Ilheus (il-yea-us), Bahia, Brazil became Davenport’s second sister cities on January 31, 2005.  Vice-Prefeito Newton Lima came to Davenport, representing Ilheus, to sign the proclamation along with Davenport’s Mayor Edwin Winborn. Ilheus is located on the Atlantic Ocean with 70 miles of white, sandy beach, and it is surrounded by rain forest. Ilheus was once the cocoa capital of Bahia and reinvented itself when a fungus attacked and killed a majority of the cocoa plants. Because of the change in the economy, the city of Ilheus grew from approximately 95,000 to its present 250,000 in approximately 10 year’s time as the cocoa plantation workers moved to the cities. Ilheus has northern Brazil’s largest agricultural biotechnological research center, Biofabrica, makes 10% of the world’s computer hardware and hosts Brazil’s only rain forest animal rehabilitation center. It also has the first chocolate factory in Brazil! The Ilheus partnership includes:

• Saint Ambrose University humanitarian exchange and service learning project with SAU’s School of Social Work and Occupational Therapy visiting Ilheus health clinics with resources and to assess needs for adaptive equipment

Local partnership with SAU College of Engineering to design and develop adaptive equipment to share with Ilheus citizens