With one of the worst income distributions in the world, the gap between rich and poor is steep, and disparities between provinces are very large. Although there are some 62 million Brazilians under the age of 18, only a fraction of the national budget is allocated to programmes benefitting children. Children and young people in Brazil face enormously high levels of inequality and exclusion. Approximately 45% of youths aged 15-24 are neither in education nor employment and as a result many young people get caught in severely exploitative situations. More than 90% of victims of homicide in 2003 were young men between the ages of 15-29 and 100,000 young people every year are known to be sexually exploited.

As well as being the victims of these crimes, children and young people in Brazil are also often involved in criminal activity in response to the lack of opportunities available to them and the pervasive violence that is intrinsic to their communities. Once this occurs they then have little access to legal representation and are all too easily lost in a juvenile justice system that is under-resourced and overcrowded, and which has been criticized for its extremely harsh conditions.

In response to this situation ChildHope is involved in two separate projects designed to help young people in Brazil deal with these problems: Please follow the links below to learn more.