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Friends
of
Burundi
Annual Report 2006-7
Financial
Report
This has been a year
of consolidation for the Friends of Burundi.
Governance
The Trustees are:
Keith Anderson, William Challis,
Hugh James
and Andrew Maclay.
The
Committee:
Chairman: William Challis,
Secretary:
Hugh James
, Treasurer: Keith Anderson,
Assistant Secretaries: Pam
Brooks and Sue Finlayson, Other Committee members:
Pat Brooks,
Georgette Butera
, Alison Gill and
Andrew Maclay
Meetings
of the Trustees
Apart
from meeting at the time of the last annual meeting, there were two
minuted telephone conferences on 7 April and 3 September 2007.
Matters
discussed included mechanisms for response to the flooding in Burundi, the
need to register under the data protection act, formalising membership,
banking arrangements, a protocol for distribution of gifts,
membership statistics; the financial situation , setting priorities
for financial gifts; plans for
the annual meeting at the High Leigh Conference Centre; Observations
on our publicity: website, e-mails and information leaflets and
application forms; mutual concerns with CMS Mid Africa region; future
meetings of Friends of Burundi.
Meetings
of the Committee
The
committee received minutes of the Trustees conferences. Apart from meeting
at the time the annual meeting, the meetings were held by e-mail.
Feedback was received.
The
2006
Annual General Meeting
This was held on 26 November 2006 during the CMS Mid-Africa Region
Conference at the Swanwick conference centre, Swanwick Derbyshire.
Three
trustees, two co-secretaries and 42 members were present (including other
committee members).
The
current committee and officers were re-elected.
Reports
were received from who had visited
Burundi
.
Mary Sharpe, Keith Anderson, Steve Burgess and Jane and Ralph Hanger
presented different needs of the Church and people in
Burundi
.
The
following gave details of visits they had made to
Burundi
and the needs they found:- Joan Botterill and Sue Finlayson, Georgette
Butera and Steve Stordy gave a very comprehensive report on the state of
the country based on his recent visit.
The
2007Annual General Meeting will be held at the High Leigh Conference
Centre, Hoddesden on the 17th of November 2007.
Charitable
Status
On
29 January 2007 we finally received a letter stating that with effect from
that date, the Friends of Burundi had been entered in the Central Register of Charities,
Registered No. 1117715. This
means that we are now able to reclaim tax on charitable gifts.
Data
Protection Act Registration
The
association is now registered with the Information Commissioner's Office
under the Data Protection Act (DPA) with Registration Number: PZ1006353
Finance.
After the award of charitable status, membership forms were sent to all
those who had expressed interest in being members.
They were encouraged to consider donating a subscription for all
the years since the Association was first formed.
(Three years)
A
bank account for the friends of
Burundi
was set up at Lloyds TSB plc bank in Horsham,
1 West Street
, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1PA, The signatories for cheques are any two
of the trustees.
The
trustees agreed a protocol for donating otherwise undesignated moneys
within the aims and objectives of the Association, which are
1. The advancement of the Christian religion by
supporting the Church in Burundi in its witness to God's love in Christ
and by encouraging members and young Christians in the UK to support the
Christian Church and work in Burund
2. The furtherance of such other charitable purposes as
the trustees in their absolute discretion determine, including the
advancement of education, relief of poverty and relief of sickness.
Members
have been invited to make suggestions.
A
separate financial statement is found below.
The
website (www.friendsofburundi.org.uk):
The
website has been developed and has moved from Hugh James’ personal
webspace to a separate site with the Internet Service Provider (ISP) “Streamline.net”.
The web address remains the same. It
gives regular updates of details of the work of the Anglican Church in
Burundi
, four of its dioceses, and people from the
UK
who have spent at least part of the year working there.
We would welcome a wider information base.
Communication
with Members
As matters of interest have occurred, these have been shared with the
membership by e-mails. Members
are encouraged to use the website.
Disaster
Relief
Following a long period of drought that was already causing hardship,
many parts of
Burundi
were badly affected by floods. At
this stage, neither our charitable status nor banking arrangements had
been finalised. An e-mail was
therefore sent to each member telling of the problem and encouraging them
to donate through the CMS relief line.
Some members gave to the Flood Relief after the bank account was
opened and (including a donation from General Funds) £420 was forwarded
to CMS to send to the Province of the Anglican Church in
Burundi
for disaster relief.
Contact
with
Burundi
Pat and Pam Brooks were unable to undertake their planned visit due to
ill-health. Alison Gill has
been accepted as a CMS mission partner to work in
Burundi
and is undertaking training. Steve
and Anne Stordy have left to work in
Burundi
with Feed the Hungry International. Some
members were able to meet with them before their departure.
Some members were able to meet with the bishops of Buye and Muyinga
during their brief visit to
England
.
Alison
Gill
We are pleased that a Friends of Burundi Committee Member, Alison Gill has
been accepted as a CMS Mission Partner and will undertake further training
before going to work in
Burundi
, assisting Reconciliation. Her
needs were shared with the members.
Steven
and Anne Stordy
Steven and Anne Stordy, FOB members are now working in
Burundi
with Food for the Hungry International.
A meeting for members was held in their home before they left the
UK
.
At
a time of continued political instability, it is vital that we continue to
support
Burundi
and the Christian church there with our prayers.
William
Challis (Chairman)
Hugh James
(Secretary)
30
October 2007
Friends
of Burundi
Annual
Financial Report to 30th. September 2007
This is our
first financial report because we were unable to receive subscriptions and
donations and claim Gift Aid until we received our charity status from the
Charities Commission. This came in April 2007 and subscriptions began to
be received after that date.
On September
30th 2007 we had a bank balance of £2,360.00 of which £650 was earmarked
by the donor for purchase of a car for the
Mother's Union worker at Matana. The Trustees have decided to leave
a balance of half of the annual subscriptions (currently｣205) to be
available for emergency relief. This leaves a net balance of £1,505.00
for distribution to other projects in Burundi.
Of the list
of 71 names and 50 addresses on our database 41 people have registered and
paid a membership subscription which is 57.7% of the names. Of the 41, 35
people have paid a three year subscription for 2005, 2006 and 2007.
15 people have signed standing orders to their banks.
Gift Aid is
currently being reclaimed from the Revenue for a total of £1,520 of
subscriptions and donations.
The summary
of income and expenditure to 30th September 2007 is as follows:-
Income
Expenditure
Subscriptions
£1,030.00
Steve & Anne Stordy float
£100.00
Donations
£1,235.00
CMS for famine relief
£420.00
Restricted
gift
£650.00
Data Protection Registration £35.00
Cash at bank 30/09/07
£2,360.00
________
________
£2,915.00
£2,915.00
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Keith B. Anderson
Hon Treasurer & Trustee
16th. October 2007 |