01 · Safeguarding Policy
Sets the Foundation's safeguarding commitment, the vetting and two-adult rules, consent for images, how a concern is reported and what happens next, and the records and review regime.
Accountability
Governance & Policies
How the Foundation is governed, who is accountable for what, and the policies that bind everyone acting in our name.
Registration
Legal identity
- Registered name
- Synia Aid Foundation
- Legal form
- Incorporated Trustees under the Companies and Allied Matters Act
- Regulator
- Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Republic of Nigeria
- Registration number
- CAC/IT/NO 121882
- Date of registration
- December 2018
- Registered office
- Maitama, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja
- Governing body
- Board of Trustees
Governance structure
How decisions are made
| Body | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Board of Trustees | Strategy, programme approval, policy adoption, financial oversight and risk. Programmes may not launch, and programme models may not be adopted, without Board sign-off. |
| Executive team | Day-to-day delivery, programme management, and operational control within Board-approved budgets and policies. |
| Programme owners | Named accountability for a single programme, its model, its data and its exit decisions. |
| Advisers to the Board | Specialist counsel at Board level in law, human resources and media strategy, informing decisions without executive responsibility for delivery. |
Our obligations
Safeguarding
We work with children, with displaced families and with people in circumstances of acute vulnerability. That imposes obligations which come before programme delivery, before growth and before fundraising.
What this means in practice
| Control | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Vetting | All staff, volunteers, tutors, mobilisers and partner personnel in contact with children are vetted and sign a code of conduct held on file. |
| Two-adult rule | No unaccompanied one-to-one contact between an adult and a child. |
| Consent for images | Written caregiver consent before any child is photographed or filmed, including in wide shots. A child's full name is never published alongside their image. |
| No conditionality | Support is never conditional on appearing in photography, films or fundraising material, and anyone may decline without consequence. Consent may be withdrawn. |
| Reporting route | A plain-language complaints and reporting route is displayed wherever we work, with a named safeguarding focal point known to schools, partners and communities. |
| Partners bound too | Every partner holding contact with children is covered by our safeguarding requirements as a condition of the partnership. |
Downloadable documents
Our policy suite
Adopted policies are published in full. Everyone acting in the Foundation's name, trustees, staff, volunteers, consultants, ambassadors and partner personnel, is bound by them.
02 · Code of Conduct
Signed by every trustee, member of staff, volunteer, consultant, ambassador and partner representative before engagement begins, and on each renewal.
03 · Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment
Adopts the six core principles of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, and sets out a survivor-centred response.
04 · Anti-Fraud, Bribery, Corruption and Whistleblowing
Zero tolerance of fraud, bribery, corruption and theft, whoever commits them and whatever their seniority, with protection for anyone who reports a concern in good faith.
05 · Conflict of Interest Policy
Declaration, recording and management of actual, potential and perceived conflicts, with a register reviewed by the Board annually.
Policies in development
We publish what has been adopted and name what has not. These are scheduled, and this page is updated as each is approved by the Board.
| Policy | Status | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Financial controls & procurement | In development | Budget approval, payment authorisation, documented procurement, monthly review |
| Complaints & feedback | In development | How anyone raises a concern, and what happens next |
| Data protection | In development | Handling of personal data under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 |
| Risk management | In development | A live register of key risks, owners and mitigations |
Commitments
Strengthening our governance
We are candid that governance in a founder-led organisation requires deliberate strengthening, and that funders are right to examine it. The Board has committed to the following, and will report against it.
| Commitment | Status |
|---|---|
| Recruit two to three independent Trustees | Agreed, in progress |
| Appoint a Treasurer or finance lead | Agreed, in progress |
| Establish a Finance & Audit sub-committee with independent membership | Agreed, in progress |
| Maintain a conflicts of interest register with disclosure and recusal | Agreed, in progress |
| Plan a transition from Founder-Chair to an independent Chair over three to five years | Agreed in principle |
No donation confers influence
Independence
We partner widely but remain independent of political, economic, religious and social interests. The people we serve are never used to promote causes that are not their own, and no partnership or donation confers influence over who we select or what we say.
Where a conflict of interest arises, it is disclosed and the affected person recuses themselves from the decision. A conflict of interest is not wrongdoing, it arises naturally in a small, community-rooted organisation. What matters is that it is declared, recorded and managed before it affects a decision.
Questions? Contact us