Destiny Children
a UK registered Charity based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, supporting
Destiny Garden School in Mombasa, Kenya
The Destiny Children committee -
Chairperson & Trustee - Judy Roper
Secretary & Trustee - Valerie Lear
Treasurer & Trustee - David Ward
Trustee - Adrian Ramsden
Trustee - Elizabeth Wright
Trustee - Patrick Roper
Committee member - Kathy James
Committee member - Nadine Lear
Next Committee Meetings:
Business Meeting - Wednesday 8 February 2012
Events Committee - tba
Destiny Children helps the children at Destiny Garden School receive an education they would otherwise not have in this poverty stricken area. It achieves this through the sponsorship programme which covers the basic running costs of the school. The charity also holds fund raising events to supplement this income and help with the school's development.
All the expenses and administrative costs of running the charity are met by the committee members to enable 100% of sponsors and donors funds, together with the Gift Aid, to go to Destiny Garden School.
For more details please see the following sections -
Destiny Children's first Annual General
Chairperson's report on her visit to DGS
Destiny Children’ was formally established on 23rd November 2009 by the Trustees, when the constitution was drawn up and signed and a UK Charity Bank Account opened. Please see the Destiny Children's Constitution
The charity's objective is -
"The advancement of education of children in Kenya, in particular but not exclusively pupils of Destiny Garden School, Mombasa by providing and assisting in the provision of educational facilities and materials and the provision of grants."
To carry out this objective ’Destiny Children’ are aiming to get all the children at Destiny Garden School sponsored over the next 2 years, and, at £10 per month for each child, this will fully cover the running costs and the development of the school. The charity also holds fund raising events to supplement this income and help with the school's development. Please see this link for the full details of the Charities activities.
100% of sponsors and donors funds, together with the Gift Aid, go to Destiny Garden School. The committee members meet all the expenses and administrative costs involved in running the charity.
Destiny Children's first Annual General
Destiny Children's first Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday 17th November 2010 , and their successful year was celebrated with a cake baked by Kathy!
’Destiny Children’ is registered by the UK Charities Commission under registration number: 1137680.
It is also registered with the HMRC (Her Majesty Revenue & Customs) as a charity for tax purposes and is eligible for Gift Aid; the HMRC reference number is XT21940.
Chairperson's report on her visit to DGS
Judy Roper, Chairperson of Destiny Children, visited Destiny Garden School in February 2011.
Her principle job whilst there was to update the Charity's records, together with those for the sponsorship programme, which entailed taking photos and updating the profiles of all the 245 children now at the school.
Judy says "The visit went brilliantly. It was great to see all the children again and many remembered me from my last visit.
The school has come on leaps and bounds but still has a long way to go. Jacob is trying so hard with everything and is well known and respected by the people in the local community, who really appreciate DGS "
As a charity, we now have 150 children sponsored and therefore send to the school over £1,500 per month. We need, however, to increase this to ensure that the school has sufficient funds for it’s basic running costs. Currently the school is kept afloat by the charities fund raising events, donations, Gift Aid and the money volunteers pay in placement fees, which are not guaranteed. We need, however, to arrive at the position where the ongoing costs are covered and any funds from volunteers or fund raising events can be used to purchase text books, educational equipment etc, and to help the school to develop.
100% of the sponsors payments received by the charity are given to Destiny Garden School; all the administration costs and expenses being absorbed by the committee.
The sponsor’s funds are transferred to Mombasa altogether at the end of each month and are sent to the School’s charity account which is a registered Kenyan Charity subject to audits etc – just like the UK Charities. We get a full breakdown each month on the School’s running costs and how our funds have been distributed, so are confident that everything is being well spent.
For more details about sponsoring a child, please click on sponsor a child
Supporters of Destiny Children
Destiny Children is supported by the FX Firm who facilitate the transfer of funds to Mombasa.
To visit their website click this link
Anyone who feels a strong empathy with our cause would be welcome to join us; we need more enthusiastic people to become friends of Destiny Children. For more information please contact us
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Members of the Charity raise funds via the Child Sponsorship Programme, donations and fund raising events, to initially cover the basic day to day running costs of the Destiny Garden School, Mombasa, Kenya. The current basic running costs include the teachers’ and staff salaries, drinking
water and the school lunches. Ultimately the charity aim to provide the school with all their running costs, plus all their educational materials and help the school develop and expand. -
Funds are sent to the Destiny Garden School, Mombasa, at the end of each month and a full breakdown of monies received and how it is spent is provided by the school.
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The Charity provides regular feedback of the school’s progress to those who sponsor a child and to those who make donations.
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Members of the Committee regularly liaise with the founder of the Destiny Garden School to monitor how the charities donations are spent. They also help advise on the planning and development of the school and assess its immediate and mid-term requirements for support.
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From time to time, members or representatives of the Charity visit the Destiny Garden School, at their own expense, to assess and monitor the performance of the School
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The charity apply for funding from trust funds and other organisations or individuals to support the on-going development of the school or for special projects agreed by the committee.
- In time and when appropriate the above activities will apply to other Schools when the charity’s work to help improve the education and well being of disadvantaged children in Kenya expands.
- All the Trustees of Destiny Children abide by the UK Charities Commission's guidelines and have completed their statuary declaration to this effect.
The founder of Destiny Children, Judy Roper, visited Destiny Garden School, Mombasa, Kenya, in September 2009 meeting there her Australian sister, Jacky, who had volunteered to help set up the school in May 2009 for 6 months.
Both Judy and Jacky were born in Kenya and lived there for the first 14 years of their lives. They attended Hospital Hill School, which was the first multi-racial school in British Commonwealth Africa in the 1950s, at a time when Kenyan society was informally racially segregated. Although as a child Judy was not fully aware of her parents’ brave and controversial action, she was aware that the school was very special and she recognises how she benefited from the education she received and the life-long friendships made. Resulting from this, both sisters felt that they owed something back to Kenya, and hence their involvement with Destiny Garden School. 
Jacky decided to do voluntary work in Africa instead of having a 6 month luxury cruise and was pleased to find that she was involved in setting up a new school in a very poor suburb of Mombasa. The enthusiasm and dedication of the founder Jacob and his wife, Brenda, and also the early team they had gathered around them, quickly impressed her but she could see the enormous task they had ahead without a regular source of income for the school. With some help from friends back home, Jacky purchased chairs, desks and uniforms for the children and taught the school’s administrator, Masikah, basic book keeping, whilst setting up the school accounts for Brenda to control.
Judy joined her sister in September 2009 with the main aim to build a school website and to set up a pupil sponsorship programme. This entailed gathering information, 
taking photos, and writing a profile on all the children. Judy was so impressed with what Jacob is trying to do in Mombasa and the enthusiasm of the children at Destiny Garden School, that she felt she had to do something to keep this school going. With the help from some of her very good friends, the charity 'Destiny Children' was set up through which the sponsorship programme and fund raising for the school is run.
Destiny Children’s achievements
Destiny Children’s achievements during the first 16 months, 23 November 2009 to 31 March 2011 include:-
- Becoming registered with HMRC and qualifying for Gift Aid and, in August 2010, becoming a UK registered charity with the Charities Commission
- Destiny Children’s constitution was put in place and revised in August 2010 on the Charities Commission’s recommendations. Many policies and procedures have been completed during this period and these include – Procedures for Transferring Funds to Mombasa; The Expenses Form and Procedures; The Charities Reserve Policy; Backup Procedures for the Charities Records; Confidentiality of Records.
- Two informative websites were built for both the Charity and Destiny Garden School, from which several enquiries have been received resulting in 10 children being sponsored, and 3 UK volunteers visiting DGS.
- Securing sponsorship for the pupils at Destiny Garden School; the numbers have increased steadily during this period and on 31 March there were 100 children sponsored. Sponsorship is the charity’s principal income, each sponsor committing themselves to donating £10.00 per month per child.
- Many successful fund raising events where organised; these include a Book Sale, a Car Boot Sale, a Concert with the Poynton Male Voice Choir, a Coffee Morning at the Gawsworth Methodist Hall, and a Dinner Party to raise funds for First Aid Training at DGS. Committee member, Kathy, climbed Mt Kilimanjaro!! The Christmas Dinner Dance at the Town Hall led by Elizabeth proved to be a very successful event raising over £2,000.
- A wonderful Christmas CD, composed by Alison Lea and sung by the children at Kings School, raising much needed funds for a new classroom 5 and developing links between the 2 schools.
- The ‘alternative gifts’ scheme was put in place, providing many donations particularly at Christmas time. This scheme encourages people to give a gift to the school instead of giving ‘useless’ presents to friends and family. The gifts have included goats, stationery materials and oranges for the children.
- Visits to the Destiny Garden School by members of the Committee and representatives, at their own expense. Kathy in October 2009 and December 2010, Secretary, Val and Nadine in April 2010, Jane Ainslie in November 2010, Judy in February 2011. Their reports can be found on the DC Website.
- Presentations to various organizations have been made raising the charities profile in the local community. These include the Rotary Club, a local School, the Salvation Army and NWR.
- Establishing a good relationship with the Kings Junior Division School who adopted DGS as their overseas charity. The children all wrote letters to the DGS children which committee member Val took over and supervised the replies.
- The school helped with our ‘Pencil Case Project’ which provided all 200 children with a personalised pencil case each and a box of stationery for each of the teachers. This project was initiated following Nadine’s visit to DGS where she was very aware of the children’s lack of writing materials; only one child had a pencil case. These were sent in a shipping container generously supplied by Jane Ainslie.
- Two grants were obtained, one from the MDMT to enable the DGS choirs to enter the nationals of the Kenyan Musical Festival, and the other from the KTCT to build classroom 6.
- Destiny Garden School has grown from strength to strength, and it now has much more appropriate facilities. New classrooms were built enabling the School to vacate the unsuitable rented accommodation, an office/storage block and library/staff room built. The kitchen and toilets improved.
