Trustees, Officers And Advisers
Principal Aims
What We Do
Management And Human Resources
Funding And Fundraising
Reserves Policy And Risk Management
Scholarships Policy
Activities
Trustees
Statement Of Trustees' Responsibilities
Financial Performance
Outlook
Accounts

Trustees, Officers and Advisers
Registered Charity Number 802615

Patron
The Viscount Slim, OBE, DL

Vice-Patron
Lady Gore-Booth

Honorary Adviser
Evelyn Aris

Chairman
Martin Morland, CMG

Vice-Chairman
Patricia Herbert

Executive Director
Ian C Sloane

Development Officer
Agnes Meadows

Treasurer
David LeFebvre BEM

Trustees
Anna Allott, OBE, Sir Robin Christopher, KCMG, David Colvin, CMG,
Michael Gorman, Daw Kyi Kyi May, Guy Slater, Dr. Thein Lwin

Auditors
Brooks Green
Abbey House
342 Regents Park Road
London N3 2LJ

Bankers
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc
50 - 54 High Street
Crawley
West Sussex RH10 1YZ

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Principal Aims
The objectives set out in our trust deed, dated 1989 are:

"To further the peaceful development of education among young persons who are citizens of Burma or who are, by origin of Burmese descent or who by reason of parental or family relationships are connected with the country of Burma, and to develop and encourage amongst such persons a knowledge of the cultural and historical development of Burma."

We have captured the essence of our purpose in our Mission Statement:

{josquote}Keeping the Flame of Education Alive... {/josquote}

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What We Do

The charity operates against the background in Burma of an oppressive and undemocratic military regime. A popular uprising in 1988 was brutally suppressed, many students were killed, and many more fled the country. The National League for Democracy (NLD) won an election in 1990, but the military retained power, putting many NLD members in gaol, and restricting the movements of the party secretary, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The regime has kept many higher educational institutions closed for several years. Although universities have since reopened, they operate under severely restricted conditions. Prospects of improvement are poor, and many young people continue to leave the country. The political outlook brightened at the end of 2002 when Daw Suu was given permission to travel, but events took a turn for the worse when in May 2003 Daw Suu and a number of her supporters were attacked on the road, and she was taken into custody. She has subsequently been kept under house arrest, and we have been unable to make contact with her. Burma's impasse continues, and over 1,000 political prisoners remain in jail.

To ensure a cadre of educated Burmese able to return and help rebuild civil society once military rule comes to an end, we arrange programmes and projects for the education and training of talented but needy Burmese abroad. Our main method of achieving our aims is the provision of scholarships. We are also on the lookout for opportunities to set up more training courses and other projects for young Burmese in neighbouring countries, as indeed we have done in past years. We continue to support a Burmese-run English Language school in Delhi which helps some very poor refugees qualify for further study. One of our trustees, Dr Thein Lwin, has, with our support and that of several other donors, been running a series of successful Teacher Training courses on the Thai side of the border.

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Management and Human Resources

The Board of Trustees, listed above, provides the governance and much practical input. In Fulham, the Executive Director is employed part-time. He provides the day-to-day administration of the charity, and co-ordinates the input of Trustees, academic advisers and other volunteers. The Development Officer, Agnes Meadows, works one day a week producing the twice yearly Newsletter and on other fundraising initiatives. The Treasurer, David LeFebvre, is a professional accountant retained on a fee basis. Beth Bluck has given valuable help as needed in the office. Much work on scholarships is done by our Vice-Chairman, Patricia Herbert, on a voluntary basis. We are also grateful to Juliette Daigre who has improved our website and injects some computer expertise, particularly in maintaining our confidential student database.

Overseas, we pay a small retainer to a part-time consultant in Thailand, Shona Kirkwood, who also works for the Open Society Institute. She provides much welcome on-the-spot advice, keeps in touch with students and identifies needs, as well as acting as our paying agent to our scholars. In Delhi, the Principal of the English Language School, Daw Thin Thin Aung, checked the enrolments and credentials of Delhi-based short listed applicants, and paid them on our behalf in return only for expenses. We are making different arrangements as Daw Thin was becoming overburdened.

Costs are kept to a minimum consonant with efficiency. The cost of administration was £33,697 in 2004/2005 compared to £39,274 in 2003/2004. This represents 25% of total expenditure, but at least £9,000 is directly attributable to the fundraising effort and publicity costs.

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Funding and Fundraising

The grant from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy which had for three years funded our Development Officer, Agnes Meadows, expired in 2004. We have retained her services on a reduced part-time basis at our own expense.

Ms Meadows has maintained and developed the "Partners' Scheme" begun by her predecessor. This scheme is aimed at donors willing to commit a minimum of £300 a year (including Gift Aid benefit). The benefit is that it provides us a steady, reliable income flow, especially from those willing to pay regularly by standing order. The number of these generous supporters has remained between 75 and 80 with newcomers replacing those unable to continue. We have now introduced an Institutional Partners Scheme with a minimum £1,000 commitment, and were delighted to welcome the James Green Centre for World Art, Royal Pavilion, Brighton as our first institutional partner. However, the opportunities for corporate funding are very limited due to the absence of British firms from Burma and the effect of sanctions on Burma trade.

Another innovation is our "Adopt-A-Scholarship Scheme" by which supporters can give money for individual scholars to support specific courses; we suggest units of £550 ($1000) which was the average cost of a grant. This scheme is beginning to show results in 2005. We have also encouraged supporters to leave a bequest to Prospect Burma in their wills, and produced a legacy leaflet.

Ms Meadows' main duty is the production twice yearly of our Newsletter which is our principal means of regular communication with supporters. She has also made applications to a range of grant-giving institutions and maintained contact with funders generally. We have benefited from grants from the Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust, the Rayne Foundation, the Tam O'Shanter Trust, the Lady More Charitable Trust, the Thomas Scrivener Catto Charitable Settlement, the Eddie Dinshaw Foundation, the J Gardener Settlement, the Wintershall Charitable Settlement and the G C Gibson Charitable Settlement Trust. HSBC have sponsored a number of students at Asian universities. For all this help as well as to faithful individual donors, some of whom have donated significant sums, we are extremely grateful.

We have continued to receive regular financial support from the Prize Funds of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Her support is vital to our appeal to all who believe in a future democratic Burma. Our major single donor continues to be the United States Department of State, Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. A two year grant of $200,000 (following previous grants of $150,000) will be exhausted in 2005, and is likely to be replaced by a reduced grant of $125,000. The reduction is due to a cut in the congressional funds earmarked for Burma, although there are hopes that more will be available in future years. In 2004, the Executive Director, Ian Sloane, attended a seminar held by the Bureau for Democracy, Human Right and Labor in Washington DC to acquaint grant recipients with new, more stringent, grant procedures.

Generosity from across the Atlantic is not confined to US Government sources. Some 10% of our individual supporters reside in the USA, and we are able to offer American taxpayers a facility whereby their donations are tax deductible.

It is vitally important to Prospect Burma that our faithful core of individual donors should continue their support. The climate for charity fundraising is extremely competitive and with a number of disasters around the world (notably the Indian Ocean Tsunami appeals) it becomes ever more difficult for small charities to make an impact. The total is augmented by the Inland Revenue's Gift Aid scheme by which donations by UK taxpayers who authorise it are increased by tax relief worth 28% of each sum donated.

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Reserves Policy and Risk Management

The reserves policy remains unchanged. Prospect Burma has no long term debts and the main risk to manage is the need to fulfil contractual obligations to staff. It is thus decided to keep, at a minimum, a sufficient sum on deposit to provide for payments to staff for three months. All other payments are discretionary, and scholarship awards and other charitable expenditure, as well as consequent unavoidable administration expenses, are made in accordance with the amount of funds available in excess of reserves. While this makes our activities liable to fluctuation from year to year in the absence of an assurance of continuous major income, the Trustees believe that maximising the expenditure of donated income for the purposes set out in our Trust Deed is preferable to keeping resources inactive.

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Scholarships Policy

Our policy remains unchanged. Education in Burma has been subject since 1988 to strict military control with higher level institutions closed for long periods, no reform of the traditional rote learning methods, and a progressive deterioration in the quality of staff, removal of campuses to remoter areas, under financing and isolation from outside influences. Only relatives of the ruling generals and their supporters have had access to better quality instruction. There is no sign that the situation is likely to change.

Consequently, we are largely continuing our existing policy and practice. We give financial support to help some of those who have lost out due to both political persecution and lack of educational opportunity. The demand for the services we offer continues to increase, particularly from Burmese refugees in India. Their situation has become more desperate in many cases as the UN High Commission for Refugees has cut their (already meagre) subsistence allowances, and they receive little or no help from Indian authorities. In Thailand too, the authorities have begun to tighten their immigration rules on Burmese exiles. We concentrate our assistance on these two countries, but implementation of scholarship awards in both has become more testing.

In implementing our policy, we give preference to needy and committed students in disciplines relevant to the revival of civil society in a democratic Burma. They have generally gained a place on a first degree course, or are postgraduate students who have already started or have a confirmed offer of a place on a Master's degree or Doctorate course. While we consider applications from those studying in any part of the world, we give preference to students in South-East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. We do not aim to cover full costs, nor do we pay international airfares. We make it a condition of our awards that scholars have the intention to return to Burma when they are able to do so in order to rebuild civil society, and we ask them to sign a declaration to that effect. In assessing applications we take into account financial and sociological need and commitment to democracy as well as academic prowess or promise. We coordinate closely with the other major funder in this field, the New York based Open Society Institute's Supplementary Grant Programme as well as with other, smaller organisations.

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Activities

Our main activity continues to be the award of scholarships. We have also continued our support of an English Language School in Delhi which helps very poverty stricken Burmese refugees (mainly of Chin ethnic origin) to gain a sufficient knowledge of English to enter tertiary level education in India. We also support the teacher training courses run by one of our number, Dr Thein Lwin, on the Burmese/Thai border. Another grant has been to a Kachin English Language training course on the Thai border.

In July 2004, the Vice Chairman visited Thailand and was able to meet students and staff at universities in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, as well as visiting Dr Thein Lwin's Teacher Training Centre. In January 2005, the Vice Chairman went to Delhi where she met many young Burmese refugees and community leaders. She also visited Prospect Burma's English Language Teacher Training School in Janak Puri.

We are always ready to consider applications for help for small educational and training projects which can demonstrate that they are filling a need in an efficient and sustainable way.

a) Scholarships

The past pattern of increasing applications, especially from refugees in India continued in 2004. We received some 590 applications all of which were carefully assessed in accordance with our selection criteria. We then produced a shortlist and examined each, taking up references. For applicants in Thailand we received enormous assistance from Shona Kirkwood and her staff in Chiang Mai. Ms Kirkwood knows many of the applicants personally and is in touch with them and with educational institutions. Daw Thin Thin Aung's assistance in Delhi similarly helped with the vetting and payment of students in her area.

We have continued our cooperation with the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, an eminent postgraduate college, including joint funding one full scholarship. Assumption University in Bangkok agreed to allow our grantees a reduction in fees.

We continued to fund students in other parts of the world, but our criteria are more stringent given the generally much higher costs of courses in western institutions.

The total expended on scholarships was just under £109,000. Details are set out below. Grants to students in UK were made in sterling and to Europe in sterling or euros. Grants to students elsewhere were made in US dollars, but the following figures (rounded) are all expressed in sterling.

b) Projects

We continued supporting the small English Language Teaching school in New Delhi run by a Burmese lady for the benefit of very poor Burmese refugees of whom a majority is from the Chin ethnic minority group. We made a grant of £7,650 to the School.

One of our trustees (and a former grant recipient), Dr Thein Lwin, continued running his Teacher Training Courses on the Thai border. These have been very successful despite many difficulties for students to reach the venues, and visa and other entry problems. There is evidence of participants returning and applying the techniques learnt in their Burmese schools. Dr Thein Lwin has been meticulous in maintaining a gender and ethnic balance among his students, and in reporting to donors. PB contributed $10,000(£5,900) this year following a similar donation last year.

We also supported a Kachin English Language Training Language School to the extent of $3,600 (£2,120).

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Trustees

The Trustees in office during the period and at the date of this report are set out at the start of this document. New trustees are nominated by members of the existing Board of Trustees, interviewed and appointed where they have the necessary skills, enthusiasm and experience to contribute to the charity's development. We were very pleased to welcome Sir Robin Christopher to the Board at the beginning of 2005.

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Statement of Trustees' Responsibilities

Charity law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity at the year end and of its incoming resources and resources expended during that year. In preparing those financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
• state whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed subject to any departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 1993. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

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Financial Performance

Although the accounts are expressed in sterling terms, a large proportion of our funds are held in a US dollar account, since much of our income, and most of our expenditure is in dollars.

Compared to the previous year, total income fell by 14%, and total expenditure by 12%. The fall in income partly reflects an increasingly difficult and competitive fundraising environment, and partly the cessation of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy grant for the costs of the Development Officer. The fall in expenditure was due to the delayed arrival of a tranche of the State Department grant, and also the more rigorous vetting of applications from India. Management and Administration costs were reduced. It is difficult to calculate the exact costs of fundraising since some activities are spread across the board, they did amount to over one third of total management costs.

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Outlook

There is still no sign of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) making any genuine move towards restoring a measure of democracy in the country. The economy remains in a worsening state, due more to mismanagement than the effect of Western sanctions. In late 2004 the regime also began arresting and imprisoning senior military officials during an internal power struggle that is further increasing the climate of uncertainty and fear. Burma continues to be an embarrassment to other members of ASEAN whose efforts to induce the SPDC to moderate their behaviour by means of positive engagement have not succeeded. The humanitarian situation is deteriorating, with a third of all children reported chronically malnourished. The regime, however, is increasing restrictions on the United Nations and international aid agencies, further retreating into self-imposed isolation. Only the patronage of China, which is buying up resources at bargain basement prices, remains the SPDC's trump card internationally.

Due to the continuing and intensifying economic and political decline of Burma leading to the progressive deterioration in the educational system, we still receive applications at a high level with the majority coming from Thailand and India. In Thailand, the Government are seeking to regulate foreign students more closely. It appears that sponsors or donor organisations may have to register. Details are unclear, but Ms Kirkwood is watching the position on our behalf. Refugees in India continue to be in general among the poorest and least well qualified applicants. Since Daw Thin Thin Aung undertook to vet the validity of enrolments and identity documents last year, there has been a slight but noticeable improvement in the quality of applications. For 2005, we are trying the services of a new student help organisation set up by the Open Society Institute.

Fundraising continues to be a difficult and competitive task. Corporate fundraising remains almost impossible. Spending in 2005 will be at a higher level than in the year under review, but with the prospect of a reduction in our grant from the State Department, the outlook for 2006-2007 is problematic. It is likely that we shall have to reduce the number of grants. We do continue to receive proceeds of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Peace Prize Funds. It is tragic that we are unable to communicate with her and express our heartfelt thanks. We shall be urging our already generous regular supporters to continue donating, and we shall seek new sources of funds. It is unfortunate that neither HM Government nor the European Union contribute despite the political pressure they continue to exert on the Burmese regime, so far fruitlessly.

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Accounts

The Prospect Burma accounts for the year 2004-2005 are available for downloading here.