Board of Trustees UPDATE Statement – 16th MAY 2022
Revive a Life Uganda was established by and has always been a Revive Church project, overseen by the previous elders under the leadership of Peter and Janice Bird, and currently by the Board of Trustees.
A number of years ago an indigenous Ugandan NGO was set up to ensure Revive a Life was compliant in its Ugandan operations. 4 trustees were appointed to manage the NGO, Beryl Clark and Jenny Flood of Revive Church New Mills and Pastors Edward and Jayne Lule of Kampala Uganda. From a legal standpoint, the 4 trustees of the NGO have ultimate responsibility over the charitable works happening in Uganda.
Having considered the Revive Church New Mills board’s proposal as detailed below, the trustees of the Ugandan NGO have resolved not to investigate the proposal any further, and to operate the NGO independently from Revive Church New Mills.
As such, the operational, financial and donor partnership between Revive Church New Mills and Revive a Life Uganda has now ceased. The reasons for this are detailed in the statement below.
We want to take this opportunity to honour all of those still with us, and those that have since moved on, for their work and dedication to the Revive a Life project. We pray that this next season will be fruitful for all in seeing God’s kingdom work thrive.
Revive Church, as a charity, has a commitment to overseas missions and giving. This is an agreed percentage of church funds, written into the articles of the charity. The trustees are developing a strategy as indicated in our last statement for the selection and prioritisation of overseas projects & partners in future, which will be communicated to the church once complete.
The Board of Trustees – Revive Church UK
Dated 16/05/2022
(Revive Church Board of Trustees is made up of Peter Bird, Janice Bird, Doug Brown, Craig Harper, Ben Wood, Rose Wood. Transitional Board Members Nick Bowden & Jo White.)
Board of Trustees Statement – 14th February 2022
‘Revive-a-Life’ (RaL) is a project in Uganda, managed by the Revive Church charity, supporting local children and young adults. Revive Church has a legal obligation to comply with Charities Commission regulations for the safe operation of RaL, under UK law, and can be audited at any time. Revive Church trustees are concerned that RaL is unable to operate to the standards required by the Charities Commission, through no fault of its own, for two reasons.
The first reason is Revive Church cannot ensure the safeguarding of the children in its care in Uganda, from the UK. This exposes the children to potential harm. Although the safeguarding procedures developed in the UK offer some level of protection, the inability to ensure their implementation in Uganda, without a safeguarding officer on the ground, is impossible. The recent Covid crisis has exacerbated this issue and has highlighted that, should an issue occur, travel restrictions would prevent any form of timely intervention and response.
The second reason is that Revive Church does not have suitable Ugandan representation amongst trustees. This risks a UK and not Ugandan focus to its operations and future direction. This contradicts Charities Commission best practice and does not represent the excellence Revive Church seeks to achieve in all that it does.
Proposal: Global Care to manage RaL for Revive Church.
After exploring various options for the programme, the trustees of Revive Church have approached Global Care, a large, Christian charity working all over the world, to take over the management of the RaL project, on its behalf. Global Care is already operating in Uganda, supporting over 100 children and young adults in a similar way to RaL. Global Care has staff in Uganda, along with all the processes and infrastructure necessary to ensure the children and young adults in its care are safeguarded to Charities Commission standards. Global Care also has Ugandan trustees, ensuring a local understanding of Ugandan needs is designed into its operation.
Global Care will be carrying out a study to consider our proposal to take the management of the education, food, medical and emergency requirements that RaL has been providing. As part of this study Global Care will also investigate the reassimilation of RaL children back into Ugandan society, without creating dependency, once their charitable care ends.
Global Care operates a ‘foster’ based, care model, not the ‘orphanage’ model originally operated by RaL, which is now considered counter-cultural in Ugandan society. The foster model places each child with their closest family member, or designated foster carer, where possible. RaL has been moving to this model in recent years and if Global Care were to take over the oversight of this project it will undertake to help complete this work with their staff.
Global Care has a very established team of experts supporting children in Uganda. All the work undertaken is audited, transparent, cost-effective and Charity Commission compliant. It offers economy of scale, which is of particular importance with medical care, where the combined resources of more cared for children, provides a higher potential budget, should any child need it. Additionally, high quality safeguarding procedures are in place and immediate action is taken, whenever a concern arises, ensuring protection of the children.
The trustees of Revive Church also all agree that supporting the RaL children through Global Care is the best way to steward the Revive Church overseas giving fund.
RaL in future.
The trustees of Revive Church are unanimous in agreeing that moving the RaL children and young people in its care to Global Care would be the best outcome for them. If Global Care agree to take on this project the children will remain supported and funded by Revive Church, within Global Care, with the ‘on-the-ground’ operation, infrastructure and management provided by Global Care; a Charities Commission compliant charity delivering auditable safeguarding and Ugandan direction.
Global Care proposes to assess the needs and make plans for each RaL child. Any redundancy settlements with staff will be undertaken in accordance with Ugandan law and alternate work sought for them through Global Care’s network, if possible. The costs for this will be established and confirmed with Revive Church. Revive Church proposes committing to funding the RaL children and young people, currently in care, to the end of the project and completion of their care needs.
The trustees had hoped that ministry lead, Beryl Clark, would continue her fund-raising work for the RaL children in Global Care, and had agreed to ring-fence funds to allow her to make regular visits to Uganda so as to maintain the relationships she has developed with the children over the years. However, Beryl has made the difficult decision to step back from overseeing the day-to-day operations of RaL and will support the trustees with the transition.
Overseas projects in future
Revive Church, as a charity, has a commitment to overseas giving. This is an agreed percentage of church funds, written into the articles of the charity. Once the trustees understand the financial commitment Revive Church has for the RaL children, the trustees will understand if additional funds are available for other overseas projects under consideration and requested by the congregation.
The trustees are developing a strategy for the selection and prioritisation of overseas projects in future, which will be communicated once complete. However, new overseas projects must have clear objectives, goals, defined time frames, financial clarity and their operation must be Charities Commission compliant. Where possible, they must empower local people; encourage sustainability; align with local needs and requirements; and have local trustee answerability. Future projects must also provide measurable evidence of outcomes which will be agreed ahead of support being given. To do this, the trustees expect it to be more practical and safer to identify and partner existing, established charities, and not set up new ones.
Honouring the work of RaL
The trustees and pastors of Revive Church would like to thank Beryl Clark and the team who have worked tirelessly on behalf of the RaL children and young people in Uganda. It is our hope that their valuable work will continue in this new, safe, and comprehensive mode of operation.
The Board of Trustees – Revive Church UK
Dated 14/02/2022 / Updated 18/02/2022 to provide more detail on Global Care’s process under the proposed changes.
(Revive Church Board of Trustees is made up of Peter Bird, Janice Bird, Doug Brown, Craig Harper, Ben Wood, Rose Wood. Transitional Board Members Nick Bowden & Jo White.)
