The Bolivarian Revolution's Social Movements and Missions
The Bolivarian Revolution involves a strong social movement which has the goal of nationalizing industry, education, health care, housing for the poor, and systems of social justice (legal assistance). It further involves the development of policies that eliminate poverty.
The Social Movement begins with organizing people and it does so in steps. The steps are: 1) educate the people, 2) create a vision, and 3) work together to develop a plan for achieving the created vision. This is called endogenous development which means development from the bottom and from within.
The Missions are the basis of the Endogenous Development Principle. The Mission Concept began in February, 1999, with Plan Bolivar 2000. Under Plan Bolivar 2000, 40,000 Venezuelan Soldiers got involved in door to door anti poverty action, mass vaccinations, food distribution, education and literacy of the poor, neglected and marginalized adults.
Education Missions
The goals of the Education Mission are: 1) to be (personal empowerment, 2) to know (better knowledge), 3) to do (to do a better job), and 3) to co-exist (to be a better citizen). The school missions do this by providing education, child care so that the parents can work, cultural and sports activities, provide 2 meals and a snack to the students, and integrate the students into the community by having them responsible for creating and implementing community projects that improve the community. Students are thus developing a sense of social responsibility. There are GED programs for students who have dropped out of school. Students are given free technical and college education, but are expected to return to use their new skills for the benefit of the community.
Cuba provided the standardized teaching materials, video tapes and teachers to train the Venezuelan teachers or facilitators.
February 2, 2006
Bolivarian Achievements: Social Missions
The Bolivarian Missions are a series of social justice, social welfare, anti-poverty, and educational programs implemented under the administration of the current government. The missions are: Robinson, Ribas, Sucre, Barrio Adentro, Barrio Adentro Deportivo, Vuelvan Caras, Mercal, Guaicaipuro, Zamora, Cultura and, more recently, Negra Hipólita.
Robinson Mission (to eliminate illiteracy)
This mission was launched on July 1, 2003, and it was used to pull millions of Venezuelans out of the shadows of illiteracy.
These missions are directed towards serving poor, illiterate, neglected, and marginalized adults.
The Robinson mission is the most important civil and military operation ever launched in Venezuela’s history. This mission uses volunteers to teach reading, writhing and basic math to more than 1.5 million Venezuelans who were illiterate. Each educational district gave their support for the implementation of this mission, as well as the Venezuelan armed forces.
On October 28, 2005, Venezuela was officially declared illiteracy-free territory by the UNESCO. A total of 1,482,543 Venezuelans learned to read and write; they were helped by 128,967 teachers in 136,041 classrooms. Many other governments, heads of states, personalities and organizations praised this mission.
There are currently 11,700 Venezuelans registered for the new phase of this mission.
It is worth mentioning that the Bolivarian government had the will to eradicate illiteracy. This is the first time an effort of these characteristics is put in motion and this experience could be taken into other countries in the region.
Robinson II mission is called "I can continue" and it aims to provide ongoing basic education courses to those Venezuelans who have not completed their elementary-level education. There are currently 1,468,967 Venezuelans in this mission, helped by 104,171 teachers in 99,171 classrooms.
Ribas Mission
Five million Venezuelans had dropped out or otherwise failed to complete high school. Ribas Mission is aimed at aiding youth and adults in the attainment of their high school diploma. This Mission has been designed to adjust itself to the context of the participants. It allows participants to attend night classes, something that was not available in the past. It is named after independence hero José Félix Ribas. This mission is sponsored by the Oil and Energy ministry, as well as state-owned Pdvsa. Ribas Mission began on August 2003 as an extra-ordinary plan of communal participation funded by the Ministry of Oil and Energy. Ribas Mission was named after the independence hero José Félix Ribas. This mission is sponsored by the Oil and Energy ministry, as well as state-owned Pdvsa. The goal is for this mission to be a continuation of Robinson II mission.
The goal is for this mission to be a continuation of Robinson II mission.
From 2003 to January, 2006, the Bolivarian government has helped 885,410 Venezuelans enter this mission. There are currently 578,668 Venezuelans studying in this mission with the help of 32,167 teachers, 5,177 coordinators at 8,306 school facilities nationwide. There are 32,291 classrooms and 173,834 students have received scholarships.
Sucre Mission Mission Sucre: Higher Education
The Mission Sucre schools provide college education or technical training. They provide education in medical studies, environmental studies, technical studies, and the law (legal studies).
Sucre Mission was launched in September, 2003. The Ministry of Higher Education is in charge of this project and carries it out all around the country. The Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV, Spanish acronym) opens its doors to thousands of students who began to study in classrooms that were the luxurious offices of oil oligarchs.
This program's goal is to boost the institutional synergy and community participation in order to guarantee and provide access to higher education to all high school students.
So far, this program has registered 472,363 high school graduates, 429,215 of which have been assisted and 318,381 have finished the University Introductory Program. A total of 330,346 high school graduates have registered in the education programs. Also, the mission has granted 96,412 scholarships ($100) to the poorest students, and it is checking other 2,968 scholarships.
Likewise, 10,212 teachers work for the education programs and 1,107 university villages are distributed all around the country. These examples are a proof of the determination and strategy of the State to cancel a social debt. Also, this program guarantees access to higher education to all Venezuelans.
Barrio Adentro Mission: Inside the neighborhood
The Barrio Adentro Missions have multiple types of services.
Barrio Adentro Missions have community health clinics that provide free health care and medication. The clinics are staffed with Cuban doctors. The clinics provide information on birth control, sex education, treatment of venereal disease, preventative medication and education, childhood vaccinations and disease prevention, work with drug addicts and alcoholics and they provide social workers to assist where needed.
They have food distribution centers, cooperative businesses and other services as well.
Since April, 2003, the national government's main objective is to shape a health network through providing a free service to the poor sector of the population. This is why Barrio Adentro Mission I was launched.
This mission's general objective is to provide access to health care assistance to 60 percent of the excluded population through the construction of 8,000 Popular Medical Centers, to provide a doctor to 250 families (1,200 people), to increase the life expectancy rate of the population and to contribute to the development, growth and ageing with a good standard of life.
The Barrio Adentro Missions provide many types of services. The fact is that President Chavez has a solid basis of social programs. For example, Barrio Adentro, a free health program for the poor, with 5,000 medical modules that dispense free primary medical treatment, house calls, and medicines. Barrio Adentro, and other programs for the poor such as Mercal, distributor of subsidized food, the women's bank, and mini-credits, are all more than just statistics. They are programs that focus the power of the government on the previously ignored and invisible: the poor, both urban and rural, who were always marginalized, and who had to be content with crumbs that fell off the table, are now suddenly the focal point of the government and the economy.
Educational programs are all community based, participatory, and empowering.
The new clinics that comprise the program's first stage, Mission Barrio Adentro I, are concentrated in the poorest and traditionally most medically neglected and marginalized urban and rural districts throughout Venezuela. These new clinics are meant to replace the mostly dilapidated and abandoned health facilities built prior to Hugo Chávez Frias election to the Venezuelan Presidency. Each of these new clinics is intended to serve up to several hundred individual families. Besides clean, modern, and well-equipped examination rooms and doctor's offices on the ground level, the clinics feature modest accommodations for the clinic's resident doctors and nurses integrated into the clinic building's upper floor.
The program was inaugurated in March 2003 in the impoverished Libertador neighborhood of the Venezuelan capital Caracas, and has since then expanded rapidly to include clinics spread throughout the rest of Venezuela. At least 15,000 Cuban family physicians, medical specialists, dentists, and sports trainers have been put to work in the new medical clinics.
These clinics, staffed with Cuban doctors, provide information on birth control, sex education, treatment of venereal disease, preventative medication and education, childhood vaccinations and disease prevention. They work with drug addicts and alcoholics and provide social workers to assist where needed.
They are linked to food distribution centers, cooperative businesses and other services as well.
Since April, 2003, the federal government's main objective has been to shape a health network by providing a free service to the poor sector of the population. This is why Barrio Adentro Mission I was launched.
Barrio Adentro Mission I has made an important progress in this sense by providing 162,012,583 people with medical assistance, 14,716,325 people with dental assistance and 3,811,741 people with eye assistance, by saving 31,063 lives, by giving 375,144 glasses, and by constructing 1,012 medical centers.
Barrio Adentro Mission II was launched on June 12, 2005. This mission opened 30 Integral Diagnosis Centers and 30 Integral Rehabilitation Rooms all around the country. These centers have make possible to perform 3,936,874 lab tests, 535,631 emergency surgeries, 775,690 ultrasounds, 285,415 X-Rays, 324,936 electrocardiograms, 108 operations, 55,499 endoscopies, 1,064,339 rehabilitation treatments.
Also, 200 Integral Diagnosis Centers (CDI, Spanish acronym) and Integral Rehabilitation Rooms (SRI, Spanish acronym) have been opened during these last months. 103 are already finished and they are in the endowment phase. 704 are still under construction.
Likewise, Barrio Adentro III Mission is already working. This mission deals with the strengthening of the hospital networks all around the country in order to meet the demand of Barrio Adentro II (CDI and SRI). This project is known as People’s Hospitals since it implies the modernization of hospital centers with medical and electromechanical equipment.
Barrio Adentro Mission Deportes (Sports)
This program began in February 2004 and its goal is assisting the athletic skills of students, senior citizens, pregnant women, people with disabilities and all people wishing to improve their standard of life and health. The goal of this mission is to take care of national sports through sport assistance centers located in each municipality and through the Training Schools for Sport Talents (one per state), specifically for high performance sport.
So far, 150,504,060 people (including all sports programs) have registered in this program. 43,976,715 people belong to sports, 25,259,343 people to physical activities at school, 980,574 people are training, 480,593 consultations and 40,417,071 recreation activities have taken place, 31,663,978 sport programs have been carried out and 7,726,786 people are registered in therapeutic sports.
Vuelvan Caras Mission
Has as its objective the transformation of the present Venezuelan economy to one that is oriented towards social, rather than fiscal and remunerative, goals. It seeks to facilitate increased involvement of ordinary citizens in programs of endogenous and sustainable social development, emphasizing in particular the involvement of traditionally marginalized or excluded Venezuelan social and economic sectors, including those participating in Venezuela's significant "informal" economy. It provides vocational training for work. The mission's ultimate goal, according to Hugo Chavez, is to foster an economy that brings "a quality and dignified life for all".
Mission Miranda: Military Reserves
When people leave the military, they often do not have jobs to go to, so they are invited to join the military reserves where they will be given minimum wage and given job training.
Media Communication Missions: Pirate radio stations and television stations that serve the community with the goal of improving media communication to counteract the mis-information practices of the private media which owns many television stations and most of the radio stations.
Mercal Mission Food distribution network.
This Mission has set up subsidized grocery stores in a state-run company called Mercal. At present some 11.36 million Venezuelans benefit from Mercal food programs on a regular basis. At least 14,208 Mission Mercal food distribution sites are spread throughout Venezuela, and 4,543 metric tons of food are distributed each day. Mission Mercal stores and cooperatives are mostly located in impoverished areas and sell generic-branded foods at discounts as great as 50%. While the company is heavily funded by the government, the goal is to become self-sufficient by replacing food imports with products from local farmers, small businesses, and cooperatives (many of whom have received microcredits from Mercal). This endogenous development is central to Chávez's stated goal of non-capitalistic development from the bottom up.
This program was created to trade and sell food and other essential products like medicines at affordable prices. It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Food’s goal for 2005 was to set up 6,000 points of sales; this represents 14,539,300 people benefiting from this program.
Also, 6,004 Soup Kitchens are working; these benefits 900,600 people by giving them free meals. These meals are given to the poorest sectors of the population. Regarding nutrition and protection, 1,374,312 people living in extreme poverty have benefited from this program.
Guaicaipuro Mission
This mission’s goal is to restore communal land titles and human rights to Venezuela's numerous indigenous communities, in addition to defending their rights against resource and financial speculation by the dominant culture.
Guaicaipuro Mission represents the restoration of constitutional rights to indigenous people, as well as economic development, land demarcation, strengthening of their identity, language, education, habitat and health.
Zamora Mission
Mission Zamora’s main goal is to hand over land titles to farmers in order to guarantee the food offer for the have-nots and to bet for social economy and endogenous development. This mission is linked with Mercal.
Since January, 2005, the government has granted 68,528 future land titles. This represents an area of 7,222,880 acres, apart from the 80 awarded titles that represent an area of 87,739 acres. There are 48 Zamora Ranches, representing a total of 56,994 acres.
Culture Mission
Mission Cultura, a service-learning, university-degree program established to prepare future teachers. It has been in operation since July, 2005 and it is a new kind of university system; that is, people graduate as Teachers in Culture.
Negra Hipólita Mission
This mission is one of the newest created by the national government. It was launched on January 14, 2006, and is aimed at homeless children and adolescents. The government will take on the challenge of rescuing and rehabilitating homeless children and adolescents..
This mission will be carried out all across the country and it will take place in the barrios. This organization is to be made up of residents from the same communities. The Social Protection Committees and the “Shelter Families” have been chosen through citizen assemblies in order to make the process more participative; even the adolescents from these sectors are part of the committees.
Abandoned or severely neglected children are brought to the school, clothed, fed, given health care, are educated, and if abandoned, are placed with other families in the community.
Zuleima Centeno/ Missions / Ministry of Communication and Information
