Robyn Marshall, Caracas
Since it took office in 1999, the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has implemented a number of programs and reforms to help the poor. Assisting in the process of change has been the Bolivarian Circles, through which 2.2 million Venezuelans participate in the country's democratic process. Green Left Weekly spoke to Dr Rodrigo Chaves, until recently the co-ordinator of the Bolivarian Circles and now Chavez's private secretary, about the new social programs in the country.
Mission Robinson, he explained, was a program designed to carry out a thorough literacy program for adults and teenagers who had been excluded from schooling because of poverty and lack of opportunity. This program finished in June last year and some 1,230,000 people had been taught to read and illiteracy has fallen from 9% to just over 1%. The UN defines full literacy as less than 5% illiteracy.
"For the first time in 102 years", Chaves said, "the Venezuelan government had eliminated illiteracy". He explained that Mission Robinson II was already in place and was educating 900,000 adults up to the level of sixth grade.
One worry that Chaves mentioned was the 240,000 people who had learned to read but failed to apply for an extension of their education. The government, Chaves explained, was considering ways of engaging this group.
Mission Ribas is a program designed to give all Venezuelans a high school education — from grade six to the end of high school qualification that is called a bachillerato. There are 1,420,100 people enrolled in this program, helped by 100,000 government-paid scholarships funded from state oil income.
As part of this program, schools have been set up in all 336 municipalities of the country, using volunteers as well as paid teachers. The old offices of the now closed-down Venezuelan oil company PDVSA are used as schools and administrative centres to run these educational programs, whose names refer to Venezuelan independence leaders from the 19th century.
Another major reform of the Chavez government was to restore the 1960s school timetable. For the last 30 years, students attended either morning or afternoon school. For the session they did not attend, many were left alone at home by working parents. Now the school timetable has only one session, from 8am till 4pm, totally supervised with breakfast, a hot lunch and afternoon tea provided free to each child in the public school system.
The government has found it frustrating to change the culture of the university system. In particular, the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) has entrenched elitist, and often corrupt, practices.
Instead of changing these institutions, this year the government set up a new university — the Simon Bolivar University. The Simon Bolivar has taken over the luxurious and well-appointed buildings in Caracas that were previously used by the PDVSA executives.
Only those who hold a bachillerato, live in a poor neighbourhood, especially around the hillsides of Caracas, and attended a public high school can gain entry to Simon Bolivar, which provides a scholarship and a free daily hot meal to its students.
Chaves explained that the Bolivarian government has also been waging an offensive on health policy. "Mission Barrio Adentro was created to deal with lack of health facilities in the poor barrios", he said. In every barrio, the Venezuelan armed forces are building a small health centre called an ambulatorio to service 500 families. The government aims to build 5000 of these centres, each with living quarters and a consulting room for a doctor.
At first, the government asked Venezuelan-trained doctors to work at the centres, at a wage lower than what doctors are normally able to get. When not enough applied, 15,000 doctors from Cuba were invited into the country to provide health services. These doctors provide free prescriptions. Chaves told GLW that 1.2 million people have already been treated in these centres.
Cuba, Chaves explained, has provided further help. There are 1000 Venezuelan students studying in Cuba, and there are plans to train another 8000 social work students on a 45-day program, since there is no social work program in Venezuela.
Mission Mercal is another program, which was established to supply credit to small farmers. One program will buy cows and bulls from Argentina, with 10 cows and one bull given to each farming cooperative as a loan. Within two years, the cooperative must pay back the loan, not with money, but with equivalent livestock to give to another peasant cooperative. The government is also setting up a seed bank with $600 million in funds and have already bought potato seeds to start supplying the country.
Mission Identidad will provide 400,000 identity cards per month to those people who have lived over 20 years in Venezuela, but who were born in another country. Previously, such people were ineligible to obtain an identity card and therefore had no rights as citizens, including no right to vote. One man spent 89 years in Venezuela without an identity card.
Chaves also explained that the government is desperately trying to provide employment, as the last 40 years of the previous, corrupt regimes have impoverished the vast majority (80%) of the 24 million Venezuelans.
Instead of importing every item in exchange for oil, the government is intent on producing its own manufactured products. In the long run, Chaves argued, this would mean greater economic security, and work was provided for as many people as possible.
He used as an example credit given to a small cooperative to buy a truck to transport gasoline locally. The government decided to pursue this method, rather than awarding one contract for such transport nationwide. The government hopes to set up about 50,000 cooperatives which will generate work.
He explained that the Bolivarian Circles, which were initially set up with the idea of forming a self defence unit, were now more involved in the social transformation of communities.
We in the West, can learn an enormous amount from the experiences of the Venezuelan government. To ensure its survival, we must provide active solidarity to a leadership determined to bring justice, peace and economic wealth to the dispossessed.
From Green Left Weekly, July 7, 2004.
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