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2021 Annual Report
Friends of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation.

Annual report of The Friends of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation-June 1st 2020-May 31st 2021. Charity Registration No: NIC100026, Company Registration No: NI624534 and HMRC No: NI00292

Friends of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation (Save a Heart Nigeria) came into existence following a unanimous decision by the volunteers (16th Oct 2013) who had participated at the previous medical charity mission to Nigeria; setting up and initiating open heart surgery programme at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital as well as in other suitable medical institutions. This report covers our activities from 1st June 2020 to 31st May 2021.

Registration and compliance with regulations:

1. A charity bank account remains unchanged with Danske Bank. The account name is Friends of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation Fund (Save a heart Fund). It comprises of a current and savings account. Signatories to the account are the 3 Directors of the Friends of Nigeria- RVH Save a heart Foundation as listed in the company registration document.
2. Friends of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation was among the first 100 charities registered following the introduction of the on-line registration of all charities within Northern Ireland. We were delighted to have the group picture of our June 2014 charity mission to University of Nigeria teaching Hospital with our host worthy to appear on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland web site banner.
3. Company Registration: In compliance with regulatory requirement, Friends of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation is a registered charity company, limited by guarantee. There are 5 Directors listed in the company records: Mr Oc Nzewi (Executive Director and Chairman) Dr Bharathi Varadarajan (Vice Chairperson), Ms Janet Mills (Secretary) and Mr Eanan Harkin (Treasurer) and Mrs Karen James
4. HMRC registration for Gift aid and Tax purposes. We did not make any Gift-aid donation claim within this accounting period as all aspect of our usual fund raising activities were seriously interrupted by Covid-19 pandemic.

5. Official web site for The Friend of Nigeria-RVH Save a Heart Foundation remains: www.saveaheartnigeria.org.uk. This is administered by Enthuse.com (formally Charity Checkout.co.Uk)
6. Account/Independent examiner: Done by Norman Elliott & Company Accountants. No 40 Railway Street Lisburn. BT28 1XP

Donations and Fund-raising activities: Without support and generosity of the wonderful people of Northern Ireland, we would not have functioned and achieved the success we recorded within the past years. Save a Heart is immensely grateful for donations of both new and decommissioned but well serviced and usable equipment and cardiac surgery consumables.

However, with Covid-19 Pandemic interruption of all aspects of our normal life, our standard fund raising schedules and activities were all suspended. Nevertheless few our our regular supporters continued to send in cheques. The income was further enhanced by one of our directors who made a generous donation upon his retirement from a long successful career as consultant surgeon at BHSCT and also donated his locum pay into the charity account. A sum of £29,761.82 was recorded.

Charity activities during the reporting period.

1. All pre-planned medical charity mission were calcelled
2. However, we continued to support the University of Nigeria teaching hospital and all the other centres we had helped in the past by shifting our attention to helping them fight Covid-19 Pandemic. We procured, shipped and couried PPE materials on several occasions in addition to other rare cardiothoracic materials needed urgently to save life. A 40 foot container load of items was shipped in September 2020 in preparation of resumption of normal actities that never materilsed. A total of £10,599.46 was spent for all these supplies.

Financial report: A total of £29,761.82 was raised in this financial year. Total expenditure was £11,339.79. Most of the expenses went towards the support of our partner team in the fight against Covid-19 Pandemic. We considered it money well spent. Detailed account is contained in the annual account report.

Action plan for next year: There is hope that Covid-19 might turn into an epidemic illness, we look forward in hope. The following are planned

1. MOU was signed with The Management of the Federal Medical Centre Abuju to assist the cardiothoracic Unit introduve open heart surgery program. We envisage this will take place within the 1st quarter of 2022. We hope to be able to achieve this and carry out one major free open-heart surgery charity mission at the hospital within the later part of 2022. This will be the 3rd public hospital we are helping introduce and set-up open-heart surgery program in Nigeria.
2.  Further support of the Units at University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and Lagos State University Hospital will be on-going.

Signed: Mr Oc Nzewi : 3rd Feb 2022