Country Profile
 History
Political and Economic Realities
The Situation for Children
Country Comparison
HISTORY
 Occupying a total area of 8,511,965 square kilometers and with the largest population in Latin America, 174 million people (UNDP, 2001), Brazil constitutes half of South America in terms of both population and physical size. The vast Amazon rainforest isolates Brazil from most of its ten neighbouring countries, as does the fact that it is the only Portuguese speaking country in the Americas . Extensive natural resources consisting of bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum, tin, uranium, petroleum, hydro power and timber with a solid industrial base give Brazil tremendous potential with regard to its capacity to provide for the basic needs of the country's immense population. The development of this potential, however, has been continuously sabotaged by harsh class divisions, racism and political corruption.
Race and class divisions have extensive roots in Brazil , an inheritance from the days when Brazil was the largest slave importer of any country in the Americas . Over the course of four centuries, up to five million Africans were uprooted and moved to Brazil . It was also the last country in the Americas to abolish legalized slavery only twelve years before the turn of the century in 1888. Today, Brazil is a country of tremendous disparity in the distribution of wealth and respect for human rights.
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POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REALITIES
Since 1985, the Brazilian government has made strides away from two decades of military dictatorship and towards a more open and democratic political system. Brazil 's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva was born in the country's poorest region and has vowed to attack the root causes of poverty.
Brazil 's enormous external debt of over US$237.6 billion (World Bank, 2001) compromises government action. The debt severely limits the achievement of sustainable human-centered development, particularly as successive Brazilian governments have elected to cut essential social services in health and education in order to meet interest payments. In 2000 alone, $322 million US for developmental assistance was received. The Brazilian government allocated 6% of its expenditure to health and education (UNICEF, 2001). Access to quality health care and education is extremely unjust and excludes countless people, especially those belonging to black and indigenous communities.
Brazil is characterized by the greatest inequality of wealth in the Americas and this poor distribution has been well documented. 12% of the population lives on less than $1 per day, 23% lives on less than $2 per day (UNICEF, 2003). The richest 10% of the population receives almost half of the country's income, while the poorest 10% receives just 0.7% of total income. Athough Brazil is a food exporter and enjoys the world's 10th largest economy, 10% of Brazil 's people are hungry and half of the poorest people live in rural areas, where food is grown. Land distribution in Brazil is highly skewed, with 20% of the population owning 90% of farmland and the poorest 40% owning just 1% of the land. The Landless Workers' Movement (MST) estimates that there are 20 million landless people in Brazil (4 million families), while 7 million more barely survive as squatters, sharecroppers, and migrant workers. The social conditions of the poorest Brazilians are poor. Estimates for poverty in Brazil range from the World Bank's 20% to UNICEF's 32%, with rural poverty twice as high as urban poverty.
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According to UNICEF, these huge national inequalities has given Brazil the worst Performance Gap in the Western Hemisphere for child survival. The Performance Gap is a measurement developed by UNICEF to measure the difference between a country's actual level of progress and the expected level for its per capita GNP.
The continued displacement of the rural population has resulted in the uncontrolled growth of urban slums. 82% of Brazil's population now resides in urban areas compared to only 30% in 1950 (UNICEF). This massive urban migration has contributed to escalating unemployment rates and has fuelled poverty, congestion, racism, and crime. Class differences are clearly marked in Brazil with extremely wealthy neighbourhoods located beside impoverished favelas.
THE SITUATION FOR CHILDREN
Child Poverty:
One of the most pressing issues is the problem of child poverty and exploitation - a problem that affects almost half of Brazil's 60 million children and youth (under 18 years of age). Brazil's infant mortality rate is 31 deaths per 1,000 live births (UNICEF, 2003) and only 13% of children are living in homes with adequate sanitation services (World Bank). 57% of the rural population live without adequate sanitation (UNICEF, 2002) and only 53% have access to safe drinking water (Care International, 2002).
Education:
Almost one third of Brazil's children and youth are illiterate, a condition that reinforces their marginalization. Brazilian statistics show that 2.8 million children between 7 and 14 years of age do not attend school and of those who are registered, only 10% complete grade school.
Child labour:
Estimates suggest that 27 million children and youth live in poverty and approximately 10 million live or work on the streets often under dangerous and exploitative conditions. There is a weak and inconsistent reinforcement of the labour laws that prohibit exploitative child labour in formal sectors such as mining, agribusiness and manufacturing.
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Drugs and Violence:
Violence, both physical and psychological, at home, on the streets and at the hands of government institutions, has long been an everyday experience for many Brazilian children. In urban areas, the basic infrastructure has failed to absorb both the growing population and the congestion in the favelas. This combined with poverty, drug abuse, increasing family breakdown and easy access to weapons leads to high levels of violence. Community safety is further compromised by corruption within the police forces, and police officers often go unpunished for violating the rights of children and youth. Likewise, increasing levels of drug use and the presence of organized gangs in the favelas make communities both unsafe and fragmented.
Progress:
Brazil signed and ratified the United Nations Covention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and has since passed the National Statute on Children and Adolescents. Both legal documents have provided child rights activists with the leverage necessary to bring about government action. The Statute established two types of representative councils at the federal, state and municipal levels: one to set public policy on the promotion and protection of child rights and the other to help safeguard the daily well-being of children. These councils have helped put children's issues on the political agenda and have raised awareness in the community at large. The success of the councils is mixed with some joining forces with the NGO community to undertake work with children and others accomplishing little due to political squabbling. Although some councils have been successful in improving children's lives, the political will at the federal level seems weak.
The magnitude of child poverty and exploitation in Brazil is extreme. Despite the many real and significant problems facing children in Brazil, many positive, practical changes are taking place to improve the lives of children. The above mentioned Statute for Children and Youth is one of the world s most far-reaching legal documents for children's rights. Brazilian NGOs and parliamentarians are working to ensure that this legislation reflects the spirit and the letter of the UN Convention and the Rights of the Child. Their success thus far has largely been the result of 20 years of struggle by civil society organizations.
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BELO HORIZONTE
Belo Horizonte is the capital of Minas Gerais, the second most populous state in Brazil. With a population of approximately 3.7 million it is also Brazil's third largest city. Belo Horizonte is a microcosm of Brazil and includes all strata of Brazilian society.
In Belo Horizonte, favelas have been springing up rapidly since 1960 when people began migrating from the country in search of employment. Today, more than 25% of the inhabitants of Belo Horizonte live in favelas - a higher percentage than in either Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paolo. About 52% of mothers have less than eight years education. Children under the age of eighteen make up more than one third of the population of Belo Horizonte. UNESCO estimates 200, 000 children of school age in the metropolitan region are illiterate. Nearly half of the children in the city live in homes where the monthly family income is less than CDN$275.
In this situation of extreme hardship, community daycare has become an important social tool to help poor families meet their needs. These centres (or creches) began in the late 1970s as women began organizing the population around this need. The community creches were developed primarily to address the need to care for young pre-school children of working mothers. At the time, there was no state mechanism to meet the needs of these children, nor was there any public policy which addressed itself to the needs of this age group.
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