Senator Christovam Buarque, the architect of the innovative concept of BOLSA ESCOLA, visited BBA (SACCS) central office on 7th February. Senator Buarque, is set to be the next President of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Federal Senate in Brazil.

Bolsa Escola is a poverty-fighting-by-investing-in-education program, which is based on a practical yet simple concept.

Children, who are out of school or under extreme social risk situations, because they have to work to support their families, are rescued from this social tragedy by paying a kind of school stipend to their families. The stipend is given in cash to every family independent of the number of children. A unique feature of this programme that contributes to its success is that money is always given to the mother. Besides this each child receives a savings account deposit only if promoted to the next class. This deposit is made available when the child finishes school.

The program was launched six years ago in the Federal District of Brazil and has now been adopted in many parts of the country. Columbia, Equador, Chile and Argentina are some of the other countries who are implementing the scheme. The evaluation is indeed encouraging as this program has not only included working children into the school system but it has drastically reduced the dropout rate and the scholastic performance of such children is higher than average. In fact the World Bank is considering the possibility of financing Bolsa Escola programs in Columbia and Equador. This scheme may be the only method by which the vicious circle that perpetuates poverty from generation to generation can be broken. It may well be the bridge directly connecting poor children to development.

Senator Christovam Buarque was highly appreciative of the work being done by BBA and the Global March. He particularly appreciated the concept of Bal Mitra Gram and the rehabilitation centers, the Ashrams. His enthusiasm in meeting Kailashji and his youthful team, was very apparent.