RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's slums are world famous, being shown in film and capturing the attention of global aid donors and organizations. But their efforts still have much work to do in the country. Some 8 million Brazilians still live in extreme poverty, with monthly family incomes of $35 dollars according to official data released on Monday. But there are positives in the new report, which stated this was a five percent drop compared to the previous survey. In September 2011, there was 8,054,000 Brazilians living in miserable conditions compared to 8,520,000 in 2009, according to the Brazilian Stats and Geography Institute, IBGE, National Survey of Homes. President Dilma Rousseff on taking office January 2011 promised to eradicate misery in Brazil at the end of her four year term in 2014, for which she launched the program “Brazil with no misery”, absorbing the “Brazil Food Basket” program started by her predecessor Lula da Silva, and incorporated other initiatives. Among these are “Tender Brazil” targeted to the children of the families below the poverty line. “The chances for the government to reach the target (established by President Rousseff to finish with extreme poverty) exists but is remote”, said Ricardo Texeira, coordinator of the country's most prestigious Foundation Getulio Vargas. “We're on the right path, what has already been achieved is very good but not sufficient; we need to do more such as how to expand the “Tender Brazil” program to children over 7 years of age” said Rafael Osorio from the Applied Economics Survey Department, which depends from the Social Affairs ministry.
