give-a-future-annual-report-2013

Annual Report
2013

Investing in African talent
Believe
Invest
Achieve
We are a not for profit fund, investing in children, youth, women and artisans in Africa.
We invest in and run children’s homes, schools, scholarship funds,
vocational training and micro-finance in Ethiopia.
Our new social enterprise “Lalibella-Made in Africa” invests
in women artisans in Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya and Swaziland
- the profit of all sales goes back to Give a Future.

LETTER FROM THE BOARD 2013
In 2013 we have injected considerable energy into measuring
the IMPACT and EFFECT that our programs have on the
women, children and families we work with. What sets us
apart is our commitment to working with people who WANT
to work with us, who are motivated to change their lives but
are limited by economic and social barriers. Instead of giving
handouts we invest in these individuals’ talents, potential and,
ultimately, their future. By providing targeted support along
the way we enable them to help themselves and achieve their
own economic independence.
Two major achievements of 2013:
1) We have scaled up our Scholarship Fund, Vocational
Training Program and Microfinance Program without compromising
on our detailed follow-up with each beneficiary
2) We have launched Lalibella – Made in Africa a social
enterprise that will create a revenue stream for our projects as
part of our “sustainable future” initiative
As we continue to grow and adapt our programs to fit the
needs of the community and changing context of Addis
Ababa, we do so with great care, steadiness and a clear
idea that the individual counts more than the whole. Every
individual counts and the key to our success is in our follow-up
and follow-through… we want everyone to make it across the
finish line!
Lalibella – Made in Africa was launched in October and has
seen early success! We have had impressive sales for a new
business, PR opportunities are lined up and a host of new
artisans are on board for 2014… and they are just as thrilled
as we are about our initial success. Lalibella will be able to
contribute £5000 to the 2014 budget of Give a Future, which we
consider an overwhelming success considering we launched
only a few months ago! In 2014 we will expand our product
range to round out our collection, include more artisans and
continue to sell through our web site and pop-up shops.
Our main success this year was optimizing the Vocational
Training Program. We are now better able to recruit the right
young people and know what support is the most effective
in generating the best possible outcome in the most cost
effective way.
We now have 96% of graduates in jobs 6 months post-training
– an amazing achievement.
The single most important factor in achieving our successful
results is “Follow- through” – we have been focusing on this in
2013 and will continue to do so in 2014.
The power of good follow-through is reflected in our low
default rate, our 96% youth employment rate 6 months posttraining,
and our extremely high retention rates at our Primary
Schools, the Scholarship Fund and our Children’s Homes. It
is the backbone of our programs and it shows our enduring
commitment to making each individual count.
Ethiopia has an exploding economy that creates new
challenges for us such as uncontrolled rents and a high
premium on competent, qualified staff. This is an incredibly
encouraging fact, as this kind of development and growth
means our services will not be needed in Addis Ababa forever.
However, it also means that we have difficulty retaining good
staff and we need to pay competitive salaries. It also means
the buildings we rent to house our programs are increasing
in cost every year. We acknowledge these challenges as we
operate in the capital city of a country whose economy is one
of the fastest growing in the world and that the ever-expanding
middle class expects higher salaries.
Without exception 2013 has been an amazing ride that would
not have been possible without the incredible 50+ Ethiopian
team members in Addis Ababa who continue to inspire us
daily with their relentless stubbornness to succeed.
Added to that in 2013 are the 15 amazing artisans and their
teams, who collectively create hundreds of jobs across Africa.
To our supporters a heartfelt THANK YOU as none of it would
be possible without you! With your help we have changed
the lives of well over 6000 people in Addis and hundreds of
women artisans all over Africa.
Yours gratefully,
Stephanie and Matteo Ferrario, Stefania Calice,
Jenna Hoyt, Sophie Pongracz, Amelie von Wedel
- The Board of Give A Future
4 5

OVERALL SITUATION 2013
Give A Future now runs:
1) 5 group homes for 40 orphans
2) A nursery school for 200 children, a grade 1-3 school
for 150 children and a grade 4-7 school for 100 children
3) A lunch programme for all 450 school children on a
daily basis
4) A scholarship fund for 280 children and youth to
attend local schools and universities
5) Vocational training for 150 youth
6) Micro-finance cooperatives for 450 women
7) Lalibella-Made in Africa, producing and selling more
than 1000 products from different African countries.
Listed to the right are some KEY FEATURES of our programs
that underscore our commitment to making sure each
individual counts and implementing cost-effective, successful
programs:
1) We have refined the recruitment strategies across our
programs so that we attract and retain motivated
individuals
2) We have a unique follow-through system that
contributes to our very low default rates and very high
retention rates across all our programs
3) We have learned to run our programs in a lean and
cost efficient manner without compromising the quality
4) We know the optimum size of each program and when
to increase human resources to ensure points number
1) and 2)
The return on our investment is:
1) Increased education rates
2) Decreased youth unemployment
3) Local market development/growth
4) Enhanced financial inclusion for women and youth
5) Growth in the number of entrepreneurs
6) Creation of successful businesses
6 7

HOMES 2013
Our homes:
In 2013 we have made some major changes to the structure
of our Children’s Homes. Due to new restrictions from the
government we were not able to extend the license for our
main Children’s Home, and instead we now run 5 group
homes for our 40 orphans; divided into boys and girls, by
age. Although this has been slightly traumatic for all of us,
including the Ethiopian team, the children seem to have
navigated this change with ease.
Improvements to be made:
• More pro-active follow up with children struggling in
school
• More intensive mentoring with children as they
become teenagers
They are all thriving in their new homes, most are doing well
at school – and we realised “change” is something they have
been used to since an early age and therefore have strong
coping mechanisms for dealing with life’s shake ups.
Our investment:
We spent about £40,000 last year for 40 orphans, which
means each child costs us about £1000/year for everything:
education, living expenses (rent, utilities etc), health care, food
and extracurricular programs.
Our impact:
It has always been a challenge to measure the success of our
investment in these 40 children – their happiness, their health,
their self-esteem and self-worth. The joy we derive from
knowing how far these children have come from when we
first met them and watching them develop into independent,
self-sufficient people is immeasurable.
Our key performance indicators:
• 0% drop out rate
• 15 full time staff employed
• 100% of children report feeling safe
• 100% of children report feeling happy where they live
• 25% of the children are high achievers in school
• 70% score above average in school
• 70% are in contact with extended family members
The return on our investment is:
1) Happy children striving for an exciting future.
2) Decreased number of orphans living in the streets.
Jerusalem Abebe
Meet one of our students:
Jerusalem Abebe is 16 years old and studying in Grade 10.
She came to live with us in the summer of 2007 after a local
Women’s Development NGO rescued her from her deteriorating
home situation. Jerusalem’s mother died from HIV/AIDS
and her father was absent from birth. After the death of her
mother, Jerusalem was receiving care from a family friend but
she also suffered abuse at the hands of her stepfather. Despite
all that Jerusalem has been through she is a kind and loving
girl with a great sense of humour. She actively participates in
life at the Home and hosted this year’s Christmas Celebrations.
Her favorite subject is Biology and she is studying hard this
year in order to achieve a high score on the Grade 10 National
Exam. She wants to continue in the Natural Science stream for
the preparatory years and then attend University, where she
hopes to study a health-related subject.
8 9

SCHOOLS 2013
We invest in and operate three schools:
1) A nursery school for 200 children
2) A primary school for 150 children from grade 1 to 3
3) A primary school for 100 children from grade 4 to 7
4) A lunch programme for all 450 children everyday
5) We involve and educate the families of our students,
which multiplies our impact by 5 (medium household
size)
The schools are equipped with libraries, a computer room
and outside play areas available for lunch and recess. The
Grade 4-7 School also has a science laboratory for the Grade
7 students (and Grade 8 students next year). We provide
extra tutorials for all students, summer school programs, extracurricular
clubs and regular involvement of the parents in
various workshops. Furthermore, our schools are much more
than just bricks, mortar and equipment - they provide a safe
and inspiring environment for our students to get a solid
foundation on which to build a successful future.
Our investment:
1) Our 3 schools cost us about £70,000 for the year to
educate and provide a safe and nurturing environment
for 450 students. This means we have a cost of roughly
£155 per child.
2) Our lunch programme costs us £21,000/year,
which is a total cost of £46 per child/year for a
daily lunch at school.
Our impact:
Every year a child moves up a grade in our school it adds 10%
to that child’s future wage. They learn how to be healthier and
have better hygiene and to use critical thinking in the world
around them… and we also educate their parents along the
way – an incredibly important factor.
Our key performance Indicators:
• Low teacher absenteeism rate
• High student attendance rate
• 3% drop out rate (due to families having to relocate)
• 99% Teacher retention rate
• 87% of students moved up grade
• 100% parental engagement
• Employing over 30 full time staff
• Helping families by providing a nutritious lunch and
saving them 140ETB/month/child which they can use
for other basic living costs
• Educating 450 children, keeping them off the streets
and in a safe environment where they can learn and
build the foundation for a future
• Successfully involving the parents in parenting, health
and hygiene workshops and in supporting their
children’s education
The return on our investment is:
1) Increased primary school enrolment in Addis Ababa
2) Removal of economic barriers for motivated students
to succeed at school
Improvements to be made:
• Improve overall academic performance
• Improve rate of students moving up grades
10 11

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMMES 2013
Scholarship fund:
We invest in 280 students from the ages of 4 to 25 enabling
them to access high quality education from Nursery through
to University. Our scholarship students attend local primary
and secondary schools and Universities across Ethiopia
gaining an invaluable education that would otherwise be
out of reach due to economic barriers. We are proud to report
two of our students are currently enrolled at the Helsinki
University in Finland on local scholarships.
Improvements to be made:
• Improve communication between the parents and the
children’s schools to make them feel less ostracised and
more involved
Our investment:
We have invested about £100 per child, with the university
students usually costing more.
Our impact:
Assisting vulnerable families by reducing the economic
burden of tuition fees, uniform costs and educational
materials means that not only do more children get educated
but also families are able to use precious resources on other
essentials such as food and health care.
Every year a child moves up a grade in school it adds 10% to
that child’s future wage.
Our key performance Indicators:
• 2 full time staff run this program
• 0% drop out rate
• 100% of students moved up a grade
• 80% score above average grades
• 20% receive extra tutoring
• 100% of families supported through parent workshops
• 40-60 new students per year
Meet one of our students:
Muna Fedelu
The return on our investment is:
1) Increased primary & secondary school enrolment in
Addis Ababa
2) Removal of economic barriers for motivated students
to succeed at school
3) Contributing to a growing middle class by producing
University graduates
4) Using our success stories to motivate others in the
program
A major success this year is our Medical student Muna Fedelu
who has achieved top marks in her class. She is a dedicated
and hard working student who is currently beginning her
last year of medical school before starting her internship. She
has completed most of her clinical training and so far has
expressed interest in specializing in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
During her internship year she will receive a minimal salary for
work at a hospital and afterwards she plans to work for a year
or two as a General Practitioner before starting training as a
specialist.
12 13

VOCATIONAL TRAINING 2013
Vocational training:
Over the past 3 years we have invested in 150 young people
by funding their training at a recognised vocational training
institute and providing capacity building workshops along
the way to support them in searching for employment. We
have learned a great deal from these first 3 years about how
to run this program successfully and our employment figures
have confirmed that this program is getting young people
into jobs. We will be scaling up this program over the next
years, if and when we can find a long-term donor.
Improvements to be made:
• Run more experience sharing workshops for new
students
Our investment:
We have invested about £11,000 last year for 40 to 60 new
students to receive accredited skills training and career
workshops. This means an initial investment of around £200/
student for the full year of life-changing training that ends in
employment.
Our impact:
Every unemployed young person learns a trade where they
earn between 50%-100% more money afterwards and
thereby contribute successfully to their community and
society at large.
Once they start earning a salary it is very common for them to
give financial assistance to their families, thereby extending
the reach of our program. At a community level, higher levels
of youth employment has been linked to decreasing crime
rates and alcohol abuse and reducing the incidences of family
breakdown.
Our key performance Indicators:
• 1 full time staff runs this program
• 40 to 60 new students in every year
• 96% of training graduates are employed 6 months
post-training
•

MICRO-FINANCE PROGRAMME 2013
We invest in 450 women in Addis Ababa by providing business
training, small loans and practical support. The women beneficiaries
run our Credit Co-operatives, which include between
300-500 members, and we provide on-going training and
technical support. These revolving funds allow women to
access small business loans with low interest rates and opportunities
to join in one of our many extended training
programs. Our intention is to grow our Co-operatives by
200 - 300 women/year over the next three years, with the
help of Annoushka Jewellery – a new partnership we cherish
immensely.
• Able to send more children to school
• Able to afford home improvements
• Able to afford some healthcare
• Able to provide better food choices and have greater
food security
Our key performance Indicators:
• 5 full time staff manage this program with 1 part time
accountant
• 450 women enrolled currently
• 200-300 new women joining every year
•

Made to give, and give, and give...
2013
With the help of many people we finally launched Lalibella this
autumn with an impressive and eclectic range of more than
1000 products online: www.lalibella.co.uk
We have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from
buyers, the press, old friends and new friends.
We need more people to spread the word so anyone willing to
lend a hand please get in touch! Here are some ways that you
can help…
1) Include Lalibella in your Home Sale
2) Introduce us to great African artisans
3) Help promote us to press or other media for more
marketing opportunities
4) Put us up on your company’s webpage
5) Send out our details to all your contacts!
From the sales so far we are able to contribute £5000 towards
Give a Future, which will fund 50 children in our schools for
2014 – an amazing achievement considering Lalibella is a mere
4 months old. All profits from Lalibella will flow directly into
Give a Future and help make our projects more sustainable so
that we can rely less on donations.
We are working with many different artisans, who each employ
many people, selling beautiful products from Africa – which
is one of the most enjoyable projects we have created! There
are so many incredibly talented artisans and we will steadily
increase our product range over the coming years.
We are looking for social investments for Lalibella to expand
our product range, improve our customer service and help us
generate bigger returns.
The Return on our investment is:
1) Stimulate local African market growth by supporting
hundreds of women artisans and helping them export
to Europe
2) Create sustainable funds for Give a Future
18 19

OUR THANK YOUS
A BIG THANK YOU to all our donors, who have stuck with us over the past years
– we are so grateful – we couldn’t do it without you!
FINANCES
AT A GLANCE
We need to raise more money and need all the help we can get this year, so please stick with us
and help us find more people who might want to support our projects.
We need your help with raising our much-needed funds so that we can maintain our
current programs and grow slowly over the next year. Here are some ways to lend support:
• Throw small fund raising dinners for us
• Introduce us to your friends who might be interested in supporting us
• Raise funds for us in your children’s schools
• Run a marathon/sports challenge for us
• Introduce us to your company’s giving team
A special thank you to Miles Morland for being SO positive and giving invaluable input
all the time, we love you.
We cannot thank Carmen Borgonovo enough for donating so much of her time to getting
Lalibella - Made in Africa started and finally launched!
And a warm welcome to Charlotte Salford who joined our Board and brings with her invaluable
experience in running economic development projects in Africa.
20

BUDGET 2013 proposed budget 2014
Budget 2013 Yearly ETB Yearly GBP
HOMES
Rent 216,000 7,714
Salaries 265,200 9,471
Food 216,000 7,714
Children’s Programmes 24,000 857
Children’s Needs 60,000 2,143
Medical 6,000 214
Transport/Utilities/Admin 111,600 3,986
Group Home 1 - Boys 87,600 3,129
Group Home 2 - Girls 180,000 6,429
TOTAL 1,166,400 41,657
SCHOOLS
Rent
KG compound 108,000 3,857
GR 1-4 compound 216,000 7,714
GR 5-8 compound 168,000 6,000
Salaries 530,400 18,943
Tax/Pensions 19,200 686
Teaching Materials 48,000 1,714
Cleaning Materials 30,000 1,071
Maintenance 30,000 1,071
Utilities/ Admin 49,200 1,757
Uniforms 96,000 3,429
Special Events 36,000 1,286
Lunch Programme 590,760 21,099
TOTAL 1,921,560 68,627
COMMUNITY AND WOMEN’S BUSINESS PROGRAMME
Rent 60,000 2,143
Salaries 246,000 8,786
Utilities/Transport/Materials 38,400 1,371
Transport 12,000 429
Pensions 21,600 771
Sponsorship Programme 28,800 1,029
Women Business Loans and Training 406,200 14,507
TOTAL 813,000 29,036
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME
Salaries 60,000 2,143
Home students fees 84,000 3,000
Primary students fees (KG-Gr 8) 336,000 12,000
Highschool students fees (Gr 9-12) 3,600 129
University/College students allowance 199,500 7,125
Home support students 102,000 3,643
TOTAL 725,100 25,896
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Salaries 90,000 3,214
Tuition Fees 120,000 4,286
Transport 84,000 3,000
Training and Materials 24,000 857
TOTAL 318,000 11,357
TOTAL COSTS 4,944,060 176,574
Exchange rate 1:28
Actual expenditure in 2013 was very close to budget with £179,767. The slightly higher amount was due to unforeseen rent increases. The budget increase from 2013 to 2014 is a combination of greater student
numbers, but also higher rents and salaries due to continuing high levels of inflation in Ethiopia. We also need to purchase a new round of uniforms for all schoolchildren. We have upped the budget for measuring
our performance and impact to ensure we achieve the best results for your investments.
Budget 2014 Yearly ETB Yearly GBP
HOMES
Rent 216,000 7,448
Salaries 240,000 8,276
Food 240,000 8,276
Children’s Programmes 24,000 828
Children’s Needs 72,000 2,483
Medical 6,000 207
Transport/Utilities/Admin 303,600 10,469
Group Home 1 - Boys 136,800 4,717
Group Home 2 - Girls 178,800 6,166
TOTAL 1,417,200 48,869
SCHOOLS
Rent
KG compound 132,000 4,552
GR 1-4 compound 168,000 5,793
GR 5-8 compound 216,000 7,448
Salaries 540,000 18,621
Tax/Pensions 60,000 2,069
Teaching Materials 108,000 3,724
Cleaning Materials 30,000 1,034
Maintenance 30,000 1,034
Utilities/ Admin 44,400 1,531
Uniforms 186,000 6,414
Special Events 30,000 1,034
Lunch Programme 679,200 23,421
TOTAL 2,223,600 76,676
COMMUNITY AND WOMEN’S BUSINESS PROGRAMME
Rent 96,000 3,310
Salaries 120,000 4,138
Utilities/Transport/Admin 61,800 2,131
Pensions 36,000 1,241
Sponsorship Programme 26,400 910
Women Business Loans and Training 579,600 19,986
TOTAL 919,800 31,717
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME
Salaries 90,000 3,103
Home students fees 144,000 4,966
Primary students fees (KG-Gr 8) 420,000 14,483
Highschool students fees (Gr 9-12) 18,000 621
University/College students allowance 240,000 8,276
Home support students 163,200 5,628
TOTAL 1,075,200 37,076
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Salaries 90,000 3,103
Utilities/Transport/Admin 61,800 2,131
Tuition Fees 120,000 4,138
Transport 48,000 1,655
Training and Materials 24,000 828
TOTAL 343,800 11,855
MONITORING & EVALUATION 348,000 12,000
TOTAL COSTS 6,327,600 218,193
Exchange rate 1:29
22 23

We can’t thank you all enough!
24 25

26 27

Registered Charity Number 1124082