Strategic Review

As individuals, as well as organisations, the COVID-19 Pandemic impacted all of  our lives in some way or other.

As the world, and travel, returns to normal, whatever that might mean, our trustees decided it was time for a strategic review and to see what lessons we could learn from the pandemic.

This involved a look at our vision as well as how we were attempting to implement it. We will share more in the coming months, but for now to give a few of the outcomes:

 

The Vision

The trustees agreed that the original vision was still correct, It was however recognised that to look to operate in all countries of the world, and across many different skill bases, was too large for a charity of our size.

A decision has therefor been made that we should

• Narrow the field of operation from worldwide to focus initially on Kenya.
• Raise the profile of projects to make it equal with volunteering. Projects have always been part of the way we planned to operate and, during the pandemic when travel was restricted, were the only way we could operate.
• Narrow our focus of operation to 2 areas in 2023/24 with a third being added in 2024/25. The two areas for 2023/24 will be education and support for autistic children and their families. We will also continue to support the plastic recycling project setup during the pandemic.

Structure for operating and achieving our goal

The trustees have agreed to a change in operating structure to better achieve our goals.

This will consist of:

• A board of trustees to provide strategic leadership in line with the charity’s aims and values. Additional trustees will be recruited to strengthen the board and increase its diversity.  The trustee board will meet every 3 to 4 months.
• An operations team, a subcommittee of the trustee board with delegated powers, to be responsible for delivering the vision.  Members of this team will meet monthly, which along with work done between meetings, will need a greater time commitment – something that the current trustees were unable to offer. We will be looking to recruit new members who will be more active and bring much needed skills and experience to the team,

As part of the review, a skills audit was undertaken of those currently involved in the charity. This identified a number of areas of weakness which are being addressed in the new structure.