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Brazil

Mira Rosa with produce from the farm she and her husband set up on a legalised settlement [Marcella Haddad]

Brazil is the fifth largest and ninth-wealthiest country in the world, yet 54 million Brazilians live below the poverty line

The gap between rich and poor in Brazil is one of the most extreme in the world, with the wealthiest 10% enjoying more of the national income than the poorest 50%.

Responding to urban poverty

CAFOD set up an Urban Livelihood Programme in São Paulo with local organisations MDF (The Movimento de Defesa dos Favelado), APOIO (The Associacão de Auxilio Mutuo da Região Leste) and CCJ (The Centro Capacitacão da Juventude).

CAFOD spent £908,000 in Brazil in 2008

Its aim is to push the government to fulfil the legal obligation to provide good quality housing for people living in the favelas and tenements - which then, in turn, provides better access to education, work and health facilities.

The programme works to ensure people know their housing rights, and are involved in developing their own communities.

Jacir José de Souza is one of the founding members of CAFOD partner CIR (the Indigenous Council of Roraima), an organisation representing indigenous communities in the state of Roraima [Joelle Hernandez/CAFOD}

Fighting for the right to land

After struggling for decades to secure land rights for his people, Jacir José de Souza thought victory had finally been achieved – only to find it could be turned into defeat instead

Davi Kopenawa, president of CAFOD partner, Hutukara [Joelle Hernandez/CAFOD]

Looking after the earth

Founded in 2004, Hutukara (meaning "the part of the sky from which the earth is born") runs a bilingual education project to help the Yanomami defend their rights themselves

Fulfilling potential in Brazil

Marcos Arruda of PACS believes the traditional concept of development, as simply the increase in production and consumption, has to be challenged

Simon Giarchi, diocesan manager for CAFOD Plymouth, visits indigenous villages in Brazil fighting for their right to land
(Video made by BBC TV Southwest)
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A film about the fight of the Macuxi people in the state of Roraima, Brazil, to safeguard the land rights they were legally granted, which powerful rice farmers are trying to have overturned

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Joênia Batista de Carvalho, the first ever indigenous person allowed to submit arguments to the Brazilian Supreme Court [TV Justiça]

Battle for indigenous land goes on

The fight to save the indigenous lands of Raposa Serra do Sol in Brazil is continuing after the country's Supreme Court delayed its final decision

Published on 30/07/2003, last updated on 18/08/2008

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Fighting for the right to land Looking after the earth Fulfilling potential in Brazil Linking faith and action Land rights are everyone's struggle Defending justice and human rights Supporting people with HIV and AIDS Defending indigenous people's rights Civil rights training Urban development in Brazil

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