Our full annual report to the Charity commission can be downloaded here.
Three key sections in the narrative section of that report are given below: our charitable activities, achievements and future plans as reported after the year-end.
Charitable activities
In 2024 we continued to serve our object through the support of the BUILD initiative (Biblical Understanding for In-service Leadership Development), which is primarily present in East Africa. Our efforts continue to focus on six areas of activity: (1) Contributing to the budgets of our training partners; (2) Connecting those partners with sources of support and resources, one another included; (3) Consulting in order to help with the development of partners’ programmes; (4) Consolidating training resources alongside our partners; (5) Coordinating the wider network in partnership with key local leaders; (6) Co-training alongside local partners and trainers when and where possible.
Achievements
2024 was a strong and stable year for BUILD Partners, with significant grants in place for key projects, in addition to some unrestricted funds. This meant that £105,861 was spent on charitable activities in support for our church leadership development work.
Goals from our 2023 Financial Statements that were met included the expansion of the work in Tanzania in at least two key places. For example, a new centre came on board in March: Bunda Bible College in the Diocese of Mara serving that and other dioceses. The initial event there also drew in our Kenya coordinator, Canon Capt Benjamin Kibara, which enhanced collaboration with our wider work. The time included a service in St Stephen’s Cathedral, Shinyanga to welcome three members of the BUILD team as honorary Canons – a badge of honour for BUILD. Canon Dr Jem Hovil, our Executive Trustee, represented the charity.
May saw the launch of the initiative to renew and grow the work in Rwanda through a ‘training-of-master-trainers’ event. That was organised with our implementing partner RDIS (Rural Development Inter-diocesan Service) and the dioceses it serves: Shyogwe, Butare, Kigeme, Cyangugu, Nyaruguru and the Missionary Diocese of Karongi. The event had an international flavour: coordinators from Uganda shared their experience and visitors from the Anglican Mission in Chad also attended, benefiting from the semi-Francophone environment. Again our Executive Trustee was present throughout.
Plans to “expand the work to West Africa” became ‘expansion westwards’ through the above: the Chadian trainers organised and delivered training back home in partnership with the Diocese of North Africa. A first training-of-trainers event took place in September after they translated materials into French, a new language for the training and a breakthrough for BUILD.
Our Kenyan coordinator, mentioned above, continued to lead the training of leaders at and from three main centres. Groundwork was laid for one of those, the Church Army College in Nairobi, Carlile College, to deliver the training as a formal Diploma in Bible, Theology and Leadership. That will be under our existing accreditation relationship with St Paul’s University, Limuru, as we had envisaged, and an MOA was signed in November.
Plans to begin a UK based Ministry Support Group to serve alongside the Trustees moved more slowly, although significant work was done conceptualising best approaches to capacity building here and putting out feelers for individuals. Positively, fundraising efforts in partnership with Crosslinks, UK meant that in April our Executive Trustee was to come onto their payroll, releasing more of his time to the charity, which he is now fully seconded to by them.
2024 has been tagged “strong and stable” above due in part to significant grants being in place for our work in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. However, the final tranche for Kenya and Tanzania was received at the end of the year with no possibility of renewal due to the donor charity changing their geographical focus. Further, the Kenya and Tanzania funds had been provided on the basis of our attracting matched funding, which then absorbed significant unrestricted funds. That, coupled with the ongoing growth of the programme, meant we were facing a significant funding gap. As a result we spent significant time sourcing new streams of income. A significant new relationship with a UK charity led to a generous initial grant towards the work, and another new link provided a further useful sum. We also gave time to working with partners on approaches to local sustainability. More will need to be done in 2025 on this front if the work is to grow.
The year also ended on a high with the launch of a new BUILD training website designed to serve the network as a whole, rather than simply to showcase the charity’s work.
Future plans
In 2025, in addition to providing support for existing projects we aim to: (1) increase the human capacity of the charity at the UK end; (2) develop new funding relationships for both our core costs and our partner budget contributions; (3) help register and launch a local support entity for BUILD in Kenya; (4) witness the fruit of the renewed work in Rwanda through local follow-on-training; (5) expand the Tanzanian work to at least one new centre, Kowak Theological College, in Rorya Diocese; (6) secure a closer relationship with ACTEA (Association of Christian Theological Education in Africa) to serve our profile on the continent and, in some places, the accreditation of our programmes; (7) see the launch of a new, more sustainable formal training-of-trainers course at Carlile College, Nairobi; (8) bring together key BUILD project leads from across the region in order to develop a protocol for the work and for the relationships between programmes; (9) celebrate the work of BUILD co-founder Canon Stephen Kewaza in Uganda, who retires at the end of the year; (10) help initiate and shape a process of transition in the leadership of BUILD in the Church of Uganda due to that impending retirement.
