Capital: Brasilia
Area: 8,511,996 km²
Population: 188 million (July 2006)
Ethnic groups: mulattos, Portuguese descent, mestizos, Italian, African, Spanish, German, Japanese, and indigenous descent
Official language(s): Portuguese
Religion(s): Roman Catholic
Currency: 1 real = 100 centavos
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
The activities of SOS Children's Village in Brazil go as far back as the late sixties. In spite of the economic upturn, which lasted into the early seventies, at the time - as it is also the case today - large sectors of the population were living in poverty. Therefore, SOS Kinderdorf-International decided to become active in Brazil. In 1970 the first three SOS Children's Villages in Brasilia, Porto Alegre and Poà near Sao Paulo were already completed and inhabited.
Since the Brazilian economic crisis during the eighties lasted for many years, it resulted in an unusually high inflation rate, and consequently the social situation of the poor population simply continued to deteriorate even further. This was the reason for the establishment of numerous additional SOS Children's Villages. In order to assist youths from SOS Children's Villages on their path to independence, in the course of the years many SOS Youth Facilities came into being.
The youths live there during their training period and are assisted in their job search later on. In addition, SOS Social Centres in the form of day care centres, kindergartens and crisis intervention centres were established. While the kindergartens are attended by the children from the SOS Children's Villages and by children from the neighbourhood, the day care centres provide full day care for children of working parents and single mothers. Since the governmental child care centres and youth welfare offices were not able to care for the large numbers of destitute children, crisis intervention centres for the temporary accommodation and care of children in need came into being. SOS Children's Villages in Brazil has also been involved in the educational field for many years. The SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools and SOS Vocational Training Centres ensure that children and youths from the SOS Children's Villages and the neighbourhood receive a good education and thereby will have better opportunities on the job market later on.
At present there are 14 SOS Children's Villages, 13 SOS Youth Facilities, one SOS Kindergarten, eight SOS Social Centres and four SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools.
Website of SOS Children's Villages Brazil (available in Portuguese)