Bolsa Familia and Oportunidades - Paying poor mothers to care for their children

After class, I thought about the programs in Brazil (Bolsa Familia), Mexico (Oportunidades) and several other developing countries that pay poor women to keep their children in school and get medical care in terms of compensating them for their unpaid labor. These programs have shown success in educating and keeping healthy kids in impoverished families that might not otherwise be able to pay for education and healthcare costs for their kids. Also called "conditional payments," they in some ways monetize, and therefore give value to, the time and effort mothers must spend to support their kids in school and health.

Here's an article about such programs' effectiveness from the NY Times:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/to-beat-back-poverty-pay-the-poor/

Now back to the final project!