The project, named “Cláudia”, will in the first edition help a 12 year old girl from Luanda, with the same name, with meningitis, reduced mobility and aphasia.
"We have several endemic diseases in Angola, such as malaria, typhoid, HIV, these are diseases that are difficult to be cured", said the 52-year-old founder of the Esperança Foundation and the Angels to Lusa Esperança.
The program was presented on Sunday night, at a fundraising party in Toronto, which brought together dozens of Angolans.
The nurse born in Luanda, Canada for 17 years, justified that in Angola there are families who live below the poverty line with a monthly income of 20 Canadian dollars and that "they are not able to buy medicines" or to "buy food to get have a decent diet".
The Esperança e dos Anjos Foundation was created in 2014, but officially established in 2019, with the aim of "minimizing the poverty of these families".
In the inaugural year, the objective of the “Cláudia” project aims to raise around 500 kwanzas for the girl's family, but as of 2021, the institution intends to go further, trying to reach the milestone of one million kwanzas, which will be distributed to an Angolan family who is in charge of a child suffering from a serious illness.
"From this moment on, we will select candidates through this project called "Cláudia", a family below the poverty line, who has a child suffering from a long-term illness", said Marco Aragão, 50, the director of foundation programs.
The civil engineer from Luanda, Canada 19 years ago, said that it was thanks to the "appeal and courage" of the family of Cláudia, the girl with meningitis, that "they will be able to help other children with the same problem or other serious illnesses".
"We are not going to solve the problem in its entirety, we are just going to be a drop in the ocean. The most important thing is this message that we are going to send to society. If each Angolan contributes their share, I think we will alleviate these problems", he added.
The Esperança e Anjos Foundation is currently supporting 67 children located in the Catholic Mission of Mupa (Cunene) and since August 2017 it has also been providing assistance through a community program of 57 children in the suburban neighborhoods of Luanda, in Fubá, municipality of Belas, "an area with very needy children".
In addition to Mupa (Cunene) and Belas and Viana (Luanda), the organization also provides assistance to children in the province of Huíla.
