Rio, May 4, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - The Family Grant Program, which currently benefits 50 thousand poor families in the state of Rio de Janeiro, will be extended to include an additional 126 thousand families in 20 municipalities in the metropolitan area. The agreement signed today in the Guanabara Palace by the Minister of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation, Patrus Ananias, and the governor of the state, Rosinha Matheus, will also permit the state and municipal governments to use their own resources to enhance the value of the benefit. At present, families receive between US$ 5.05 (R$ 15.00) and US$ 32.00 (R$ 95.00). These amounts will be raised to between US$ 13.47 (R$ 40.00) and US$ 40.43 (R$ 120.00).

According to Minister Ananias, the expansion of the program in big cities was determined by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "In addition to maintaining and consolidating the presence of these projects in the countryside and in small and medium-sized cities, the President wants to take our social and food and nutritional security programs to the big cities and metropolitan areas where 83% of the Brazilian population resides nowadays," the Minister emphasized.

He recalled that nearly 40% of the Brazilian population is concentrated in large urban centers and the peripheries of these regions. The federal government's goal is reach 4.5 million families throughout the country by July and 6.5 million by year's end. The Family Grant currently serves 3.8 million needy families in Brazil.

Translator: David Silberstein