SOS Children’s Villages provides homes, education and other support to 1,700 children and young people in Brazil.

Sponsors can choose from fifteen care projects throughout Brazil: Porto Alegre, Brasillia, Poa, Sao Bernardo, Goioere, Rio Grande do norte, Bahia, Jacarepagua, Juiz de Fora, Rio Bonito, Santa Maria, Paraiaba, Pedro Bonita, Manaus and Igarassu.

About Brazil

Brazil is Latin America’s largest country geographically and is rich in natural resources. Despite being economically successful however, almost eight percent of its population-an estimated sixteen million Brazilians-live below the poverty line.

With the majority of this number represented by children, there are huge problems with gangs and young people living on the streets.  Illiteracy and substance abuse incidences among homeless children are high in Brazil’s many large and crowded urban centres and a struggling education system cannot keep up with the volume of children.

SOS Children’s Villages in Brazil

SOS adapts a preventative approach by providing Family Strengthening Programs (FSP) at all of their Brazil locations. The programmes work directly with communities and families of children who are at a high risk of being abandoned and provide skills that will enable them to stay together.

Skills such as home economics, manual skills training and time management are supplied-these work to create a more cohesive unit and help keep children in the environment of their own biological family; SOS’s primary goal. This helps to keep children away from the dangers of street life and within a caring atmosphere. Over 9,500 people have benefited from this programme so far.

For those children who are without a biological family SOS Villages are there to provide homes, nurseries, education and community cohesion, with the majority of the Brazilian locations enjoying a large rural outdoor space to keep at-risk age-groups away from overcrowded centres.

Children are encouraged to play (there is plenty of football to be had) and learn in comfortable, secure surroundings. In Brazil at present, there are 15 children’s villages and a further 118 youths at its 13 youth houses, where young adults go to prepare for independence.