PROGRESA

PROGRESA, now known as Oportunidades, is a Mexican government program that began in 1997 and by 2010 had served five million Mexican families. It is intended to improve the education, health, and diet of Mexico’s most impoverished families. The program works through cash transfers encouraging regular school attendance and doctor visits. According to the official website of the organization, many outside evaluations have shown that the children and teens in families helped through Oportunidades “regularly attend school, follow balanced diets, receive regular medical assistance, and learn that their future could change.”