6 villages for 2006 : Brazil

SOS Children's Village in Recife, Brazil

Apart from the football skills of Ronaldo, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Brazil is probably the famous carnival. Perhaps you have seen pictures of Sugar Loaf Mountain towering over the bay. These impressions, however, cannot cover the fact that Brazil is a country in immense social and economic difficulty. Recife, a Brazilian town of 1 million inhabitants is to be the location of a new SOS Children's Village. Under the extreme living conditions in the town's slums, families are put under immense pressure, unable to look after their own children properly, let alone help the street kids with no one to care.

The world's fifth largest country is a society characterised by enormous deprivation: most of its 170 million inhabitants live in poverty. As always, it's the children that are worst hit by these difficult living conditions. An estimated 8 million children live on the streets and nearly 3 million are forced to work. See more about the work of SOS in Brazil.

The world cup village which we hope to build will be in Igarassu, near Recife, a town of 1 million inhabitants in the north east of Brazil. Recurring dry periods and the very basic standard of life in the country mean that many families move to Recife, although they rarely find better opportunities there. The slums or "Favelas" are their new home and poverty trap. SOS Children's Village Recife should help children who are alone and uncared for to find a better future.