SOS Children’s Villages began working in Brazil in 1967 when the first SOS Children’s Village opened at Porto Alegre in the south of the country. Since then, fourteen more SOS Children’s Villages have been built, the latest being at Igarussu in the north-east of Brazil which opened in 2007. Altogether SOS Children in Brazil cares directly for over 1,700 children in 180 family homes. In many villages SOS Children built and ran SOS Primary Schools for the local community. In 2003 these were handed over to the local education authorities.
As well as the fifteen SOS Children’s Villages, SOS Children has 26 SOS Social Centres attached to the villages which help the wider community. These provide day care, including nursery school education, for vulnerable children. In addition SOS Children helps vulnerable children and their families with family strengthening programmes
