About Us
We are an officially registered Portuguese charity that supports underprivileged children (and their families) in the Algarve, through a network of volunteers and in association with a number of social partnerships and aid associations.
Background
ACCA was born out of a meeting between a group of friends who wanted to help organize a single event for a children’s charity back in 2000. Jane Oliphant, our founder, realized quite quickly that there were a lot more children across the Algarve that needed help. Plus, she and her friends had genuinely enjoyed dreaming up the event, creating interest and persuading as many people as possible to get involved. So they decided to form a more permanent team and to create ACCA (Associação de solidariedade com as Crianças Carenciadas do Algarve/supporting underprivileged children in the Algarve).
Word quickly spread of the work they were doing for children across the Algarve and people began calling them and asking how they could help. Working with many local institutions, poor families, gypsy children, schools, disabled youngsters and kids from dysfunctional families, ACCA has raised over 400,000 euros and this money has been used directly to help those children who need it most.
We now have a permanent committee and a regular team of helpers, all of whom are volunteers. But, more importantly, we continue to rely on our vast network of friends and supporters across the Algarve, all of whom have something to offer.
What We Do
ACCA makes it our business to find out about children who need help, be it within institutions or within their own family life. It is through our network of contacts that we hear about situations where help is needed every week. We get involved with the community in so many ways it is impossible to mention them all here. But in a nutshell, we work with individuals (medically, educationally, helping to achieve personal goals), groups of children (holidays and outings, sports days, meeting peer groups), individual institutions (providing essential equipment, psychological support, training) and carers of children (mobility, home help).
Recent Projects
In recent years we have been able to donate €5,000 towards a new bus for one children’s institution and €11,000 towards a new kitchen in another, which allowed it to increase its capacity by 15 new children, as well as purchasing countless individual items such as wheelchairs and beds for paraplegics.
We have also provided funding for transport, accommodation, medical care and operations for two individual youngsters who needed tests, surgery and familial support to help guarantee a future with more promise.
We have received and distributed boxes of clothes, food, toys and other goods to residential institutions, private homes, and others.
ACCA is increasingly working with children whose parents might or might not have worked, but now find themselves without employment, living in conditions which are well below the poverty line. Through the local community centres we are able to provide them with furniture and basic needs, including the provision of essential foods every month.
We are never short of requests for help and we have developed superb working relationships with local institutions and aid associations. Each request, however small, is individually assessed before a decision is made. And very tight financial control is maintained throughout the process. Everything has to be accounted for and we pride ourselves on our transparency.