During 2022, the effects of COVID-19 had largely passed and the work of SCOWP returned to normal, delivering welfare grants to needy pre-independence veterans and their widows throughout the Commonwealth. I congratulate all Member Organisations on their quick recovery and resilience.

In April, SCOWP began the fourth year of our Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded Commonwealth Veterans Programme, a five-year welfare programme to deliver the highest-ever level of welfare grants to our beneficiaries. For many veterans and widows in the 25 countries within the programme the grants, equivalent to the cost of two meals a day in their country, have meant a significant improvement in their welfare, beyond RCEL’s previous aim of providing one meal a day. Having avoided the worst of COVID, our needy veterans and their widows now face steep cost-of living increases, rapidly rising prices for food, cooking gas and cooking oil.

During 2022 SCOWP grants were made to 4,114 beneficiaries across 28 countries, a reduction of 10% from the 4,580 veterans and widows supported in 2021. RCEL global welfare distribution to Member Organisations exceeded £3.76M including those of other Founder Members and UK Service Charities.

This sum included 544 grant payments totalling over £464,000 on behalf of some 28 UK-based charities as Agency work. Our disbursement of grants from Blind Veterans UK (BV UK) continues. Some 115 veterans were supported, similar to 2021 and this £120 annual grant is highly valued by beneficiaries.

BV UK’s continued support to blind and partially sighted Commonwealth veterans is gratefully acknowledged.

The Royal Canadian Legion is also gratefully acknowledged for its generosity in 2022, contributing over £92,000 of welfare support to Member Organisations in the Caribbean, directly funding 43 beneficiaries in Antigua, The Bahamas, Tobago, and Trinidad & Tobago and part-funding 29 veterans and widows in Jamaica. Our other Founder Members, The Returned & Services League of Australia, The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association and The South African Legion also contributed significantly to beneficiary welfare.

Although the worst of COVID-19 has passed, the threat of natural disasters is ever present for our beneficiaries, so many of whom live in poor accommodation and rely on subsistence farming. Sadly, the south Asia monsoon was the worst for a generation and flooding hit Pakistan particularly hard during June – October 2022.

Whilst our Member Organisation in Pakistan, the Commonwealth Ex-Services Trust reported no beneficiary fatalities they did ask us to assist veteran’s widows whose homes were washed away. I was pleased to provide modest recovery grants to these widows to buy replacement kitchen goods along with vital cooking gas, oil and food to meet their immediate needs.

As post-COVID travel restrictions were lifted the office staff were able to resume Monitoring & Evaluation visits to Member Organisations and meet our increasing aged and less mobile beneficiaries. In May 2022, our Deputy Grand President Maj Gen Mitch Mitchell visited India, accompanied by Tim Burt, Controller Welfare & Grants. This visit, to the largest of our India member organisations, the India Ex-Services League, and to the Veterans Department of the Indian Ministry of Defence, concluded with the payment by Indian states of old-age pensions to pre-independence veterans and widows.

Pasan Kularatne, RCEL Programme Manager, visited Cameroon and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland. In Cameroon, our Member Organisation, the Fraternal Union of Cameroon Ex-Servicemen of the Crown, supports 52 beneficiaries across the two Anglophone regions. Despite the tricky security situation Pasan was able to travel to Limbe in the Southwest and Bamenda in the Northwest to meet veterans and widows and make welfare grant payments.
Secretary General Chris Warren and our Honorary Legal Adviser & Council Member for Gambia, Toby Case, visited The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Uganda. They met dozens of pre-independence veterans and widows but sadly just a few WWII veterans, now all in their late 90s. In all the countries our on-the-ground Honorary Advisers and supporters continue to provide oversight and confidence of grant delivery.

David Thompson, Controller Finance & Compliance visited Mauritius and Malaysia.  In Mauritius, our Member Organisation, the Ex-Service Association of Mauritius looks after our veterans and widows along with a handful of BVUK beneficiaries. Whilst Malaysia has few RCEL beneficiaries it does have our highest number of Agency cases, over 90 Army, RAF and Royal Navy veteran and widow beneficiaries of our UK Service charity partners, which our Member Organisation the Malaysia Ex-British Army Association does the excellent casework and grant payment on behalf of.

Further visits were undertaken during the year to Malawi, Botswana and Zambia. A summary of all visits to meet beneficiaries can be read in later pages. Throughout 2022, RCEL’s unique network of Member Organisations and partnership with UK Service charities once again delivered vital welfare benefits to their beneficiaries.

SCOWP welfare grants, maintained for a fourth year by FCDO funds, continue to deliver life-changing funds to over 4,000 needy pre-independence veterans and widows throughout the Commonwealth. I am pleased our Member Organisations remained resilient in the face of COVID, delivering RCEL welfare grants to beneficiaries affording daily food-security to those who served the Crown and now look to us for their support.