The Country

Brazil is a country rich in beautiful landscape and an energetic people. The vast size of the country itself contains tropical beaches and the Amazon rainforest, not to mention São Paulo (the world's second largest city, pop. 17 million). Brazilians have been moving to urban areas for decades and more than 2 out of 3 people live in a city.

The Portuguese invaded Brazil in the 1500's, discovered gold, and set up huge sugar plantations. Independence followed in 1822 and coffee became a major export bringing wealth to the privileged few. Throughout most of the 20th century various military and liberal governments were in power. Since 1989 the President has been elected by popular vote.

Brazil has ongoing economic and social justice problems. For example, in 1996 the UN said that Brazil had the world's most uneven distribution of wealth. Gains in education and land reform have been offset by widespread corruption.

The Religion

Although there is no official state religion in Brazil about 74% of the population is Roman Catholic. In fact, Brazil is regarded as the largest Catholic country in the world with roughly 120 million adherents. This strong Catholic heritage can be traced back to the zeal of the 15th century Iberian  missionaries who enforced Christianity. Brazilians are typically baptized into and married in the Catholic church but perhaps only 20% attend regularly.

Evangelical Protestant churches have grown rapidly during the last few decades and now make up roughly 15% of the population. These churches grow quickly and multiply often, in contrast to the formal, centrally controlled Catholic church.

The remaining small percentage of the population are are mixture of folk religion, Judaism, Buddhism, and atheist.

Capital city- Brasilia

President- Lula da Silva

Languages- Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French

Average age- 27 years old

Literacy rate- 86%

Currency- $1 = 2.1 Reais

A favela

There are many ministries who work with the street children throughout Brazil. These include mission organizations and churches, as well as independent groups. We are currently working with New Destiny ministries situated just outside the city of Belo Horizonte. New Destiny was recently established in order to provide a place for these children to experience God's love and power in an exciting environment.

We also aim to minister with local churches and visit other ministries which are working in Belo with street kids.

If you would like to travel to Brazil then please contact us. We usually require teams of at least 10 people, and we take care of the rest.