Amazonas

Country information

The SOS Children's Village Amazonas is located about 6 km from the airport and 7 km from the city-centre of Manaus. Manaus is the capital of the Federal State of Amazonas and has approximately 850.000 inhabitants. Northern Brazil is mainly covered by rain forest and extensive riversides. Until the early 19th century it was nearly exclusively inhabited by native Indians. It was the caoutchouc boom which began around 1840 that brought the white settlers into the country. At this time, rubber trees only grew in the rain forests of the Amazon. Due to the wealth which the monopoly of rubber production brought about, Manaus was built up to a splendid city. Only a few decades later, when the caoutchouc trees were successfully planted in Asia, Manaus began to decay. The SOS Children's Village Amazonas was constructed on a flat piece of land measuring 64.500 sq. metres. It consists of 12 family houses and an SOS Kindergarten. The SOS Children's Village also has a library, a theatre, football grounds and a volley ball court, a community house and a mothers training centre. The supermarkets and hospitals can be easily reached by public transport.