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Mexico has only recently became a country that offers assistant to it’s citizens in need as a form of social Welfare. Of the welfare programs examined, this page will briefly focus on social Welfare for three general groups; the poor, children, and the elderly and/or disabled.

Social Welfare for Low-Income Families
The poor in Mexico have recently had a program to help them, once know as Oportunidades- meaning “Opportunities”- and renamed to Prospera -meaning to prosper. The program was established in 1997. The program was designed to stimulate families to send their children to school and health centers by giving the mother money in which, nearly six-million families have benefited. The goal of “Prospera” is to improve the quality of life of the poor in terms of nutrition, education, and health. The Prospera program is still to date available for Mexican citizens in need of assistance. In particular, it is highlighted on the Mexican government website that people who are affected by a natural disaster or other emergency can benefit from the Prospera program as well. Another program created for low income families was the FIDELIST. This program was created in 1984 and it was a program that essentially subsidized the prices of corn tortillas. The program ran until it’s replacement in 1990, by the Tortilla sin Costo program which also aimed at providing subsidized or free tortillas. This program provided for 2.1 million low income families and scaled at about 3% of Mexico’s total corn consumption.

Social Welfare for Children
Children in Mexico are another vulnerable population that have some type of protection in Mexico as well. Although children do have welfare protection in Mexico they still need far more protection than they have. One such protection is the DIF. The DIF is a program for family services that is state-run. Another program that is also designed to help the welfare of Mexican Children is the Oportunidades is also a program aimed at Mexican children. According to a study by IFPRI, International Food Policy Research Institute, the program has proven successful for children because of the positive outcomes toward several factors such as, school enrollment, health appointment attendance, and children’s nutrition. For example, enrollment in school for Oportunidades children has increased significantly, girls increasing by 20% and boys increasing by 10%. Some recent advances in the program is that the help is for children in both rural and urban areas, whereas originally it was only to be in Rural until a later date. Meaning that more children are now with this assistance. So, overall the social welfare of children has been deemed as improved by measuring the economicicall and utility factor of these children.

Social Welfare for the Elderly and Disabled
The next group that has social welfare assistance in Mexico is the elderly and/or disabled. Mexico gives people of old age a pension. The pension is given when the people become of 65 years of age. Pensions range from more to less depending on how much the person contributed to the pension program. Pensions are usually 2,253.76 pesos a month. People with disabilities are also given pensions. Pensions are usually at lear 2,253.76 pesos a month. Although people are getting assistance through various programs the poverty level has actually increased to 46.2%. More than 10% of those living in poverty are living in extreme poverty, meaning they are living in under $1.25/ day.