QUIPEIO

Much of the region, including the school, was destroyed during the Angolan civil war back in the 70's. The school in Quipeio serves around 300 children and teenagers from the villages spread through the mountains surrounding the area. Kids from the villages located further afield walk to school on Mondays and stay there for the week. Others, that live further away still, live permanently in the school.

Touch Care Foundation’s contributions to Quipeio have gone towards basic requirements such as building new roofs to help keep dormitories dry; building beds so kids would no longer need to sleep on the floor; equipment to help in the local agriculture to help feed the kids; and basic day to day things such as food and school supplies. Our ongoing plans for the Foundation in 2019, in Partnership with volunteer doctors and health professionals from Portugal, include the development of structures for self-sufficiency and processes to bring to the Quipeio community and surrounding areas general health and family planning education.

One of Touch Care Foundation's board members is the main community leader from the “Missão of Quipeio” itself. This ensures that we have first access to the local needs and priorities as we determine how to best use the money Touch sets aside for the Foundation (5% of all our profits goes to the project).

WHY TOUCH AND QUIPEIO

Touch’s Managing Director, Joe Carreira, prior to going to Canada as a war refugee, was one of the children attended by Quipeio. At the time, the school was funded primarily through the donations of church and other institutions.

As a consequence, the school would often remind its students that no matter where life took them, to give back to Africa what Africa was giving them. Touch Care Foundation was created by Touch with this mission in mind.

BEYOND QUIPEIO

In addition to Quipeio, the Foundation also comes across other needs it deems to warrant its attention. In partnership with other Foundations we have contributed with funds to help build clean water wells in Togo, help pay for medication for kids with special needs in the US, fund the meals for a special needs school located in Brazil and sponsored volunteers in their personal social projects in Africa.