Annual Review 2012 13

Annual Review
July 2012 to June 2013
Our history:
Send a Cow was born from a simple idea: that
UK farmers could send cows from their own
herds to families who needed them in Uganda.
Over subsequent years, we saw how a lack of
skills, vision, self-esteem and hope were
holding poor people back just as much as
a lack of material resources.
Working with African partners, we developed a
holistic programme that has helped transform
more than a million lives over the past 25 years.
We are proud to retain the Christian values,
can-do attitude, and willingness to adapt of
our founding farmers.
Our vision:
A confident and thriving rural Africa
Our mission:
To give communities and families
the hope and the means to secure
their own futures from the land
“Smallholder agricultural development can be an excellent way to reduce poverty and
tackle hunger in low income countries. It can increase food production, raise rural incomes,
and push down food prices; all of which should improve the access of poor and vulnerable
people to food and thereby contribute considerably to their food security. Given that many
of those who are food insecure work in agriculture, then its effects can be direct.”
Smallholder agriculture’s contribution to better nutrition,
Overseas Development Institute, March 2013.
Welcome
What a watershed year our 25th
anniversary has turned out to be.
We made the bold decision to invest for growth. That
investment is already bearing fruit. Over the last year, we
have increased income by 22% to £4.8m by diversifying
our income sources. That means we will be able to help even
more poor families in Africa build sustainable livelihoods from
the land; this year, we supported 81,800 people.
We also invested in research so that we can accurately assess
our impact. We found that 97% of farmers are now confident
they can meet their families’ food and income needs from
their farms.
Just as those families have become bold and resilient with
a clear vision for their futures, so too has Send a Cow during its first 25 years. From small beginnings it has grown and
built a quality programme of which it can rightly be proud.
Our approach has led to lasting change for the many thousands
of smallholder families we have assisted and I’m delighted
that our practical approach is now widely recognised as being
highly effective. Send a Cow is making an important
contribution to the development of rural Africa.
I am retiring in April 2014 after 14 years at the helm. It has
been a great privilege to lead our dedicated teams as they help
revitalise communities in Africa. I am handing over the reins of
a robust organisation which knows where it is going.
I am grateful to all our supporters, volunteers, staff and partners
for enabling us to reach out to so many families. Those rural
families hold the key to eliminating poverty in Africa and,
through their hard work and determination to make a better
future for themselves, they will succeed.
Martin Geake, Chief Executive
We help
families
develop the
vision, self-belief and skills
to build
livelihoods from the land
The
year
ahead
We are entering an exciting new era at Send a Cow.
Our reputation is growing – and with it, the demand
for our life-changing programmes in rural Africa.
We are determined to scale up.
We provide
The first year of our growth plan has been a resounding
success, entirely justifying our decision to invest.
That gives us renewed vigour to implement our
ambitious plans for the coming years.
in how best to use what they already have:
This next year will see significant rises in our income,
and in the number of families we support. We have
exciting plans to expand our country programmes in
Africa, and to build on the success of our
development education work.
training
land, livestock, community spirit,
and their own ideas and hard work
It is our outgoing Chief Executive, Martin Geake, who has
put us on this path. In more than a decade heading Send
a Cow, he has presided over a tenfold increase in income
and steered the charity through recession. We are
immensely grateful for his dedication in turning
a tiny charity into the renowned, professional
organisation it is today.
Where needed, we provide
locally-bought livestock,
seeds and tools
Families invest income
from selling produce into education,
housing and enterprises.
Martin will have a worthy successor in Simon Barnes,
who I know will bring the vision, skills and
compassion needed to lead us into the new era.
We pray for his success, and for your continued support
for our exciting plans to bring hope and skills to more
communities and families across Africa.
After 3-5 years of our support, they become
confident and resilient.
They pass on
skills, livestock and seeds to others in need.
Michael Perreau, Chairman
•2•
The year at a glance
Our goals
In 2012/13, we set out to...
Support 13,000 families – around 91,000
people – in developing sustainable farming
livelihoods: 2,000 families will begin
training and 3,000 will ‘graduate’,
or become self-sufficient
Build our income to £4.5m, and invest in
fundraising by creating key marketing posts
in the UK and Africa
Expand our programmes in Ethiopia,
Lesotho, Zambia and Kenya; explore
starting work in another country; and complete
our work in Cameroon
Strengthen evaluation of our effectiveness,
and build our profile and reputation
In 2013/14 we plan to
•3•
15,000 families – or approximately
105,000 people – of which 5,000 families
Support
will begin training and 1,500 will become
self-sufficient and ‘graduate’
Increase annual income
to more than £5.5m, through
further investment in marketing resources
Develop a major new programme
in Western Kenya, and expand
on our current work with local partners
to set up Send a Cow Zambia
Build on the success of our UK
Development Education work
by setting up new
initiatives for schools
Our achievements
What we actually did
We worked with 11,687 households – or 81,800 people. Some 2,600 families began training,
and 2,500 graduated. During the year, funding was delayed for our programme in Zambia, which
will now launch properly in 2013/14. In Ethiopia, some families needed extra training, and will
graduate in 2013/14 instead. However in Uganda, a UK Aid grant meant we could start training
more families than expected
Our income was above target at £4.8m, due largely to the success of the new
Partnerships Fundraising team in the UK, and extra staff in country offices
Households worked with:
Our work in Ethiopia is developing strongly, boosted by our UK Aid funded project (see page 5).
In Lesotho we expanded into more districts and reached more families. Kenya and Zambia
will expand significantly in 2013/14 thanks to new funds. Our pilot project in Burundi has started
well (see page 9). We successfully completed our Cameroon programme, run with our partner
Heifer International (see page 5)
We invested in research staff, and carried out evaluations in Lesotho (see page 5) and among
peer farmers. We drew on research in Kenya and Uganda for our extensive impact report;
findings can be seen throughout this review or at www.sendacow.org.uk/our-impact
Our five-year plan
To transform one million lives by
2017. This is in addition to the one million
we have transformed
since 1988
Ethiopia
2,340
Lesotho
1,163
Rwanda
1,800
Uganda
4,459
Cameroon
Kenya
1,358
We prepared to start our own
projects in Burundi and Zambia.
At least 80% of the families we
work with will be living sustainably,
be food secure, and have access
to education
567
Total Households: 11,687
We will become a leading
authority on African
smallholder development
We will be a healthy,
effective
and efficient organisation, with
an annual income of £9 million
•4•
INVESTING in people
It’s 15 years since we began adapting our
programme so we could work with more
vulnerable families, such as those living in
arid areas or people with disabilities. We
intensified relevant areas of training, and
provided smaller livestock than dairy cows –
or no livestock at all.
Two evaluations this year showed how successful
this can be. In mountainous Lesotho, 86 per cent
of families given training in farming methods that
protect the environment by us became food secure
all year round. That’s quite an achievement, given
the country’s extreme climate and terrain. These
families – most of whom were also given dairy
goats, rabbits or chickens – include a high number
of disabled or chronically ill people.
In the arid Far North of Cameroon, almost all
families given sheep were able to pass on lambs,
and they also increased their yields of staple crops
and diversified what they were growing.
Our three-year programme in Cameroon is now
complete, but we will draw on our learning there and
in Lesotho to enable us to expand into new areas, and
help farmers deal with the effects of climate change.
97%
respected
of farmers feel more
by their communities
after working with us
Almost three quarters
of women say
equal partners with
their husbands in deciding how
they are
to use their land – up from a quarter
•5•
Olkese Shone and her husband Chofosho Ukumo, from the hilly Wolayta region of
Ethiopia, used to think they had nothing. Within just one year, Send a Cow helped them
discover the value of their community and land – and of themselves.
We used to live in shame, despised because of our poverty. Neither
our neighbours nor our birth families would take us in during the
rainy season, when water used to pour through our roof. I cried to
God every night not to let us die.
Our eldest child, who was weak, caught malaria and died. I begged
my family to take in my second son. He lives with them still.
We joined Send a Cow in July 2012. I couldn’t believe any good would
come of it; we were too hopeless. But we began training with our
group, Po’a [Light] , and it had a great impact on my thinking.
Previously, Chofosho and I had looked for casual work every
morning, rarely finding any. We had never thought of working on
our own backyard. But after the training, we prepared vegetable
beds and planted the seeds that Send a Cow gave us, such as
cabbages, beetroot and carrots. We were also given three sheep.
I started to hope a little bit.
These days, I invest my time and effort into my backyard, and
get a better return than when I used to wander around looking
for work. I have eaten vegetables from my garden for the first time.
It was a very happy moment when I first saw neighbours coming to
buy vegetables! It boosted my confidence and self-esteem.
With Send a Cow’s training, our community’s attitude towards
us started to change. People began to greet me. And in early
2013, our neighbours built us a new house. Thanks to them, we no
longer suffer in the rainy season.
Now I have some savings with my group scheme. I want to invest in
some chickens, for breeding. In a few years I will buy a cow so my
children get milk. I want to send my son and his younger sister
to school – neither my husband nor I can read. I want to bring my
son back home.
Now I am very happy. I see myself as a blessed person. I get respect
from my community, and have dignity as a human. That motivates me
to work hard and change my situation.
I don’t cry any more. I am not going back;
I am only looking forward!
Thanks to UK Aid for funding this work.
"The best way to influence a farmer, whether in Devon or Uganda, is to show them a farmer like them, on land
like theirs, doing better than them, and this is Send a Cow's approach. There are no hand-outs, only hand-ups."
Guy Watson, Founder, Riverford and BBC Farmer of the Year 2012
“I felt that I was one of the most hated and isolated people in my community. Now I am training others and will never again
be identified as poor. Hunger will never visit us again – [the food growing in] our backyard confirms this!”
Kindo Chinasho, Ethiopia
•6•
A huge thank you...
...to all the individuals, families, groups, organisations, charitable trusts and foundations,
businesses, schools, churches and others who have invested in us in 2012/13
Partners
Volunteering
We are grateful for the support of
all our partners, including the
Government of Rwanda, Self
Help Africa, Heifer International,
Heifer Netherlands, Tearfund,
Oxfam Novib, and The Brooke.
A massive thanks to the 150
volunteers around the UK who
gave us at least 8,000 hours of
time, saving us around £100,000
in salaries.
Gifts in Wills
Almost £450,000 was donated
through Wills, thanks to the
generosity of supporters and
their families.
Challenges
We are hugely grateful to all
those who ran, hiked, cycled
or took other sponsored
events for us.
Major donors, charitable
trusts and foundations,
and companies
The strength of these partnerships has helped
us reach many more people – thank you.
•7•
This year, we supported
81,800 people
Gift buyers
Funded by the European Union
Institutions
Thanks to all those who have
funded us, including the Isle of
Man International Development
Committee and the Jersey
Overseas Aid Commission.
Gifts such as donkeys, fruit trees and
training continue to raise smiles in
the UK and in Africa.
Farmers
in Africa
Congratulations to the
farmers in our projects who
passed on the equivalent
of £77,000 of livestock and
other gifts this year, as well
as skills and advice.
Regular giving
Patrons and
celebrities
Our Family Friend scheme continues
to grow, offering UK children a
window onto the lives of families
in Africa.
Our President, HRH The Prince of Wales, visited
our offices. Thanks to him and all those patrons
and celebrities who lent us their support.
•8•
INVESTING in nutrition
92%
have seen an
improvement
in the amount their
families
have to eat
77%
of families are always
able to eat
2 meals a day
Fabrice is 18 and still in primary school. Each year, he has to drop
out of classes because he is too poor to pay fees and too hungry to
focus on lessons.
That’s how life is for many in Burundi, the world’s hungriest country
and one of the very poorest. Seventy-three per cent of the
population is undernourished; 29 per cent of under-fives
underweight. Fabrice, an orphan who lives with his grandmother,
eats one poor quality meal per day.
It’s the legacy of decades of conflict – and in my country, Rwanda,
we understand that. In 2014, we will commemorate the 20th
anniversary of the genocide that killed one million people. The
process of reconciling our communities has been a long one. Yet we
are now a hopeful nation, and Send a Cow’s programme here is
flourishing: we have supported 6,000 families since 2001, and
work closely with the Government.
Now my office is running Send a Cow’s new programme in Burundi,
bringing our expertise to our neighbours. Under the coordination of
my colleague Laurent Munyankusi, we will work with three groups
initially. They will get skills, dairy cows or local goats, and manure to
fertilise their land. They will gain the confidence to rebuild their
shattered communities.
Each person eats an average of
We want to see Fabrice’s family prosper like Mary’s. She is Rwandan,
widowed during the genocide. She cares for her own child and seven
orphans. For a long time after the violence, she had nowhere to live
but the ruins of her house.
every day
Now she has a cow from Send a Cow, and has built a new home. Her
family eats well, with vegetables she has grown herself and she has
enough milk for the family. From the income she makes from selling
surplus vegetables and milk, she pays for school fees, health
insurance and a mobile phone.
– even in the ‘hungry months’
one portion of
animal protein
•9•
Angelique Barongo, Send a Cow Rwanda’s Programme Manager, explains how
her team is drawing on its expertise in Rwanda to bring hope to communities
in neighbouring Burundi
We have so many plans for our programmes in both countries.
In Rwanda, we are focusing on value chain development, to
improve the links between producers, processors and traders so
that smallholder farmers get better prices. We want to scale up,
and reach as many families in the next five years as we have
done in the past 12. In both countries, we want to see
communities looking ahead, not back.
With continued support, we hope and trust that we can go far.
“I have started using the agricultural practices that Send a Cow Rwanda taught me and my crop production has increased. I grow
vegetables now and that has contributed enormously to our nutrition – we can’t eat a meal without vegetables now!”
Mwumvaneza Wellars, Rwanda
• 10 •
INVESTING in education
More than one
million children
have learned about
the world they live
in through Send a
Cow this year.
That’s thanks to the teaching materials downloaded
from our Lessons from Africa website, a one-stop
shop for resources on Africa and sustainable
development. The website was ‘highly commended’
in the Charity Times and Third Sector awards in 2013
and will be further developed in the coming year.
Other exciting plans include African Gardens Days
in UK schools, which will target children in poorer
areas and get them learning in practical, innovative
ways about food and growing.
In northern Uganda, young people whose childhoods and schooling were destroyed
by conflict are now regaining hope, skills, and community spirit.
“The first thing that helped me was prayers. The second
was being in my group, which has given me hope for
the future. My plan is to educate my children and make
sure they do not suffer as I have.”
Those are the words of 22-year-old Jacqueline Apiyo, abducted
by rebels aged 13. While the horrors inflicted by Joseph Kony’s
rebel Lord’s Resistance Army have since made international
headlines, few of us can begin to grasp the brutality of the life
that Jacqueline was forced into. Upon her return, even members
of her own family ostracised her and her children.
Educating young people about development in
Africa is one of our charitable aims, and we’re
always keen to find partners to help us bring
African experiences to the UK.
But some people do understand: her fellow community group
members. The traumatised young adults who make up Waroco
Wuno Kwowa [Let Us Transform Our Lives] all spent part of their
childhoods in rebel or displacement camps. Most became
mothers there while still children themselves; many were forced
to commit violence.
Compared with the national average,
in our programmes in Uganda....
“We console each other, accept each other, get ideas from
each other,” says Richard Brian Ojok, who became a child
soldier aged nine.
Three times
as many children go to
secondary school
Seven times as many
women
go to university
• 11 •
Now Send a Cow is helping them build on that spirit of
understanding and caring, and make a better future for
themselves and their children.
They are learning how to grow and sell vegetables, and will soon
receive cows. With extra training from Send a Cow, Richard has
become a peer farmer trainer, giving fellow members advice,
encouragement, and extra skills.
They are also earning money collectively by making ‘beads
of awareness’. Some are investing in vocational training:
for example, in tailoring.
And what is their top priority for their earnings? The answer
from this group, themselves denied schooling, is resounding
and unanimous: “Educate our children.”
As Jacqueline says: “I will continue to work with the vegetables
and the beads, and after getting some livestock from Send a Cow
I will have milk and be able to improve my standard of living.
“My group has given me hope for the future.”
“The Send a Cow training inspired me to do better, to see opportunities. I had dreams but
no money. Send a Cow helped me to get my own income to start my businesses. I am so
comfortable now, my kids go to school – the school I’ve set up! We all eat well.”
Justine Chelengat, Uganda
• 12 •
Finance
Our income for the year was above target
at £4.8m. Crucially, we made significant
progress in diversifying income sources:
a key area of our strategy for growth.
We had another very successful year
building our institutional funding both in
terms of increased funding from UK Aid
from the Department for International
Development and from the European
Commission, and growth in the number
of funders.
Our principal revenue continues to be voluntary
income, raised from the general public, churches and
partnerships with other groups such as trusts and
corporates. We are really pleased to see growth in
major donors who have been impressed with the
impact of our programmes and wish to support us
in a more significant way.
Total charitable expenditure increased by 22% to
£3.8m compared to £3.1m last year. Of this, £3.4m
was spent on livestock and agriculture projects, and
£0.4m was spent on development education in the
UK, together with advocacy and campaigning on
behalf of smallholder farmers in Africa.
We are pleased to share that in this important phase
of our growth plan, we have been able to continue
to keep tight control of our cost of generating funds
which only increased by 9%; well below the increase
in income and programme spend. This increase in
expenditure enabled Send a Cow to build and
diversify future income streams and to continue
providing quality programmes in Africa.
The balance sheet remains strong with a good level
of reserves to protect against future uncertainties in
the world economy.
• 13 •
Income from public
Financial information
Year ended 2013
54%
In the year to June 2013,
Send a Cow group
raised £4.8m
Other income 1%
→
of income
→
income
....................
expenditure
21%
→
Advocacy,
Campaigning
& Education
9%
→
Governance costs 1%
In the year to June 2013,
Send a Cow group
spent £4.9m
of which
£3.8m
was spent on
charitable objectives
12 Months
to 30 June
2012
Group incoming resources
£’000
£’000
Voluntary income
Grants and Trust income
Other income
2,617
2,145
68
2,501
1,363
40
4,830
3,904
3,385
426
44
1,046
2,747
373
37
959
4,901
4,116
Year ended
June 2013
Year ended
June 2012
Fixed assets
Current assets
Creditors: amounts due within one year
£’000
204
1,640
(334)
£’000
143
1,959
(522)
Net assets
1,510
1,580
792
718
1,200
380
1,510
1,580
Grants and
trust income
45%
Cost of
generating funds
12 Months
to 30 June
2013
69%
Livestock and
agricultural projects
Group outgoing resources
Livestock & agricultural projects
Advocacy, Campaigning & Education
Governance costs
Costs of generating funds
Group
balance sheet
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Total funds
Statement from Trustees
“We have status now. We have an ATM card and a bank account.
We are equal to people in white collar jobs.” Tich Group, Kenya
The financial information presented here for the year end June 2013 represents
the Send a Cow Group figures. The information was taken from our full financial
statements, copies of which can be obtained from our office.
Signed on behalf of trustees
Adrian White, Treasurer, January 2014
• 14 •
Send a Cow President
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales
Send a Cow UK Patrons
Archbishop John Sentamu
Baroness Lynda Chalker
David Suchet OBE
Nick Park CBE
Rosemary Conley CBE
Sir John Houghton CBE
Send a Cow Uganda
Archbishop (retired)
Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo
Send a Cow Lesotho
Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso
Thanks to all photographers, including Dom Aitken,
Rachel Bunce, Anna Campbell-Johnston, Mark Darrough,
Simon Doherty, Wayne Hutchinson, Ben Langdon,
Aggrey Nshekanabo, Wondwossen Teshome and others.
Send a Cow, The Old Estate Yard,
Newton St Loe, Bath, BA2 9BR
Telephone: +44 (0)1225 874 222
e-mail: [email protected]
Registered charity number 299717
Printed on 100% recycled paper
www.sendacow.org.uk

Download Report