Touch is a nonprofit, secular public charity based in the US. It began operations in January 2005 to help address the global health-care crisis by helping the poorest countries to train more doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, and other health care workers who are committed to serving their local communities.
The foundation’s pilot project continues the work of the “Touching Tanzania Committee,” a group of volunteers who helped create a new medical college in Tanzania, the Bugando University College of Health Sciences (BUCHS). BUCHS opened its doors in the fall of 2003, and one hundred and twenty Tanzanian medical students will be enrolled by the fall of 2006.
Touch’s mission is to:
- provide funding and management resources for local programs that develop human resources for health (HRH) in impoverished countries
- work to build awareness around problems in health care delivery in poor countries
- collect, store, and provide access to the leading information about global health, and share the knowledge gained from Touch-funded programmes.
Several publications are available for download from the website.