The Zakat Foundation of America

Brazil

The paradox of Brazil is that although the country has the strongest economy in South America, it is also home to large scale, crippling poverty. With 18 million of its rural people living in poverty, Brazil has the single largest concentration of rural poverty in South America. The people of this area have limited or no access to education and health facilities.

Serious social injustice and income inequality issues in the country mean that indigenous people and Brazilians of African descent remain the poorest and most disadvantaged in the country. In the thousands of shantytowns (favelas) that populate Brazil, whole communities live trapped in poverty, in fear of violent crime, and excluded from a large range of social services.