Introduction
This is the first Annual Report of Sustainable Global Gardens. The document has been prepared for the charity’s first AGM, which is to be held on 25th July 2007. The report covers the period between the charity’s initial meeting on 20th December 2005 and 31st March 2007, which was the end of the first financial year for SGG.
The approach I have taken when writing this report is to look at the objectives of Sustainable Global Gardens as given in the original Business Plan, and then to comment on how far such objectives have been achieved. Thus, this report largely consists of italicised bullet points, each followed by commentary in normal print. The latter part of the report looks briefly at some issues which have emerged in the charity’s first year and also at prospects for the future.
Initital Charity Objectives
SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL GARDENS has the following objectives for the first 12 months after September 2005 –
Some of these objectives proved difficult to achieve within the timeframe given in September 2005. The prime reason for this is that Paul Keeley was invited to return temporarily to teaching at The British School Warsaw. This temporary position lasted from January 2006 until July 2006. Thus, all the initial objectives were met but somewhat later than initially planned.
SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL GARDENS will become officially registered with the UK Charity Commission and/or Companies House depending only on the identification of the most appropriate legal vehicle. SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL GARDENS [Company No 5733281] became an incorporated company on 7th March 2006 and a registered charity [Reg. No. 1116243] on 28th September 2006.
A group of at least 20 supporters and interested people will be identified. Some of these may be donors or donor groups : others will be offering voluntary help or just ‘interest’.
It is difficult to say how many genuine supporters we have because some people claim to be interested and want to be active supporters, but are reluctant to take action. Moreover, at present we have no clear measure of membership of the charity. However, over the last year I have used a rule of thumb guide for supporters being ‘those who have either donated £50 or undertaken £50 worth of voluntary work or are a Director’. If we accept this definition then by 31st March we had 16 individual supporters and 2 institutions, The British School of Warsaw and St Edwards Parish Justice & Peace group, who have given excellent support. Both of these institutions have 3-4 people who would qualify as supporters on the basis of the work they have done. In addition there were about 10 other people who have expressed interest but not yet made a significant contribution to SGG. It is also encouraging to note that SGG knows several professionals who are approaching retirement in the next few years and who are seeking to promote the work of SGG on a self-funded basis in the future.
A field visit to some African countries where at least several potential grassroots projects are identified. With a focus on community schemes, even microprojects involving 20 families are likely to have benefits for up to one hundred people. Thus, an overall figure of 500 small-scale beneficiaries seems a reasonable target. P Keeley will make this field visit on a self-funded voluntary basis.
It was originally intended that this field visit would take place in May-June 2006, but it was twice delayed. Temporary teaching in Poland caused the first delay, and then sponsorship problems caused a further delay in late 2006. The field visit to Tanzania & Kenya eventually took place 4th January to 4th April. During that period 17 potential projects were identified, although it is likely that several of these will not get off the ground and several others involve only small one-off payments. From this visit 4 viable partnerships emerged:
- 1. The Apostles of Jesus based at Uru Seminary near Moshi
- 2. One World Development Foundation near Busia, Kenya
- 3. Kenya Acorn Project at Ndhiwa, Kenya
- 4. Soni Seminary in Tanzania.
One task during this visit was to monitor the use of 14 ‘moneymaker’ pumps purchased for OWDF’s farmer groups. Each footpump is shared among a group of about 20 farmers. Most of those farmers belong to a household of several people, so it would be reasonable to suppose that there were 150 beneficiaries for every ?100 invested in a pump. This single project far exceeds the target figure given in the original Business Plan.
Khabondi Youth Group demonstrate the use of their Moneymaker footpump for dry season irrigation
The field visit to East Africa extended beyond the period of this Annual Report, so reports were not written until May 2007. By the time of the AGM on 25th July reports on all 4 African partnerships, as well as Sri Lankan projects, will be available for the Trustees.
SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL GARDENS has the following long term objectives:-
If the target date were changed to 31st March 2007 to allow for the temporary teaching in Poland, this objective has been met. However, it has not been met entirely in the way initially envisaged. By that date Sustainable Global Gardens had supported :
Young students at Soni Seminary, Tanzania unloading grevillea robusta for transplanting
Thus, it would be reasonable to suggest that this particular objective was met.
SGG is likely to be behind schedule with this objective. Limited communication with our Sri Lankan partners IPARD and the need to visit East African partners before applying for large grants for their projects has meant that SGG is unlikely to meet this target. A major part of the work done while visiting OWDF was to prepare an application for funding from Comic Relief. This funding was to aid the support of 10 HIV Self-Help groups who are caring for a total of 959 orphans & vulnerable children. This would be a major grant of £48,609 over a 5 year period. SGG does not yet know the success or otherwise of this particular application, but fund-raising must be the major part of next year’s schedule.
My experience of working on SGG projects suggests that one person can manage efficiently 5 small projects at the most. If there are more projects on our books at present, this is largely a reflection of the limited capacity and levels of organisation within our partner groups. As these groups have become more efficient there is a growing need for other self-funded volunteers to manage projects. By 31st March SGG had found seven potential volunteers, who are all wanting to gain some experience of project work within the next two years.
The anticipated income for SGG’s first financial year was ?2,500. In fact the charity raised a total of £3,793.71p, of which £3,773.55p was spent on the various projects mentioned above. Inevitably we are a very long way from our 5 year target. I suggest it would be reasonable for SGG to try and raise a £10,000 target in the 2007-2008 financial year. We are unlikely to succeed here unless SGG manages to attract the attention of a significant funding agency.
Future Prospects
After about one year of working full-time as a Director of Sustainable Global Gardens, I feel that we have good prospects for the future. The list of supporters is gradually growing, the number of contacts both in the UK and overseas is increasing, we have a website in the first stages of its development, and we have started to invest and work with local groups on several environmental and horticultural projects. Within a year from now it is highly likely that there will be other members of our group who have undertaken some project work overseas.
Nevertheless, there are obstacles to further progress and issues which we need to face if Sustainable Global Gardens is to fulfil the promise of its first year. One such issue is the need to raise more funds to support even our present projects. At this time last year I suggested that our income during SGG’s first financial year would be ?2,500. However, our accounts show that we raised considerably more, £3,793.71p. On the basis of that success, I would like the Trustees and supporters to regard a ?10,000 total as a suitable target for all SGG projects for the 2007-2008 financial year.
Most of the money we are raising at present is being used to support water/horticultural projects or care for HIV orphans within the OWDF member organisations. To maintain these programmes we are seeking a large grant of approximately £10,000 annually for the next five years, and also planning to raise ourselves £4,000 annually over the same period. We need to increase our own fund-raising efforts and events if we are to produce £4,000 by Christmas. However, more important than that is the finding of a large funding agency who will bear the bulk of the expense for this particular project.
While we have been collecting small funds for our £4,000 annual target for this OWDF project several people have asked about SGG administration costs and have commented favourably on the fact that we are spending 100% of the funds raised. Thus, I am proposing that the Trustees maintain the present arrangement of no salaries & all work done for SGG to be voluntary.
There is certainly a need for more voluntary help, so if there are any readers willing to spare even a few hours I would like to hear from you. Some work is likely to involve a few hours of office work, but what would be most useful for SGG are volunteers who would be prepared to visit a project overseas and help our overseas partners develop and implement that project. As reported above, it is likely that such volunteers will be of increasing importance in the future.
Thus, all supporters of Sustainable Global Gardens have a vital part to play in the development and progress of the Charity. I look forward to working with you in the coming year on the task of eradication of global poverty and hunger.
My best wishes to all of you.
Paul Keeley