Brazil is out of the map of hunger of the United Nations. This was declared recently by former president Ignatius Lula da Silva in a video conference he gave to the Italian authorities in preparation for Expo 2015.

Lula gave a synthesis of how Brazil succeeded to eradicate from extreme poverty some 30 million Brazilians. It is worth following his line of thought.

He congratulated the Italian authorities for finding time to discuss world poverty in preparation for a trade exposition because, to his mind, few are the politicians who are really interested in the problem of hunger. The poor do not pertain to any political party or trade union and so are not able to protest.

He always believed that only a politician who experienced poverty understands what it really means to start the day without morning coffee and lunch or supper are not guaranteed.

When he was asked what legacy he would like to leave for posterity when he left the presidency, he promptly answered that if he succeeds in guaranteeing morning coffee, lunch and supper to every citizen he would have realised the project of his life.

Taking office in 2003, he set up Fome Zero (Hunger Zero), a sort of an umbrella that included all the social projects culminating in Bolsa Familia - family allowance. The Opposition accused him of creating a multitude of people who wanted to gain money by doing nothing.

The reason behind hunger in the world is not lack of available food but the fact that a great part of humanity lacks the means to buy the food they require. Those who suffer most, as a result, are the children who lack food and milk.

The government organised a serious census to guarantee that the money goes to the right people. The money, in the form of an electronic card, went to the mothers who are more responsible than the men.

The government imposed three conditions: the children should go to school; they should be vaccinated; and pregnant mothers had to submit themselves to the necessary examinations.

The reason behind hunger is that a great part of humanity lacks the means to buy food

Despite the criticism, the success was extraordinary because the mothers behaved responsibly to receive the allowance.

In a poor city where the project was started, a woman was caught buying perfume to take care of herself. The Opposition was scandalised but Lula thought it natural that, given the opportunity, a woman would care for her person.

A law was enacted to increase credit to the small farmers who, in Brazil, produce 60 per cent of the food the people eat. The credit went up from 2.8 to 28 billion reais.

Schools were obliged to prepare lunch for the children by buying the ingredients from nearby small farmers, thus helping the economy of small towns and villages.

Twenty million jobs were created in 10 years or so and 40 million passed on to form part of the middle class – almost an economic miracle.

The fight against hunger became policy of the State by including the expense of the project Hunger Zero in the budget. The small farmers had access to technology.

And so, in 2014, Brazilwas dropped out of the UN’s hunger map.

“We won a battle! But not all is resolved,” Lula exclaimed.

He continued: “The poor in Brazil made a step forward in their social life but more is needed, such as increasing their income. We have to share our project with other countries in Latin America and Africa. Technology and financial help should reach these people. We showed that it is possible to eliminate hunger and this is our commitment with these nations.

“When preparing the budget jointly with the various categories that compose the State, the poor, who are not able to vindicate their rights, should not be forgotten. When the poor start going to the shops to buy their needs one will perceive that the poor are not the problem but the solution because we transformed them in citizens able to obtain the basic things we already have.”

Fr John Caruana is a missionary working in Brazil.