Brazil
The challenge they face is great: since the 1980s, tens of millions of Brazilians have migrated to urban areas, where acute economic distress has created in this vast South American nation the greatest number of "street children" in the world. The Brazilian government has proved unable to contain this humanitarian crisis, or to direct sufficient resources to families living at subsistence levels in the interior. Our Conference Offering for 2006 supported three initiatives of the Brazilian Methodist Church to deal with the crisis: the Shade and Fresh Water Project, which uplifts impoverished urban children, the Hospital Boat, which delivers health care to remote villages along the Amazon, and the Mechanical Cow, a community-based project that provides soy milk to indigenous children in southwestern Brazil. In the coming year, IOH will be focused upon equipping Volunteers in Mission teams to go and experience these projects first-hand.
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The newest mission partner in relationship with our conference, the 170,000-member Methodist Church of Brazil, is a dynamic and growing community with a clear sense of mission and purpose.