helping the poor

Happy New Year!
I pray that this finds everyone well.
I was reading an article today, and I thought it was too good not to send out into the world.
Read it:
ending poverty

The article summarizes Brazil's current work to reduce poverty and inequality in its country by paying poor women who keep their children in school, visit the doctor, and go to some classes on basic life skills. It doubles the income of the poorest people in Brazil, and has dropped the poverty rate from 22% to 7% in a generation.  That is an increadible outcome.

I wrestle theologically with questions about the intersection between faith and government-I feel comfortable proclaiming that we are called to be generous as individuals, but have mixed feelings about insisting that the government must be generous (particularly around questions of how generous the government should be-I'm willing to defend a basic social safety net).  But findings like these remind me of a few things- 1) there are things that humans can do to reduce our collective suffering. We may think the problems of the world are insurmountable, but it is not true. 2) many of those things have been done in the last 50 years-the world is a happier place now than a generation ago. 3)  The political debates we have together in our country, and around the world have real world implications.  The difference between Brazil with this program and without matters to real people, and we should not forget it.

Any thoughts you'd like to offer?