The morning line up

Every morning as I go to work, I pass a bank in between where the bus stops and where I work. And every morning, there are hundreds of people lined up. Here's a picture of the front door of the bank, but let me tell you that the line goes all the way down the block to the corner.

I asked about it, and turns out they start lining up at five in the morning. I think it's for something like welfare cheques. They said that every month they get them, but it's staggered so every day there's a lineup, for a certain group's turn.

Makes me wonder though, how much money they get, and how many people don't get welfare that need it.

This is going to sound like a strange example, but one of the other volunteers works with people in prisons. She says that it's really difficult, because there's like no state funding, so prisoners are forced to pay for the cost of their incarceration - that is, buy food, toilet paper, their uniform, even build their own cell. Apparently, the state only provides funding for about 1.50 Bolivianos per day per prisoner, which is approximately 20 cents. And while it's true that money goes a lot farther in a country like Bolivia, the UN has declared the international poverty line to be 1$ per day.

Anyways, so that sort of makes me wonder if the state funding for welfare is around 2Bs per day, in which case, no wonder there's so many homeless people around. Well it's just really sad, I guess, to see so many poor people gathered together in one area. I think I'm done rambling for now.

(As for why one of the volunteers works with people in prisons, the answer is this: because it actually costs money to go to prison, most families of prisoners can't afford to keep their house, and go to prison with the convict. The organization works with the mothers and children, ensuring that they get a decent education and stuff like that.)