"I have learned the tables, to write the numbers, I have learned to add, to multiply"

Luis Mario is 10 years old and is one of the children who attends the job training center San Martín de Porres, located in San Félix, Bolívar state, where, together with other children and adolescents, he is part of a comprehensive care program for academic leveling and socio-emotional support that contributes to his reinsertion in school.

“This is the homework I have done here at school: I have learned the (multiplication) tables, to write the numbers, I have learned to add, to multiply. We were doing calligraphy, separating syllables, writing families of letters, and little things like that that put me here so I can learn.” Luis Mario says proudly, showing his notebook.

8-year-old Lalita, another of the girls who attends the leveling classes, explains what her favorite activities are: “I like to do the alphabet. I always like to come because they give me a lot of homework.”

In addition to the educational content, the children who attend the program receive psycho-emotional attention since they live in different contexts that include, in some cases, domestic violence or parents who have migrated, and therefore the children are in the care of third parties.

Also, they are taught key hygiene practices to help prevent illness. In the photos below, we see how several of them show how they learned to wash their hands by following the steps: little turtle, little mountain, spinning top, and motorcycle.

The program that is developed in coordination with authorities and implementing partners has achieved reintegration into the formal education system of 60% of the children and adolescents attended.

“There is a percentage of the children that we are attending that are not included in formal education, others that have already been included, have been found a place in the closest schools so that they can be inserted into the education again,” says Jodilis Zacarías, a community promoter who also explains how they diagnose children outside of school. "We visit the families when we see them wandering around we identify them and make the visit to see what their family situation is."

To help reduce the effects of the pandemic on the learning crisis and for Venezuelan children and adolescents to continue studying, UNICEF, in coordination with authorities and allied organizations, and thanks to the contribution of international donors, identifies children who are outside of school and incorporates them into this comprehensive leveling program for their reinsertion.