration to the charity commission Northern Ireland’s guidance on public benefit to ensure that the activities have helped to achieve the charity purposes and provide beneficiaries with opportunities. Signed on behalf of the trustees
Colin Lougheed Secretary and Trustee, Shades of Hope 69 Navar Drive, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 7SW Date: 1/10/2023