São Paulo, the largest city of Brazil with an approximate population in 1958 of 3,000,000 (11,016,703 in 2006). In 1958 there were about 150 Mennonites, mostly young women, living in this city. Mennonite women have been in great demand as domestics and as governesses for the well-to-do Brazilian families since the early thirties, soon after the first permanent Mennonite settlements were made in Brazil. There are very few young men or Mennonite families in Sao Paulo. In 1947 the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) sent Mr. and Mrs. John E. Kaufman to Brazil to establish a home for Mennonite girls where they could meet regularly for fellowship, worship, and counseling. Later directors of the home have been Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Jantzen, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wiens, Mr. and Mrs. David Quapp, Emma Schlichting, and Mr. and Mrs. Abram J. Dick, the present directors who have served since 1952.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 418-419. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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