This study presents the results of an ethnographic investigation among beneficiaires of the Family Aid Program in the municipality of Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil. The analysis took as its starting-point the perception present in the discourse of participants for whom the "Family Allowance helps". The aim was to grasp the meaning of this 'help" at two moments, trying to understand: how living in a city like Campinas interferes in the way through which people evaluated the program; and, how the word "help" denotes a gendered incorporation of the money.
Public policies; Programa Bolsa Família; gender relations