 | | INCLUSION
"I want a better life than this"
Under The Convention on the Rights of the Child, governments should ensure that all children have a reasonable standard of living, which includes rest and leisure.
Article 31 recognises a right to, "engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts..." Governments, it adds, should provide opportunities for recreational as well as cultural activities.
However, with the wealth gap widening across the world, this right is being consistently denied. The UN now recognises this as a major factor hindering a child's development and well-being today.
The distribution of income concentrated in the hands of a minority is at the heart of the poverty problem in Brazil. The distribution of wealth is one of the most unequal in the world. Studies suggest that more than a third of Brazil's 179 million inhabitants are living in a state of poverty and destitution, unable to adequately feed and clothe themselves. This group tends not to have access to education and healthcare.
The social divide that separates the Brazilian rich from the poor is growing rather than decreasing, and very often, the people who inhabit these disparate worlds never meet.
Victoria de Souza Coelho Turqueto is nine-years-old. She lives with her parents in an upper middle class neighborhood in São Paulo. Her father works at Fiat, the Italian car manufacturer, and her mother is a housewife. Victoria studies at an expensive private school and takes lessons in ballet and piano.
Andrea lives on the outskirts of São Paulo. She is 11-years-old and goes to school. She has four siblings; her father is unemployed.
On weekends, she travels with her family to the city's busiest avenue. On these days, they sleep under a bridge, which is close to their place of work. Andrea sells sweets at the traffic lights.
For leisure, she plays by a rubbish dump near her home.
As part of A World for Children, Victoria and Andrea met in a snack bar in São Paulo, and, for the first time, these girls were able to find out about each other's lives. | |  Listen to Victoria and Andrea's story in Portuguese | | 
Victoria: I like pasta a lot. Pizza...
Andrea: I like everything. When you're hungry you don't even think about it... What else do you do apart from go to school?
V: I have ballet classes and I'm learning to play the piano. What about you, what else do you do?
A: There's a rubbish dump near where I live and a sandy area beside the water. We hang around there, larking about and swimming.
V: I go to the mall and I go to playgrounds. The thing I most like is my dog Cowboy. Have you got a dog?
A: I've got a mongrel at home... [My house] is made out of wood. There are two rooms: a kitchen and a bedroom. We sleep under the bridge [São Paulo on weekends]; down there, underneath the road. It's cold at night and we don't have enough blankets. It's really bad... What's your house like?
V: It's a flat. There are three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and two televisions.
A: ... I want a better life than this. The only job I've got is this one here - selling sweets. I'm here to help my family. We have to help my mum buy cooking gas... sometimes the house gets flooded.
When things are good, I manage to sell the whole box of sweets. Yesterday, I wasn't able to sell everything. [Today] I'm trying to sell the last ones.
It's really bad [having to work in the street]. Because you have to get close to the cars to sell sweets, and they shut their windows. Sometimes their kids want to buy sweets but the parents don't allow them to. They swear at us, and tell us to get a job.
V: How long have you been selling sweets for?
A: For four years. I didn't know how to sell things. But the person who used to be here showed us how it's done. And then I kept on learning until the day when I managed to sell some sweets. Sometimes they [the police] give us a hard time and stop us from selling sweets...
I don't really like going to school, but what can I do? If you don't want to end up dumb, you've got to go to school... But mainly I go there to play around and have a laugh. And what about you, what do you want to be when you grow up?
V: A vet.
A: ...It was nice talking with you Victoria. I had a lot of fun. Bye!
V: I also enjoyed talking with you. It was really nice. Bye!  | | | Listen to Victoria and Andrea's story in Portuguese | | |  |  |
 A report published by the UN, titled Overcoming Human Poverty: UNDP Poverty Report 2000, estimates that "about 15% of Brazilians are extremely poor, based on a $1-a-day poverty line."
It also states that the incidence of extreme poverty is higher in rural areas and among the black population.
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