Venezuela’s revolutionary government inaugurated on March 15 a social program, or “mission,” aimed at providing health care for people with disabilities.
The primary goal of Mission José Gregorio Hernández is to conduct a nationwide census of all people with disabilities and genetic diseases.
With a budget of $275.4 million, the census has been completed in five states. Students at the Venezuelan-Cuban School for Communitarian Integral Medicine are responsible for the success of the mission along with the assistance of health care professionals.
The mission’s goal is to not only diagnose specific needs of disabled Venezuelans but to also involve them in art and work training programs.
Promoting the mission in a speech to transit workers, President Hugo Chávez said society must develop a “socialist conscience, the human morale, the human spirit that is essential for achieving a new society…of love, equality, and solidarity.”
