Thilen, a Nepalese orphan now sponsored through ROPE, is now healthy and proudly wears his traditional dress.
Michael E E Wood, Andrew Burton, Andrew Jong, Peter Green, Stuart Reid
Michael E E Wood, Andrew Burton, Andrew Jong, Peter Green, Stuart Reid
The objects of ROPE are the advancement and promotion of the Christian faith and the relief of poverty. It aims to help the poorest throughout theworld where no other help is available. This help is given regardless of religion, class, age and race. The charity operates in about 75 countries through national partner groups (ROPEholders), who administer funds and care for the poor at the grass roots level. They account on a quarterly basis for all funds spent During the year over 100 of these groups were in operation, all on a voluntary basis. ROPE seeks to provide help to the poor in a direct way and in places where no other help is available
With such a large number of these partnerships in operation, there are continual changes taking place, with new groups being added as others no longer are able to continue. A review of our processes for selecting and approving new ROPEholders, auditing and monitoring their work and assessing specific applications for funding was carried out during the year. There is a long "leadtime" involved in approving a new group since careful assessment at this stage avoids problems later.
All partners are required to send in quarterly reports and if these are not received, further grants are not sent out until the reporting requirements have been met.
New partnerships have been established in the following places, enabling the grass roots help given by ROPE to meet more identified needs:
The latter two partnerships have been specifically "adopted" by the new group in Kent in order to encourage their direct involvement with the activities of ROPE on the ground and provide impetus to their fundraising.
The earthquake in Northern Pakistan provided an opportunity for two ROPEholder groups to get involved in the restoration work needed. ROPE was able to send out funds regularly to assist with the provision of shelters, food and other essential needs once the initial rescue phase had finished. Remaining funds for the victims of the tsunami were also sent out, particularly providing fresh water wells for isolated communities in the coastal areas of Burma, neglected by the efforts of other agencies.
Sponsorship programmes in several countries supporting both widows and orphans continue to be well supported. Following an audit of the scheme in Burundi it was decided that this was not operating effectively or accountably and the decision was taken to withdraw our support, since our concerns could not be satisfactorily rectified. The new programme in India and others started by our partners in Cameroon and Zambia provided replacement children for the sponsors.
Whilst the bulk of the grants made by ROPE are for ongoing needs and not for capital projects, the charity is able to respond to specific initiatives from time to time if funds are available. Two building projects were commenced in the final part of the financial year, the construction of a school in Gambia and an orphanage in Nepal.
Thus it is worthy of mention that the activities cited above have taken place around that central core of grant-making to our committed core of ROPEholders. They have throughout the year continued to selflessly and effectively provide help to the very poor in their communities in so many countries around the world, through direct aid, micro loan schemes and other special programmes.
ROPE joined the BOND network of NGO's during the year and was able to benefit from greater involvement in the Make Poverty History campaign, by encouraging our supporters to get involved. A wide range of speaking engagements was attended and the ROPE exhibition stand at the Christian Resources Exhibition in May was well received.
Since ROPE relies on Friends of ROPE to meet the administrative running costs, strong emphasis is also placed on using volunteer help wherever possible. The ROPEholders (partners) we work with overseas are predominantly carrying out their operations on a voluntary basis. In the UK, volunteer help plays a key part in the charity's activities, especially in the finance, fundraising, communications and marketing aspects. Some changes in volunteer staff have taken place this year, with the loss of a couple of very experienced people whose contribution will be hard to replace.
ROPE's income (excluding the value of donated services) reached the half million threshold for the first time (£503,155), primarily due to a major gift received as the result of a legacy, in addition to the income generated from our normal activities. Taking this into account the pattern of income generated is stable and reflects the fact that resources devoted to fundraising have not been available to promote an increase. Efforts to increase the Gift Aid tax refunds have been continuing and this figure has risen to £34,625.
The ROPE Charity shop in Chalfont St Giles has also continued to contribute towards the overall income for the charity, generating profits of £14,614 despite the retirement of the long serving Shop Manager during the year and a period when the position was vacant.
These results have enabled the level of grant support to our ROPEholder partners (£456,088 - 2005/06) to be slightly increased again this year (£440,288 - 2004/05). The amounts sent out each quarter have been fairly consistent and the distribution of the total to different areas of the world reflects the fact that the most pressing needs ROPE is seeking to meet are in Africa, despite the additional funds directed to Asia as a result of the Pakistan earthquake and residual funds for the Asian tsunami.
The large legacy mentioned earlier in this report was received very close to the end of the financial year, thus increasing the fund balances of the charity from £174,543 at the end of last year to £247,467 at the end of this financial year. The trustees have agreed a reserves policy that takes into consideration the high proportion of revenue grants sent out on a quarterly basis, plus the need to respond to particular crises as they occur and adversely impact upon the poor. An appropriate level of reserves is considered to be 6 months grant expenditure. Staff and organisational running costs do not have to be added, as these are the responsibility of Friends of ROPE. Trustees wish these assets to be relatively liquid and therefore retain them in a high interest-bearing CAF account. The level of fund balances is therefore only slightly higher than is considered prudent and has been temporarily increased due to the timing of the legacy received.
