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ST BERNADETTE’S THIRD WORLD GROUP
CHA ION NO:: NIC104667
TRUSTEES REPORT 2025 — 2026
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St Bernadette’s Third World Group
clo Mary McKnight, Apartment 14, Bell Towers South, Ravenhill Road,
Belfast BT6 0GR
Charity Number: NIiC104667
Trustees Report for the period — 1% April 2025 — 31%t March 2026
Section 1: Organisation Overview and Purpose
St Bernadette’s Third World Group is a charity registered with the Charities Commission in Northern Ireland. St Bernadette’s Third World Group adopted the written Constitution (Trust Deed) on 11" January 2016 (approved by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland) and was formally registered on 2" February 2016.
The charity is a grant making trust which will apply its income by making grants to charities operating in Lima, Peru.
In setting our objectives and planning our activity for the year the trustees have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission for Northern lreland’s guidance on public benefit to ensure that the activities have helped to achieve the Charity’s purposes and provide a benefit to our beneficiaries namely the children and young people living in impoverished areas in Lima, Peru.
1.1 St Bernadette’s Third World Group Trustees
Trustees are appointed on an annual basis at the Annual General Meeting. The current trustees were appointed on 11" January 2016. Seamus Dawson stood down at the AGM in September 2019 and Peter McGettrick was appointed.
| Mrs Patricia McFlynn | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mrs Mary McKnight |
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| Assistant | Treasurer | Mrs Marie Mclvor |
| Mrs Eileen Gra | ||
| MrPeterMcGettrick |
1.2 St Bernadette’s Third World Group Purpose
The Charity is established to advance education, to prevent or relieve poverty and to relieve the needs of children and young people living in impoverished areas (the beneficiaries) in Lima, Peru (the area of benefit) and to provide recreation facilities with the object of improving the conditions of life for the beneficiaries by making grants and providing financial assistance to charities which are established for similar purposes operating in the area of benefit. To further such other purposes that are charitable under the law of Northern Ireland as the trustees in their absolute discretion from time to time determine.
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Purpose 1: Advancement of Education
The benefit which flows from the advancement of education is that children who have fallen behind, are out of the state education system are given the opportunity to learn and gain an education. We have supported a project which specialises in children with learning difficulties and provides a psychologist assisted study programme to help the children overcome their emotional and learning difficulties. We aim to continue to provide the financial support to this setting and possibly others in the area.
Purpose 2: Preventing and relieving poverty
All our purposes are intertwined with preventing or relieving poverty of the beneficiaries. The benefit which flows from this is that by providing food at all of the activities that the children attend, the children are nourished. By helping them come to terms with their emotional issues, the children and young people are being given a helping hand through the provision of various support. This should all help to give them a better start in life and hopefully help them find employment when they are older. We will continue to provide financial support to charities in Lima that work to prevent or relieve poverty.
Purpose 3: Provision of a safe Residential Home
The benefit which flows from relieving the needs of children and young people is that those who have been abused or mistreated receive care and attention in a safe environment which is necessary to help them overcome their experiences. We have provided financial support to a residential home for troubled and abused children which provides specialist psychological help to the young people. We aim to continue to provide financial support to this setting and possibly others like it in the area. Purpose 4: Provision of recreational facilities The benefit which flows from providing financial assistance to charities which provide recreation facilities is that the conditions of life for the beneficiaries will be improved. Children and young people will be able to participate in various recreational activities which helps them to develop new skills and benefit from social interaction with their peers in a safe and stimulating environment. We have funded a Children’s centre in Lima which hosts 600 children on a daily basis where the children can participate in activities such as dance, art, study and play areas. We would anticipate continuing to provide financial assistance to this centre and any other similar project in the area.
Purpose 5: Further such other charitable purposes
Our fifth purpose is to further such other purposes that are charitable under the law of Northern Ireland as the trustees in their absolute discretion from time to time determine. While the main benefit will primarily focus on the first four charitable purposes, however from time-to-time trustees may make grants and financial contributions to any charitable need they feel worthy of financial assistance. The
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trustees have chosen this purpose so that they will not be restricted in who or what they help as different situations present themselves. They will judge each case on merit and need to recognise that it must be one of the twelve charitable purposes as outlined in the Charities Act.
Section 2: St Bernadette’s Third World Group Activities
In the year 1% April 2025 to 318t March 2026 the charity raised funds in the local community, in particular St Bernadette’s Parish, Belfast, primarily renewal of child sponsorships and donations. We also received donations from schools, benefactors and other charitable organisations. Sponsorship payments were collected as normal at St Bernadette’s Church, Rosetta Road, Belfast.
All Sponsors received a renewal letter accompanied by a personal letter from Father Tony Coney, highlighting the excellent work being carried out within The Children’s Centres, Lima. He has also mentioned that further information can be obtained on their website using the following link:
httos://santabernardita.com.pe
The Sponsors responded generously. Those who could not attend Church sent payment by cheque directly to the Treasurer which were immediately lodged into the Charity account.
Section 3: Review of Charity’s Financial Position
In the period 1* April 2025 to 318 March 2026 St Bernadette’s Third World Group raised £ 45,001.87
Opening Balance: £178,188.68
Total Income for period April 2025 to March 2026: £45,001.87 which includes
Gift Aid: £3,708.24
Minus Expenditure — Sponsorship Mailshot Postage 31% July 25 - £350
Minus Expenditure — 1 Grant sent to Father Coney as follows: - £42,408
Minus Expenditure — Bank Fee - £15 (6 Feb 2026)
Minus Expenditure — Laptop & Setup (St Bernadette’s Admin) - £450
The closing balance was £ 179,967.55
The trustees agreed that this balance is held in the account for ongoing grant applications in the future, which the trustees deem worthy of support.
10th February 2026 Grant Application
St. Bernadette’s Civil Association has been protecting the well-being of children in the district of San Martin de Porres for 29 years, and throughout this time period have developed a comprehensive approach to the promotion and protection of many
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and their human rights. The Association began in 1997 with the opening of the Children’s Day Centre, and with the eventual establishment of a Defence Desk for the promotion of children’s rights. This has grown into a sophisticated system for detecting and addressing issues of child abuse in the community, while contributing to systemic change in the pursuance of protecting children’s rights especially against physical and sexual violence. The Children’s Centre is a hub in the community and has an open-door policy for all children of the surrounding communities, where they can come to play, participate in many creative activities, study and socialise in safety, and under the supervision of staff trained to identify signs of abuse. Any such case is immediately referred to the Children’s Defence Desk, which ensures the child is seen by a qualified psychologist, followed by an intervention with the child’s parents. The Defence Desk also provides information and support to underprivileged families for accessing state services, obtaining identification cards, enrolling children in school, and obtaining child support payments from absentee fathers. In identified cases of abuse the Defence Desk also provides legal accompaniment to ensure the case is reported to the authorities and that the child is supported throughout the process.
The Defence Desk, through promoting and protecting the human rights of marginalized people, has addressed thousands of cases brought to its attention through legal accompaniment, information provision, and referral to state services and social worker support.
The St Bernadette’s Association also includes two other independent centres, a highly respected Residential rehabilitation programme for child victims of sexual abuse, which opened 22 years ago, and an intensive school reintegration programme, which opened 19 years ago, for vulnerable and disadvantaged children on the verge of school expulsion. The St Bernadette’s School aims to increase equity of access to education and provides opportunities for struggling marginalised children to flourish in the school setting. It provides intensive modules in maths and literacy, psychosocial support and family engagement, among other services. The need for these two additional Centres were identified over time through our work with the children in the Children’s Centre, and combined they have rehabilitated hundreds of child victims of sexual abuse into families capacitated to keep them safe, and reintegrated hundreds of previously failing students at risk of dropout/expulsion back into their school at a level advanced for their grade.
As the work of St Bernadette’s deal more and more with child victims of abuse over the years, the extent of abuse in the public school system became more apparent through the work of the Defence Desk,
The fourth component of the Association was born — The Schools Outreach Programme which promotes prevention efforts to address the root cause of child abuse. The programme provides training in local schools to parents, teachers and students on child protection, and the promotion of the human rights of children, and is in the process of setting up child protection teams, comprised of parents and teachers, who will be supported in developing and implementing child safeguarding policies and procedures in their own schools.
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St Bernadette’s has thus evolved from a children’s centre project into a comprehensive multi-programme Association working for the realisation of the rights of vulnerable Peruvian children to a quality education, access to justice, and a life of dignity, free from abuse.
The grant will be spent on the upkeep of the children in the Residential Home. As they are entirely under our care and responsibility. There are currently 30 young people. Provision will be made for all their needs, alimentary, educational, clothing etc.
DECLARATION
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
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Signed on behalf of the charity trustees:
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Chairperson
Position | Patricia McFlynff
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Full Name
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