Families in Action pays mothers to improve health, By Chris Kraul, June 8, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “An innovative social program taking hold in Latin America may have left Luz Dary Lopez a single mother, but it has helped her and hundreds of other poor women in this central Colombian city gain a measure of financial independence, self-respect and better living standards for their families. Partly funded by the World Bank, the program, called Families in Action, pays Lopez and 4,200 other poor mothers in Tunja about $100 a month as long as they attend diet and hygiene classes, get their children to school and have them undergo medical exams. The cash is a significant bonus for Lopez and other families who make less than $250 a month. In addition to the money, and health and education benefits, the program gave Lopez the courage to leave her abusive husband. She learned in ’empowerment’ classes that she didn’t have to tolerate his violent attacks and that she had a right to a look for a job, something her machista spouse had prohibited…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty