The activities of SOS Children's Village in Brazil go as far back as the late sixties. In spite of the economic upturn, which lasted into the early seventies, at the time - as it is also the case today - large sectors of the population were living in poverty. Therefore, SOS Kinderdorf-International decided to become active in Brazil. In 1970 the first three SOS Children's Villages in Brasilia, Porto Alegre and Poà near Sao Paulo were already completed and inhabited.
The Brazilian economic crisis, which lasted for many years, resulted in an unusually high inflation rate and as consequence the aggravation of the social economic situation of the population. Due to this situation five new SOS children’s villages were established in the seventies. Nine SOS Children’s Village more were constructed thereafter. During the 40 years of existence in Brazil SOS Children’s Village have had schools, medical centres, youth capacitating centres and cultural centres all of them focusing primarily on children and youths living in the villages and youth houses.
In 2003, SOS Children’s Village in Brazil started to operate the Family Strengthening Programs, which enable children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.
Currently there are 16 SOS Children’s Villages in Brazil, 13 SOS Youth Facilities, 6 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, 1 SOS Vocational Training Centre and 24 SOS Social Centres.