In the fourth and final installment in our series on SIFAIS and its work in La Carpio, we ask a simple question: what would each Costa Rican have to do to replicate this project in needy communities nationwide?
President Luis Guillermo Solís said a new poverty index, created by Oxford University, puts people over statistics. The index reported that 21.8 percent of Costa Rican households are considered poor, totaling 1.26 million people.
Poverty in Costa Rica dropped slightly over the past year, but extreme poverty continues to rise -- to 7.2 percent in 2015, according to the latest census institute survey.
Eighty students from across Costa Rica participated in a photo course designed to explore the theme of poverty in everyday life. The photographs will be on display at the National Museum this weekend until Sunday, Sept. 27.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) named Costa Rica among 72 countries (of 129 evaluated) that achieved the Millennium Development Goal of cutting in half by a 2015 deadline the number of residents living in situations of hunger.
President Solís' plan aims to unify all 30 of the government's current aid programs into a single welfare system called the “Unique System of Beneficiaries.”
The deadline to clear lands currently occupied by a slum known as Triángulo de la Solidaridad expires on March 28, but the Housing Ministry on Tuesday said they will need at least three more months to complete the relocation.
