Lifestyle

There are four places to go where you can sponsor a child online:

1. Sponsor a child with World Vision

2. Sponsor a child with Plan UK

3. Sponsor a child with Action Aid

4. Sponsor a child with Everychild

Brazil is South America’s most populous country, and its leading economic and political power. It benefits from vast natural resources and a large labour pool. Strong economic growth and the recent decrease in numbers of people contracting HIV point strongly toward its development as a nation. However, with 22% of its 176.3 million strong population still living below the poverty line, welfare is still a massive issue in Brazil.

Less than 3% of Brazil’s population controls two thirds of the land available. A staggering 60% of farmland remains idle while 4.8 million rural families are landless. 42% of people lack access to safe drinking water, and 60% are without adequate sanitation facilities. Extreme poverty is still very prevalent in both rural and urban areas.

The people of Brazil are in great need of the life-changing hope that child sponsorship can bring to their families and communities. You can sponsor a child in Brazil through ActionAid, one of the world's leading relief and development agencies. They have developed a child sponsorship scheme which links people in more affluent countries with individual children in developing countries around the world.

ActionAid has been working alongside communities in Brazil since 1999, and seeks to improve access to basic sanitation, health and education facilities. It has invested in the training of health workers (including HIV counsellors) and the provision of health services. It helps empower community organisations and, in cooperation with them, campaigns for land reform and poor people’s right to food, education and trade justice.

Efforts are also focused on supplying clean, safe water to as many people as possible. ActionAid has helped unite over four million agricultural workers in order to establish fairer, more equitable working conditions for them. It supports micro-finance companies that make small loans and credit available to business start-ups.

In the 37 years since its inception, ActionAid has reached many millions people in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and it has developed a wealth of expertise in fighting poverty. The charity partners with local organisations and recognises the need to work with communities on their own terms, and not impose solutions. By getting to know the culture intimately ActionAid workers have the best possible opportunity to affect a lasting end to poverty.

Sponsoring a child in Brazil today will cost you just 50 pence per day. Your money will also go towards development efforts in the town in which the child you sponsor lives. This will ensure the most efficient and effective use of your money.

As a child sponsor you will be able arrange a personal visit with your child and communicate with them. You can also look forward to receiving special letters and drawings, including a new photograph every two years. Additionally, you get to see where and how your money is being spent by keeping in touch with your child's local ActionAid office, and through regular editions of Common Cause, ActionAid's newsletter.

You can sponsor a child in Brazil through Action Aid here

You may also like to consider sponsoring a child through the following trusted agencies:

Sponsor a child with World Vision

Sponsor a child with Plan UK

Sponsor a child with Everychild