President Leonel Fernandez says that despite the government’s many responsibilities, it is obliged to maintain economic stability. He claimed that poverty in the country has decreased significantly during his presidential term. Fernandez made these comments during a visit to Santiago where he handed out the 300,000th solidarity card to Ana Silvia Duran Minaya. The debit card is part of a welfare program where poor people can use it to make purchases of foodstuffs worth $550 a month, and disbursements of $300-$600 for parents with children in school. President Fernandez announced that holders of the Solidaridad card are assigned double disbursements for Christmas, saying that 1.5 million impoverished Dominicans were benefiting from the program. Vice President Rafael Alburquerque, who is in charge of the Solidaridad program, said that 307,455 households would be affiliated by the end of the year. He said that the government has disbursed a total of RD$4 billion since the program was launched.