Beyond Shelter

Beyond Shelter
In Recife, Brazil a new plan is being inacted to help out the poor people. Habitar Brazil is the name of the charitable organization that is providing people with low income housing. The city of Recife is one amongst the poorest in Brazil. Actually all of Northeast Brazil is dead poor. What keeps Recife alive is its tourist industry. Recife lays on the coast and is very popular amongst Brazilian travelers as well as international travelers. It is absolutely gorgeous. From the crystal blue water to the white sand its an extremely charming place to visit. However, everywhere you turn, there children begging and fathers begging and mothers begging. Much like the rest of Brazil Recife has a massive poverty problem. The northeastern part of Brazil draws many homeless people, mostly because it is hotter and it is more convenient to be homeless when you are not freezing to death..... That sounded bad, but there are a lot of poor people.
The Habitar Brazil program was started after a study was conducted in some of Pernambuco's (state in northeast Brazil) favelas. They found that 97.9 percent of the residents in these slum areas made, on average, roughly 240 reais a month. That is only 80 american dollars a month. The study also showed that 63.3 percent of the heads of house hold were women, and that 90 percent of the heads of household hadn't completed more than a high school education.
The program is not only providing housing for these people, but also it is providing health care, education and jobs too. They are hiring the people to build their new homes and new schools.
I didn't read about the requirements to qualify for this program. I am thinking that the rich people in Brazil are pretty pissed about giving their tax dollars to the poor people. Their mentality is a little backwards when it comes to that. I guess though when you see people begging all the time, it hurts your heart a little less each time. Hmmm just a thought to ponder.