Bill (PL) 2,180/2021, which allows the creation of the Fund for the Support of Orphaned Children by Covid-19 (Facovid) is awaiting a vote in the Senate. One of the sources of funds for the fund would be the collection of the lottery.
Conceived by senator Eliziane Gama (Cidadania-MA), the proposal defines that people under the age of 18, who have lost a parent or guardian due to COVID-19, and whose remaining family is unable to provide for their maintenance, can receive assistance funded by Facovid.
According to PL, minors who were orphaned in the period between the declaration of “Emergency in Public Health of National Importance (Espin) as a result of Human Infection by the New Coronavirus” will be helped (recognized by the Executive Branch, under the terms of Ordinance 188, of February 3, 2020, from the Ministry of Health) and up to one year after its closure is declared.
The text establishes that the funds for Facovid will be transferred to the funds of the social assistance cities, according to requirements to be defined by the National Council for Social Assistance. The intention is to create opportunities for support, through eventual benefits, to be carried out locally and immediately, ensuring adequate social protection.
Lottery would help fund emergency aid
According to Agencia Senado, the project sends 1% of the proceeds from the lottery’s collection of numerical predictions for financing by Facovid. Other sources of funds listed are: allocations set out in the annual budget law and its additional credits, donations from public or private persons, Brazilian or foreign, among others.
“This time, it is projected that resources in the order of R$ 150 million per year will be available to meet this need. At the same time, the portion allocated to the cost and maintenance of the lottery operator’s agent will be reduced. In other words, Caixa Econômica Federal will have a percentage of 18.13%, without this reduction in any way compromising the administration of the lotteries”, emphasized Eliziane Gama in the justification of the project.
International commitment
Eliziane declared that her idea is in line with the international commitment assumed by Brazil when signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since the proposal would ensure a national norm aiming that “children deprived temporarily or permanently from their family environment can be assisted with alternative care, guaranteeing them, despite the orphanhood resulting from international calamity, a standard of living adequate to their physical and mental development , spiritual, moral and social, through appropriate measures in order to help parents and other persons responsible for the child to realize this right, by providing material assistance and support programs, especially with regard to nutrition, clothing and to housing”.
In justifying the bill, Eliziane cites a study by Ana Amélia Camarano, from the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), entitled “The elderly’s income dependents and the coronavirus: orphans or new poor?”
According to the survey, published in July 2020, if the number of fatal victims of COVID-19 followed the average of one thousand per day, approximately 4 million adults and 1 million children could be left in poverty with the loss of elderly people who supported their families .
“This is truly a tragedy, as the post-pandemic devastation leaves these minors in a situation of extreme vulnerability, deprived of parental care. This situation requires quick and effective action by the government, in order to mitigate the harmful effects that it already causes in our society”, reinforced the senator.
