Annual Report April 2008 - March 2009
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
Since joining the Charity in 2004/2005 I have noticed how much we have grown, we now have around 100 sponsored children on our Scholarship scheme (this number growing every year) and two new Trustees.
This year has seen extra donations in the form of: a concert in London; an all day gig at one of our local pubs; a bike ride by one of our Trustees; `collection buckets ` at the ‘Ladyboys of Bangkok Show during the Brighton Festival, various other bucket collections, and a weekly charity stall at a local community centre.
The New Year Parties were again a success. The photos from the parties, taken by Don Ford and one of the boys at the children’s home at Huay Phong, show just how much of a difference we can make. A day of happiness and fun gives these children a taste of the life our children take for granted. We are proud of the fact that we can continue to give that pleasure to these children.
The education sponsorship still continued to expand and although with the `Credit Crunch' around the World we may see a small downturn hopefully we can overcome this.
Both Jim Tourle and Phil Marten are resigning as Trustees at the end of this AGM. I would like to thank them for all of their hard work over the past few years.
We would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to both of them. We hope that they will still continue to help us with fund raising events etc whenever they can.
During 2008 / 2009 we welcomed Claire Hutt and Tony Papouis who joined us as Trustees during the year.
Finally, a big thank you to all our sponsors, friends and everyone involved with fund raising, without you we could not continue to help these children.
With grateful thanks.
Kath Hutt.
Treasurer’s Report ~ May 2009
The first half of our Financial Year that started on April 1st 2008 was successful and enabled us to increase the number of students on our Scholarship scheme to one-hundred. In the same period we were able to finance the refurbishment of the Kho Pai slum Early Learning Centre (ELC) which saw an extension to the existing building, new toilets and plumbing and a new teaching area for the children. The result is that the ELC can now accommodate up to eighty-five children a day a considerable increase from the previous thirty-five maximum.
We continued our support at the Hauy Phong Children’s home by supplying sports equipment, clothing and teaching equipment. With anywhere up to four-hundred children at the home there is always a need for support and we have tried to assist where we are able.
We also became involved with a new project for homeless kids in Pattaya: The Child Development Centre is located on the outskirts of Pattaya and takes children living on the streets and provides them with shelter, food and education. The CDC is in its early stages but when I visited it was certainly an impressive project and we donated one-thousand pounds to buy bedding, food and clothing for the children as much of the bedding that was being used was both old and ragged.
At the end of October when the ‘Credit crunch’ started to hit home we saw, as did many other charities, a considerable drop in donations with a few Scholarship sponsors withdrawing their support when their own finances were hit. We stepped in and met the costs of the children’s education until new sponsors could be found. We had also before October agreed a budget for all of the New Year parties and gifts for the children and when Sterling nose-dived against the Thai Baht by some 25% we had some tough decisions to consider. However rather than disappoint the children on their special day we decided to meet any shortfall between donations for the parties and the actual cost from our General Funds so that the parties and gifts could go ahead as planned. As always the events proved a great hit with the children and it is thanks to our supporters that despite everyone being hit by the current financial turmoil the kids were unaffected.
With Sterling along with many other currencies remaining low whilst the Thai Baht remains strong there is likely to be a small increase in some of the education costs for the year 2009/10, however until the new school year starts at the end of May we will not know the extent of this.
We are grateful to children’s sponsors who have managed to make a visit to Thailand to meet the children and get to see where they live and visit the schools, also the many sponsors who have sent gifts of money for birthday and Christmas presents for their sponsored child. I have been privileged to accompany many of these kids on their shopping trips both with sponsors and on behalf of sponsors and the children are always overwhelmed by these visits.
We must thank the team of the Mercy Project in Pattaya who have administered the Scholarship Scheme on our behalf and entertained visiting sponsors by arranging visits to ‘their children’, supplying transport and generally taking care of their wishes. Without Liz Shepherd, Lhen Lhen, Sam and Boonying we would not be able to offer these children the support that we do. I have experienced first-hand the difficulties and the frustrations that the team face in dealing with the schools and locating homes in the slums and admire their determination in making sure the kids are OK.
We hope that despite the current financial difficulties hitting us all that we can continue to count on your support, as every donation no matter how large of small is used for the benefit of the children. The Charity trustees have continued to personally meet all administrative and travel expenses so 100% of every donation is used for the kids.
On behalf of all of the kids that we are helping, thank you for making such a difference to their lives.
Don Ford Treasurer ~ on behalf of the trustees
A summary of the 2008/2009 accounts can be viewed in PDF format by clicking the icon to the right:
We are a Secular charity and do not support or promote any religious organisation. We are always prepared to consider working with any organisation in bringing help to children in need on the strict understanding that any such help is given unconditionally and does not involve the preaching, promoting or acceptance of any religion.
| ||||
