Brazil’s new plan to beat poverty, By Taylor Barnes and Sara Llana Miller, July 7, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “With a monthly stipend that she receives from the Brazilian government, Clemilda dos Santos can now keep the refrigerator stocked for her 10 kids, but life for the family is still precarious. At the top of a red clay hill in Japeri, the town with the lowest human development index in the state of Rio, the one-bedroom home she shares with her whole family still floods with rainwater. Her kids need winter coats. In the past decade, Brazil has been touted for lifting 25 million people out of poverty, thanks to macroeconomic stability, high commodities prices, and a much hailed social program called Bolsa Familia that gives families monthly cash for families that adhere to conditions such as keeping kids in classrooms. But as the nation continues to rise – it became majority middle class in 2008, according to the Rio-based Getúlio Vargas Foundation – leaders say they are determined to do more, arguing that packed homes and uncloaked children have no place in today’s economic landscape…”
Tag: Deep poverty
Poverty Alleviation – Brazil
Fast-growing Brazil tries to lift its poorest, By Juan Forero, May 11, 2011, Washington Post: “The industrial complex and port here are a showcase of the region’s economic might, employing 55,000 workers and attracting billions in investments. But a couple of miles down the road, Netildes Delvina Soares, 47, lives ‘with much suffering,’ as she put it, in a wood-plank hut without plumbing or electricity. Although traditionally poor, Brazil’s northeast is now home to the country’s fastest-growing regional economy, making the disparity between prosperity and extreme poverty more visible here than anywhere else. And it is places such as this that the country’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, is hoping to uplift as she pursues an ambitious goal: eradicating indigence, defined as earning less than $45 a month. Over the past decade, Brazil has lifted 20 million people out of poverty through a mix of well-funded social programs and careful economic stewardship, creating a burgeoning consumer class that has helped make the country the world’s seventh-largest economy…”
Severe Child Poverty – UK
Save the Children says severe child poverty ‘going up’, January 26, 2010, BBC News: “The number of UK children living in “severe poverty” rose in the four years before the recession, research from a children’s charity suggests. Save the Children says the number of children in homes in this category rose 260,000 to 1.7m from 2004 to 2008. The report warns there is a danger that severe poverty could rise even further. The government says it has lifted half a million children out of relative poverty, and helped the very poorest, as defined by its own criteria. It has pledged to halve child poverty by 2010 from the 1998/99 figure of 3.4 million and end it altogether by 2020…”