Mission Barrio Adentro

Mission Barrio Adentro

Mission Barrio Adentro (English: "Mission Inside the Neighborhood") is a Bolivarian national social welfare program established under current Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. The program seeks to provide comprehensive publicly funded health care, dental care, and sports training to poor and marginalized communities in Venezuela. Barrio Adentro features the construction of thousands of iconic two-storey medical clinics—consultorios or doctor’s offices—as well as staffing with resident certified medical professionals. Barrio Adentro constitutes an attempt to deliver a de facto form of universal healthcare, seeking to guarantee access to quality and cradle-to-grave medical attention for all Venezuelan citizens.

The Latin American branch of the World Health Organization and UNICEF both praised the program. According to WHO statistics infant mortality fell from 23 to 20 in males and 19 to 17 in females per 1000 births between 2003 and 2005. In addition, Russian representatives have visited Venezuelan neighborhoods in order to study Venezuelan public clinics and Russian officials are considering implementing a similar program in Russia.

Of a planned 8500 Barrio Adentro I centers, 2708 had been built by May, 2007, using an investment of around US$126m, with a further 3284 under construction. As of 2006, the staff included 31,439 professionals, technical personnel, and health technicians, of which 15,356 were Cuban doctors and 1,234 Venezuelan doctors.