Soma in Kinderland

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Brazil grows as larger economies struggle:

FORTALEZA, Brazil: Desperate to escape her hand-to-mouth existence in one of Brazil’s poorest regions, Maria Benedita Sousa used a small loan five years ago to buy two sewing machines and start her own business making women’s underwear.

Today Sousa, a mother of three who started out working in a jeans factory making minimum wage, employs 25 people in a modest two-room factory that produces 55,000 pairs of cotton underwear a month. She bought and renovated a house for her family and is now thinking of buying a second car. Her daughter, who is studying to be a pharmacist, could be the first family member ever to finish college.

“You can’t imagine the happiness I am feeling,” Sousa, 43, said from the floor of her business, “Big Mateus,” named after a son. “I am someone who came from the countryside to the city. I battled and battled, and today my children are studying, with one in college and two others in school. It’s a gift from God.”

Today her country is in a position much like hers. Brazil, South America’s largest economy, is finally poised to realize its long-anticipated potential as a global player, economists say, as the country rides its biggest economic expansion in three decades…

(READ THIS COMPLETE ARTICLE AT: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/31/america/31brazil.php)