This week on Voices for a Cause, writer Julia Navarro talks with Javier Izquierdo, expatriate technician for Entreculturas in Venezuela. With it, we approach the work that we do from Entreculturas in the Latin American country hand in hand with our partner organization Fe y Alegría, which has a strong presence through numerous educational centers and schools.
In this chapter, Javier tells us about the situation of the right to education in Venezuela, pointing out first of all “the emergency context that Venezuela is experiencing due to the social, political and economic crisis that began in 2014”. Javier focuses on how the precarious situation of teachers, due to low salaries, directly deteriorates the right to education of boys and girls, as it causes “schools to close”.
Javier explains the two strategies followed by Entreculturas and Fe y Alegría Venezuela’s programs to “promote the permanence of students in school”. The first focuses on improving access to safe educational environments and the second on improving the well-being of the educational community. “Here we are talking about health days, nutritional supplementation, psychosocial support and small incentives,” he explains.
In addition, Javier and Julia delve into the work being done in border states, where “there is a protection crisis with more violent dynamics of human trafficking”. A scenario, Javier explains, where Entreculturas and Fe y Alegría work through schools, providing psychosocial careto “find out where this violence comes from” and to eradicate it through “referral to specialized entities such as the ombudsman and protection councils”.
Finally, Javier says that what has surprised him the most working in Venezuela has been “the way in which Fe y Alegría articulates with the educational community” and the fundamental role played by the “active participation of mothers, fathers, grandparents and grandmothers in the school dynamics”.
Voices for a Cause’ is Entreculturas’ weekly podcast. The programs are broadcasted every Thursday on our Youtube channel, on Spotify, on Ivoox, and on Apple Podcast.
