O Programa Bolsa Família na fronteira Brasil-Paraguai: compreendendo dificuldades e particularidades dos beneficiários no município de Ponta Porã-MS

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate the Bolsa Família Program in the Brazilian border of Mato Grosso do Sul, specifically the municipality of Ponta Porã, in front of the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero. In order to do so, it is ambitious to analyze the progress of the Bolsa Família Program in the aspects of its operationalization, specifically in the areas of social assistance, health, education and the strategies that individuals use to maximize the monetary benefit they receive from participation in said program. The hypothesis of the work is that the Bolsa Família Program presents particularities that reveal characteristics unique to the place chosen for the present analysis. The methodology used in the thesis was interviews with managers and beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program, who use urban equipment for community use such as CRAS - Social Assistance Reference Center and ESF - Family Health Strategy, as well as visits in some schools and talks with school managers. The spatial relations of border cross the realization of the program by the managers and the beneficiaries. In relation to the managers, frequent attention was paid to the issue of the border, arising from the need to supervise, mainly, the location of the individual's residence, whether he or she resides in Brazil or Paraguay is part of the daily routine of both educators, community health workers and social workers. In this case, the frontier arises for the managers of the Bolsa Família Program with a separation limit. While for the beneficiaries the border appears as a means of maximizing the monetary resource received from the Program, due to the practice of lower prices in the trade of Pedro Juan Caballero, for products similar to those found in Brazilian soil. Therefore, for the beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program, the border is a meeting place. In this way the border territory is not null before the application of a public policy like the Bolsa Família Program, it permeates the relations of both health managers, social assistance and education, as well as of the beneficiaries.