Bolsa Familia: Brazil's Fight against Poverty. Unit 4 Discussion Board

Bolsa Familia: Brazil’s Fight against Poverty
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Bolsa Familia: Brazil’s Fight against Poverty
Poverty is the inability to afford or access basic human needs like food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare. Although I do not personally know someone who is poor to the extent of failing to satisfy their food and shelter needs, I’ve seen homeless people who beg for food and handouts in the streets.
In Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, physiological needs like food and water come first, followed by safety needs like shelter (McGuire, 2012). Maslow used the theory to explain the nature of human motivation that is, the way human beings prioritize some needs over others. Accordingly, people would always aim to satisfy essential needs like hunger first before attending to non-essential needs such as entertainment. Accordingly, a person who cannot afford food and shelter is considered to be living in poverty because these are the first needs one would aim to satisfy. Although the World Bank sometimes defines poverty as living below one dollar a day I think this is a little misleading due to differences in living costs in different countries. For example, a dollar in an African country may provide more food than in the U.S. In this light, poverty should be understood in terms of how individuals are able to afford basic commodities and services like food, shelter, and healthcare.
Brazil’s Fight against Poverty
Brazil is an upper-middle class society, and one of the most economically stable countries in South America. With a population of over 190 million people, 16 million are classified as living in poverty (Croix, 2012). The Bolsa Familia program was begun in 2003 as a response to the high levels of poverty at the time. Since its implementation, the program has helped lift more than 28 million people out of poverty and helps 36 million to attain middle class status (Croix, 2012). It provides financial assistance to families with the understanding that they will use the money to send their children to school and have them vaccinated against diseases. The conditional cash transfer scheme is an important long term means of reducing poverty because it increases the ...