MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian president announces new social support programs for children

Rousseff said that there are still “too many Brazilians living in absolute misery”

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff launched on Sunday, (Mother’s Day in South America) a raft of new social programs for low-income families with young children.

Families below a certain income level with at least one child aged 0 to 6 will receive a minimum stipend from the government of 70 Reais (35 US dollars) per month for each family member, Rousseff said in a Mother Day's speech broadcast Sunday evening.

The government said the program, an increase in the already-implemented Bolsa Familia, will benefit 18 million people.

Access to daycare and health care has also been expanded, with more funds being allocated to nutrition and the construction of 1.500 daycare centers. Rousseff said daycare centers not only brought “health, education, food, diversion and hygiene” to children, but also allowed mothers to work, also “attacking the problem [of poverty] at its root.”

Rousseff said that it was “a crude reality” the fact that the age group “which has less seen reduction of poverty in the country are the children, mainly those below six”.

She also admitted that in spite of the economic advances experienced in Brazil in recent years, “there are still people living in absolute misery” and with poverty concentrating mainly “in children and adolescents”.

The Brazilian president also plans to specifically combat anemia and Vitamin A deficiency with the newly allotted health care funds, as well as distribute asthma medication free of charge.

The new programs are mainly aimed at low-income families living in the north and northeast of Brazil, which is home to 78% of Brazilians living in absolute poverty.

“These are the poorest regions, with the least protected children, and fathers and mothers historically abandoned to their fate,” said Rousseff.

The Bolsa Familia program currently benefits about 13.4 million families who receive between 32 and 306 Reais per month, depending on their monthly income and number of children age 17 and under. Last year, Brazil's government spent 17.3 billion Reais on the program.

Rousseff said she made the announcement on “Mother’s Day” because she is the first woman president of Brazil, and as “a woman, daughter, mother and grandmother” it was her duty “next to the millions of Brazilian mothers”.