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Child sponsorship changes lives. You can help the people of Para, Brazil build a better future.

Location
Pará is Brazil’s second largest state, but around 70% of it is covered by the Amazon Forest. Soybean and beef cattle farming on an industrial scale is causing widespread deforestation in the region - adding to the problems faced by poor communities.

Life in Para
Despite the large mines, extensive beef production and large scale growing of soybean in the district, most people in Pará remain desperately poor. Life for many farming families and indigenous peoples in the forest areas is extremely difficult – and the precious rainforests themselves are being grossly exploited by big businesses.

Half of the land in the state - an area two and a half times the size of the UK - is controlled  by large estates. Yet these estates make up only 1% of rural households – and concentrates wealth in the hands of very few people.  Disputes about land use and ownership are common across Pará and because their rights are so frequently ignored,  it is usually the poorest communities who come off worst.

Hunger
Most people survive on a very basic diet of cassava flour, rice and beans. And with half of families living below the poverty line, most children begin working on the land at the age of eight or nine to help earn precious income. In addition, sanitary conditions are poor and many local rivers are contaminated with refuse.

ActionAid's work in Para
Thanks to your support, ActionAid is helping people in poor communities to claim their rights, and protecting the environment from contamination. This kind of work is essential to help people free themselves from poverty: it is only families with enough to eat who can afford to send their children to school.

Progress Reports

• Feb 2011
• Aug 2010
• Summer 2009