One million 700 thousand people in Portugal live in poverty, i.e. with an income of less than 551 euros per month. They are essentially extended families with children or single-parent families, but also people who live alone, women, the elderly, workers and the unemployed.
Poverty in the country is structural. Being born poor shouldn't be a sentence, but its persistence over generations is one of the most determining characteristics of poverty in Portugal. To break this cycle, we need policies aimed at the most disadvantaged children and their families. But this fight also involves education, which makes the social elevator work, and the transformation of the labour market, increasing productivity and the added value of the national economy.
The National Strategy to Combat Poverty is the latest initiative to reverse this situation, and the priority in the short/medium term is to bring Portugal closer to the European Union countries with the lowest risk of poverty rates.
But how far do we have to go to get there? What measures and policies are needed to eradicate poverty in Portugal? The answers are in this documentary, a co-production between the Foundation and RTP. With live narration by journalist Carlos Daniel.
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Documentaries from the Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos co-produced by RTP, Portuguese National Television. .
