Oportunidades
Oportunidades is a Mexican government program that assumes that the poor live in a culture of poverty .
The program provides cash to the poor, but (unlike welfare) only when they participate in certain government-approved activities. This is how one hopes to break the culture of poverty. For example, the poor are paid for when their children go to school or when the family goes to the doctor regularly and takes part in health-related information events.
Some of the program is very successful. Child malnutrition, anemia, and retarded growth rates have decreased, more children are in middle school, and the proportion of children in high school has increased by 85 percent. Likewise, a higher percentage of children successfully complete these schools.
In 2008, a full quarter of all Mexican families participated in the program. 30 countries around the world had started a similar initiative, including mostly Latin American countries, but also Turkey , Cambodia and Bangladesh .