[00:00.00]載嗣泭薯③溼恀51VOA.COM [00:00.20]French film producer Albina du Boisrouvray [00:04.44]was born into wealth and opportunity. [00:08.20]She had a successful career in film and the arts. [00:12.39]Then she married a successful and rich businessman. [00:17.44]Her life seemed perfect. [00:19.60]Then tragedy hit. [00:22.76]In 1986, her only son died in a helicopter accident in West Africa. [00:30.51]He was 24. [00:32.04]"He was a very dedicated search-and-rescue pilot and he lost his life at age 24 in a mission in Mali." [00:39.68]His name was Francois-Xavier Bagnoud. [00:43.68]He was a search-and-rescue pilot. [00:46.52]His dedicated his life to finding and helping people who were in trouble. [00:52.32]After her son died, Albina du Boisrouvray [00:56.16]created an organization to fulfill his life's work. [01:01.28]She founded FXBVillage, named with his initials. [01:06.84]The organization finds and helps people living in extreme poverty [01:12.80]每 people who are destitute, who do not have even the most basic necessities. [01:19.08]"So when I set up this organization, [01:22.12]I wanted it to take on his commitment to rescuing people on a large basis, [01:27.04]and that's why I started with those children who were so destitute and the people living in poverty." [01:32.48]FXB began in 1990 in Uganda. [01:36.48]It started by helping children whose parents had died of HIV/AIDS. [01:42.68]FXB invested in the children and the adults who cared for them [01:47.12]so they could move out of poverty. [01:49.30]Today, FXB works in eight countries [01:53.72]that have some of the highest poverty rates in Africa, Asia and Latin America. [02:00.56]Here is how the program works. [02:03.01]Eighty to 100 families at a time are brought into the program 每 or "village," [02:09.24]as it is called 每 for three years. [02:12.76]In the first year, the families get free food, health care, education and housing. [02:19.96]This investment allows the person making the money in the family [02:24.52]每 the breadwinner 每 to focus on building a business. [02:29.00]FXB also buys items for the breadwinner. [02:33.16]Maybe it is a cow, or farming tools or a sewing machine [02:38.84]每 whatever is needed to build the business. [02:42.00]These purchases are not loans. [02:44.68]FXB provides them all for free. [02:47.70]"And so the second year they have made savings and they participate in the budget, [02:52.28]about 25 percent, we invest 75 percent. Third year it's 50-50; [02:57.24]the fourth year they are on their own." [02:59.04]Albina du Boisrouvray says FXBVillage builds a family's ability to provide for itself. [03:07.32]Over the past 25 years, [03:09.76]the organization has helped lift more than 80,000 people out of poverty. [03:16.04]The program costs only $125 to $230 per person per year. [03:24.36]But the results are huge. [03:27.16]And the success rate is very high. [03:30.08]Eighty-six percent of families who complete the program [03:33.76]succeed in getting out of extreme poverty. [03:37.28]And they stay out. [03:39.01]The people who take part in the program, [03:42.44]says Ms. du Boisrouvray, are mostly woman and children. [03:46.92]She says the experience gives them things that cannot be measured [03:51.48]每 feelings such as dignity and pride. [03:54.68]"It also gives women, which I see, mostly women [03:57.68]每 and children, but mostly women, back their dignity, [04:00.96]their pride, and it unleashes all their capabilities of creativity of work." [04:07.48]When people are empowered, she says, [04:11.12]they can help themselves and their families gain a better life. [04:15.91]Margaret Besheer reported this story for VOA News. [04:20.00]I'm Anna Matteo. [04:21.27]Words in This Story [04:24.60]dedicated 每 adj. having very strong support for [04:29.40]or loyalty to a person, group or cause [04:33.56]destitute 每 adj. extremely poor [04:38.20]breadwinner 每n. idiomatic a person who earns money to support a family [04:45.88]dignity 每 n. the quality of being worthy of honor or respect [04:52.04]pride 每 n. a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people [04:59.68]empower 每 v. to give power to someone