A path appears. Episode 2, breaking the cycle of poverty.
(Unknown)

English

Title from title frames.

Originally produced by PBS in 2014.

With Nicholas Kristof, Jennifer Garner returns to her native West Virginia to visit families enrolled in Save the Children’s Early Steps program, which introduces books and early learning to children living in poverty, and provides social and emotional support for the mothers. One child benefiting from the program is Johnny Weethee, who was just accepted into pre-K with the help of program coordinator Tonya Bonecutter. Another family in Tonya’s care is that of Lyn Sargent, who lives in a trailer with her husband, two children, and eight others. An example of how hard it can be to break the cycle of poverty, sexual and drug abuse, Lyn is now enrolled in school full-time, hoping to provide a better future for her children. The episode next heads to Haiti, which, even before the devastating 2012 earthquake, was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Billions of dollars in well-intentioned aid have gone into the country, but demonstrable results have been few and far between. Alfre Woodard joins Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to meet Rea Dol, founder and leader of SOPUDEP (Society of Providence United for the Economic Development of Pétion-Ville). As a leader in the community, Rea understands that Haiti must rebuild from within, with the efforts and empowerment of the Haitian people. SOPUDEP offers a variety of economic, social, and health services but its central program is its free school, which is unusual in Haiti. Children whose families cannot afford to care for them commonly live with a host family as their domestic servant, but many do not receive the education they were promised or adequate food and shelter. Physical and sexual abuse is common. Rea has succeeded in convincing many families to allow their domestic servants to attend her school. Through Rea, Kristof and Woodard meet one such girl, Marilaine, who desperately wants to leave the home where she is beaten and mistreated. Rea enlists the aid of other local activists and the Haitian police to orchestrate a rescue. But while Marilaine’s escape removes her from immediate danger, her options are limited because her mother has 12 children, no food, no transportation, and there is no school for miles. It is the education that Marilaine receives at the SOPUDEP school that provides the most viable, long-term opportunity for her and her classmates to reach their full potential and begin to rebuild their nation. But there is no easy fix. In Cartagena, Colombia, Kristof, WuDunn and Eva Longoria meet Catalina Escobar, founder and director of the Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar Foundation (“Juanfe”). Following the tragic death of her young son, Catalina, a successful businesswoman, decided to devote her life to the pregnant teens and young mothers in the slums. Juanfe’s model is a “360 degree intervention” that includes health care, intensive therapy, education, family planning, vocational training, an infant center, and a medical clinic that has served more than 84,000 low-income residents in the community. Catalina believes that the cycle must be broken early for young mothers and their babies to have a chance. The pregnant girls who enroll in Juanfe, some as young as 12, have already dropped out of school and have virtually no other opportunities. Demalis, who at 15 was prostituted and became pregnant, is a new applicant. She has returned to Cartagena and hopes that Juanfe will offer a new chance for herself and her baby. The success rate of the girls who graduate Juanfe’s two-year program is high but Catalina does not have room for everyone. Kristof questions whether enough girls are reached in this kind of intervention. Though it is clearly changing the lives of many, is there more that can be done? Would prevention and aggressive birth control campaigns serve as better models? These and other questions of viability, scalability, and replicability are addressed as Kristof and WuDunn debate which models for change can make the largest global impact.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.