Social Programs

As Venezuela increasingly incorporates a gender perspective in its public budgets, issues like the paving of roads and the construction of schools are being joined by new priorities such as teen pregnancy and domestic violence prevention programmes when it comes to spending.

Michael Albert interviews the director of Venezuela's Women's Bank, Nora Castañeda, who talks about the changing gender relations and pro-women policies under the Chavez government.

Something you wouldn’t see at the Olympics: Teams of laughing and cheering teenagers and young adults throwing water-filled-condoms at each other, catching them in towels held by one person on each corner, as rain drenches the condom covered ground.

The process of change that is being brought about in Venezuela and its positive results in the social area, supported by international organizations is becoming a constant motive for study in academic circles in the United States. An interview with a U.S.-Indian Doctor who visited Venezuela's Barrio Adentro mission.

What makes Banmujer unique is that it loans only to women; in fact, it is the only state-sponsored women’s micro-credit bank in the world. Since its inception on March 8, 2001, Banmujer has been commended for its successes in helping women escape poverty and in instilling a new economic model of cooperation instead of competition.

Venezuela's youth orchestras and choirs have helped thousands of children resist thug life in some of South America's most violent slums, and now wealthy countries are lining up to emulate the system.

When Nurul Asyiqin Ahmad was taken seven months ago to her cell at the National Institute of Feminine Orientation, a prison perched on a hill in this city of slums on the outskirts of Caracas, learning how to play Beethoven was one of the last things on her mind

Back in 1999, the new Venezuelan administration wasn't viewed as unfriendly, only unknown. And the US tobacco industry had plenty to gain from friendly relations: the country, along with a bevy of others, was suing the industry for tobacco-related healthcare expenses, and stood to lose should Venezuela ramp up its cigarette taxes, heighten its anti-smuggling efforts or spearhead public health campaigns.

Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra arrives next week at the New England Conservatory. What drives this revolutionary group of musicians?

The Venezuelan oligarchy vehemently criticizes President Chávez for providing fuel assistance to the government in Havana. However, Cuban doctors have saved more lives in Venezuelan than Venezuelan doctors have in the past few decades. “What is worth more in objective value, the barrels of oil that we sell to Cuba or this?” asks Chavez.