Deep in the crime-ridden slums of Brazil is perhaps not the place you would expect to find God.

But one eight-year-old girl says she is channeling His power in order to perform faith healings, curing everything from cancer to HIV.

Alani Santos is believed to perform miracles at her father's church in the favela of San Gonzalos, just outside Rio de Janeiro.

In her YouTube videos, Alani can be seen helping an elderly woman to walk without using a stick, and 'healing' a man who has been suffering from HIV for seven years.

Encouraged by her father, Pastor Adauto Santos, a former car thief, she lays her hands on the man who then collapses on the floor in shock.

Twice a week the vulnerable and sick from across Brazil file into the building for a chance to be touched by the girl's healing hands. 

Alani has been doing this for the last two years, and says she enjoys making people better. In later life she says she wants to become a doctor to carry on helping the sick.

Speaking to Vocative, she said: 'To see God working though people and their lives, that is very pleasing.

 

'I pray and God performs miracles. My Dad interviews people who say I have cured them.'

Alani's father also runs a website where people can send prayers to the girl known as Missionarinha, or 'little missionary'.

The site also sells DVDs and posters, advertises tour dates, and allows people to contact Alani on Skype.

Speaking to the Guardian, Mr Santos said: 'She's a normal kid – apart from this gift. It is Jesus who cures. She is an instrument.'

Alai's father also runs a website where people can buy DVDs and posters of Alani, as well as sending her prayer and talking with her on Skype

Alani is just one example of a spiritual healer in a country where more and more Christians are converting to Pentecostalism.

The Pentecostal church believes in direct contact with God through the Holy Spirit, revealed to the believer through experiences such as healing, speaking in tongues and prophecy.

Describing her 'powers', Alani says: 'A lot of the time I just touch people, sometimes I pray and worship and the person is cured.'