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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15722">venezuelanalysis.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">An Army of Women is Building Venezuela’s Housing Revolution</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Andreína Chávez Alava - Venezuelanalysis.com</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">10–13 minutes</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><img src="cid:ii_lf1hdpyd0" alt="image.png" width="428" height="241"><br><p>
<font size="1">The women from Caracas' Antímano Parish have trained themselves to build
homes for their families as part of Venezuela's Great Housing Mission,
created by Hugo Chávez in 2011. (Andreína Chávez Alava /
Venezuelanalysis) </font><br></p><p>Commodified
housing, shantytowns, evictions and homelessness are worldwide
realities and no matter how hard corporate media tries to ignore it,
this is one of the most glaring horrors of capitalism.</p>
<p>In contrast, Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV) has built over
4,4 million houses for working-class families since 2011, after
revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez declared access to land and adequate
housing to be human rights and the foundation for a dignified life.</p>
<p>The goal is to reach 5 million homes by 2024.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the program often provides social infrastructure such as
schools, subsidized food markets, and recreational and green spaces
while houses are handed over equipped with basic household appliances.
As a result, extreme structural poverty in Venezuela went from 10,8% in
1998 to 4,3% in 2018, according to the last available <a href="http://www.ine.gov.ve/documentos/Social/Pobreza/pdf/ResumenPobrezaEstructural.pdf">report</a> published by the National Statistics Institute (INE).</p>
<p>The GMVV’s reach hinges on popular power with over 70% of the
constructions reportedly self-managed by communities, with financial and
logistical support from government institutions. This helps to
significantly reduce costs.</p>
<p>To understand its success despite an ongoing economic crisis under crippling <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/images/15295">US sanctions</a>,
we visited a women-led construction project that has become a staple of
the social program and an example of grassroots feminism.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/1_16.jpg" title="The AVV Jorge Rodríguez Housing Assembly began construction in 2017 but suffered several setbacks following the imposition of US sanctions. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)"><img src="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/styles/full_content/public/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/1_16.jpg?itok=p3XqSXOL" alt="The AVV Jorge Rodríguez Housing Assembly began construction in 2017 but suffered several setbacks following the imposition of US sanctions. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="428" height="241"></a></p><div>
<p><font size="1">The AVV Jorge Rodríguez Housing Assembly began
construction in 2017 but suffered several setbacks following the
imposition of US sanctions. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)</font></p>
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<h2>Building the future</h2>
<p>The beautiful Antímano Parish in southwestern Caracas has an army of
self-trained women working year-round to build homes for their families
and transform the reality around them. Their story began almost 12 years
ago when they gathered for the first time to create the AVV Housing
Assembly (“Asociación Viviendo Venezolano”) Jorge Rodríguez Padre.</p>
<p>The entire project took off because of women’s leadership. Ayari
Rojas and Ycedia Bodeo, both mothers and main spokespeople of the
project, began this journey in 2012 and were responsible for bringing
together the 96 families that will benefit from the self-managed
endeavor.</p>
<p>“We are here because of President Hugo Chávez. Although the Great
Housing Mission was created to provide homes for the families affected
by the heavy rains of 2010-2011, Chávez realized the need to speed up
the housing revolution and he instructed us to organize for that
purpose. So we did,” Rojas explained to us.</p>
<p>For the Antímano women, the task ahead was clear. “First we began
holding meetings to discuss the participatory character of our project,”
continued Bodeo —“and we started training in architectural building
design, measurements, ergonomic systems and everything related to
pre-construction work.”</p>
<p>In 2015, they located a beautiful area with breathtaking mountain
views in the El Algodonal neighborhood, which had been abandoned by its
owner with tons of metal scrap waste. “We are not invaders as some have
called us, we did everything legally,” Bodeo said, reminding us that
right-wing factions have always opposed land being used for the benefit
of the people, not capital.</p>
<p>Obtaining the collective land title was their first popular victory
but construction work proved to be far more difficult in a besieged
country. This phase began in 2017 after cleaning up the terrain,
training some more, and outlining the project: twin six-floor buildings,
each with 48 apartments of 66 or 76 square meters (two or three
bedrooms depending on each family's requirements).</p>
<p>“It has been five years of self-construction efforts while living
under constant attack, from induced food shortages, which meant spending
hours looking for products, to national blackouts and a pandemic but
the worse aggression has been the unilateral coercive measures from
Washington,” recalled Rojas.</p>
<p>Since 2017, the US blockade has hampered every sector of the
Venezuelan economy, especially the oil industry, which created many
obstacles for the government to finance social programs, among them the
Great Housing Mission, resulting in delays and long pauses in delivering
construction materials.</p>
<p>Rojas is certain that without this imperial aggression, which has hit
women the hardest, their homes would have been completed a long time
ago. Nonetheless, they continued advancing by relying on solidarity. “We
contacted other housing assemblies nearby and began exchanging
construction materials, such as cement for pipes, according to every
organization's needs. Popular power at its best!”</p>
<p>Now one of the apartment buildings is set to be inaugurated this year
and is expected to be a national celebration. “This goes beyond
building homes for our families,” —emphasized Claudia Tisoy, a
44-year-old mother and self-trained plumber — “we are also building the
future of our country, with women leading the way. This is what the
socialist horizon is all about.”</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/2_12.jpg" title="Women take a lunch break before continuing construction work. Meals are prepared by their own community using products supplied by each of the 96 families. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)"><img src="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/styles/full_content/public/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/2_12.jpg?itok=M9Zpw5Gv" alt="Women take a lunch break before continuing construction work. Meals are prepared by their own community using products supplied by each of the 96 families. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="428" height="241"></a></p><div>
<p><font size="1">Women take a lunch break before continuing construction
work. Meals are prepared by their own community using products supplied
by each of the 96 families. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)</font></p>
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<p>It is unusual to see women doing construction work but it is even
more unusual to see an army of them. This is what we found in the El
Algodonal neighborhood. From the moment you set foot inside the building
complex, women greet you while performing a variety of tasks, ranging
from concreting to wheeling materials, carpentry, plumbing, and more.</p>
<p>And it’s not that men are missing, but 80 percent of the people who
lifted these walls were women, 76 to be precise, with each of the 96
families providing one person for construction work. Not only that, but
they also trained themselves in everything.</p>
<p>“None of us knew anything about construction! Mixing cement and
laying bricks? No way!” Yusgleidys Ruiz told us laughing as she recalled
their beginnings. “Truth is,” she continued, “most women here are
housewives who wanted dignified houses for their children so we learned
by doing and we have become warriors in the process.”</p>
<p>Ruiz explained that the key to their success has been their ethic and
commitment. They are divided into groups that have weekly 24-hour
working shifts, for construction during the day and guarding the area
during the night, which allows them to keep the project active
year-round.</p>
<p>For Ursulina Guaramato, the experience has turned her into a
construction rod expert as she proudly admits. “I’m guilty of all that,”
she said smiling and pointing to the steel connections that stretch out
from some unfinished pillars on the highest floors of the building.</p>
<p>Similarly, Andreína Sanmartín is referred to by her working
companions as the indisputable winch machine specialist, a title she has
proudly accepted. “I’m happy because I’ve learned so much about
construction and the best part is that I did it while building a home
for my family, to give them a better quality of life, a dignified life,
like Chávez used to say.”</p>
<p>For their part, the men, most of them self-trained builders as well,
agreed that it has been an honor to work among women and learn alongside
them about the power of grassroots organization.</p>
<p>“We make all our decisions as an assembly, where everyone has a
voice, so this experience has also been about learning how to build
popular power and how it can lead to real change. When I have
grandchildren I will them the story about the women who constructed all
this, not just the buildings but a community,” said Carlos Villanoel.</p>
<p>Antonio Rodríguez, a self-trained carpenter, chipped in to add that
women's leadership made this housing project possible “which is why our
main motto is: When a woman advances, no man retreats!”</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/3_13.jpg" title="Decisions are taken collectively in weekly assemblies where every family representative voices their opinion. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)"><img src="https://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/styles/full_content/public/images/%5Bsite-date-yyyy%5D/%5Bsite-date-mm%5D/3_13.jpg?itok=wBo5pXDR" alt="Decisions are taken collectively in weekly assemblies where every family representative voices their opinion. (Andreína Chávez Alava / Venezuelanalysis)" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="428" height="241"></a></p><div>
<p><font size="1">Decisions are taken collectively in weekly assemblies
where every family representative voices their opinion. (Andreína Chávez
Alava / Venezuelanalysis)</font></p>
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<h2>Community and self-sustainability</h2>
<p>With their homes close to being finished, the men and women from the
Jorge Rodríguez Padre Housing Assembly want to become the guarantors of
Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission continuation by helping other
self-managed housing constructions kick off.</p>
<p>They are not selling snake oil either. They have been certified by
architects and engineers who have inspected the site and some of the
women, including leaders Ycedia Bodeo and Ayari Rojas, have even earned
credentials in their respective areas of specialization.</p>
<p>“Passing our knowledge will help more women empower themselves, build
their homes and transform their lives for the better. Before Chávez,
women were invisible, even the heroines that fought for our country's
freedom. It is time to unleash the heroines that we carry in our blood!”
expressed Bodeo.</p>
<p>Another future plan is developing urban agriculture following
Chávez’s command that popular power organizations should be
self-sufficient and own the means of production. With Venezuela under
constant imperialist aggression, these self-managed production endeavors
have sprouted across the country, although mostly in rural communes.</p>
<p>The idea is for the 96 Antímano families to become partly
self-sustainable over time, harvesting the land that will feed future
generations. And they have 2,000 square meters of land for that purpose
with a socio-productive unit already running which uses a nutrient-rich
and toxic-free compost made by themselves through vermiculture.</p>
<p>“We have a large area for agriculture and we have seen some very good
results growing vegetables and legumes as well as fruit plants such as
soursop, guava, avocado, papaya, banana, lemon, orange, passion fruit,
and pumpkin. We also have a few pigs, ducks and rabbits,” Rojas
detailed.</p>
<p>She recalled that during the worst times of the economic crisis,
these harvests helped their families survive and they even gave away
plenty of food to nearby communities.</p>
<p>However, because this is also a self-learning process, it hasn’t
always been a success story and they need more equipment to make it
truly sustainable. “When the rain runs out, our production also dries
up, this is why we need an irrigation system and to form ourselves more
extensively in urban agriculture,” emphasized Rojas.</p>
<p>According to the popular leader, several government institutions have
already pledged to provide all the necessary inputs for the community
to fulfill their mission.</p>
<p>“We feel very optimistic about our future projects. The men, and
especially the women, are ready to continue building a strong community
and a brighter future,” she concluded.</p>
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