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The Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) in Brazil is a program has been successful in lowering poverty number and shortening the economic divide between the wealthy and poor population segments. How you may ask? Well, the government funded program basically gives an allowance to poor families via cash or direct deposit their bank accounts with conditions that need to be met.  Families with school attending children under the 17 years of age get $19 a month, $13 a month for children under 15 years of age. An unrestricted $40 a month is given to families in extreme poverty. 

It pays a monthly stipend of about $13 to poor families for each child 15 or younger who is attending school, up to three children.  Families can get additional payments of $19 a month for each child of 16 or 17 still in school, up to two children.  Families that live in extreme poverty get a basic benefit of about $40, with no conditions.A similar program was launched in Mexico giving families $123 a month and seems to be doing just as well.  Conditions placed on Mexican families include: keeping children in school/ regular medical checkups/ nutrition and disease prevention workshops. 

The theory behind the program is that if you address immediate financial needs and enhance the educational and health gaps created from being in extreme poverty, you can effectively break the cycle of poverty in those families. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank are supporters of the concept as well. If this program expands to other developing nations, this will create concentrated populations for potential social ventures to target. 

However, I am not sure I am convinced by this program. It seems, to me, that the success if alleviating class difference is fabricated. The second the paychecks stop, you are back to square one. It could be a direct test bed for aid money that is making a quantifiable impact. Will this system be success when so many non-profit organization have done similar program with only marginal impact? What do you think makes this program different? How sustainable is this model? At what point do you stop financially supporting families without educating and training the adults to obtain higher paying jobs to leverage themselves into a more stable condition?