UN General Assembly
2005

The major challenges in my country are tackling extreme poverty and health care, which affect the neediest sectors of the population: indigenous people and small farmers. To address those issues we have promoted a rapid increase in spending for social services to put a stop to growing poverty. We are financing new programmes: a social protection network for vulnerable groups, with financial subsidies linked to school attendance; in the field of health care, a nutrition programme for pregnant women and for boys and girls at risk for malnutrition; large-scale shipments of seeds for subsistence crops; the purchase of land for small farmers, with a view to ensuring social peace; free medical care for all children under the age of five; concessional electricity rates; and a scholarship programme for students from the most vulnerable schools. With humility, but also with great faith in the future and in the international community, democracy and freedom - we in Paraguay are building a socially, fiscally and environmentally responsible State. In the international context, we join the appeal