Mennonite Mission Heath Association (MMHA)           

Association Mennonite Missionnaire pour la Santé

Asociación Menonita Misionera por la Salud

Paraguay

Background: In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70) - between Paraguay and Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay - Paraguay lost two-thirds of all adult males and much of its territory. It stagnated economically for the next half century. In the Chaco War of 1932-35, large, economically important areas were won from Bolivia. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner was overthrown in 1989, and, despite a marked increase in political infighting in recent years, relatively free and regular presidential elections have been held since then.

Information and Demographics

	Area:  total: 406,750 sq km landlocked
	Border countries: Argentina 1,880 km, Bolivia 750 km, Brazil 1,365 km
	Climate: subtropical to temperate; substantial rainfall in the eastern portions, becoming semiarid in the far west
	Terrain: grassy plains and wooded hills east of Rio Paraguay; Gran Chaco region west of Rio Paraguay mostly low, marshy plain near the river, and dry forest and thorny scrub elsewhere
	Natural resources: hydropower, timber, iron ore, manganese, limestone
	Population: 6,669,086
	Population growth rate: 2.416%
	Birth rate: 28.77 births/1,000 population
	Death rate: 4.54 deaths/1,000 population
	Infant mortality rate: total: 26.45 deaths/1,000 live births
	Life expectancy at birth: total population: 75.34 years
	HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.5%
	HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 15,000
	Population below poverty line: 32%
	Inflation rate: 12.5%
	Unemployment rate: 9.4%

Religions: Roman Catholic 89.6%, Protestant 6.2%, other Christian 1.1%, other or unspecified 1.9%, none 1.1%

Languages: Spanish (official), Guarani (official)

Literacy: male: 94.9%    female: 93%

More Country Information

The Mennonites in Paraguay

The first colony, Menno, founded on 1927 by Canadian Mennonites who rejected the military service, were followed by Filadelfia, founded by Russian refugees in 1930 and by Newland founded in 1947 by German Mennonites who were released of the Soviet Ukraine during the German invasion of 1943.

There are about 30,000 Mennonite living in Paraguay (MWC estimate) in 20 conferences.

MMHA in Paraguay

MMHA was informed of the opportunity for partnership with the Alto Refugio Hospice http://www.altorefugio.org/ by a new MMHA member.

Alto Refugio Hospice (newly completed construction)