Throughout Christmas 2002 Venezuela was overshadowed by a nationwide oil strike polarizing the views of an already politically divided country. This national strike started a chain reaction of events that eventually led to one small community taking control of their local school.

While these strikes were taking place, the Director of the Juan Bautista Alberdi school, together with a group of teachers, closed down the institution in support of the opposition’s attempt to undermine the national government - expressing that they would only return when Chavez had been successfully ousted from the presidency.

In response to these actions the parents, students and other representatives of the district of Manicomio, the area on the western outskirts of Caracas where the school is located, formed ‘The Children's Defence Committee’, in order to support the local youth’s rights to education. On January 9, 2003, the community broke into and occupied the school with the intention of reopening it as soon as possible.
However, the conditions they found were shocking: the building itself was a run-down wreck – not structurally sound, with no proper toilets or running water - and the classrooms lacked basic teaching materials including desks, blackboards and books.

The local community set about renovating the building, overcoming the limited means and resources they had with all their enthusiasm, energy and hard work. The people of Manicomio started getting hold of new teaching equipment using their collected money to set up proper classes for their children. This meant a direct commitment from the neighbourhood members, with many of them working full time on a voluntary basis to get things up and running.

Once re-opened, the community itself became the teachers, organizers and maintainers of the Alberdi school, working on average 6 days a week, starting at 7am every morning up until late at night – always exclusively on a voluntary basis.
The main objective, according to Gabriela Leon (representative of the committee), was “to make the children's rights valued. This place is now open to everybody, and for the first time the parents actively contribute to their children's education.” But that’s not all: the school also hosts free adult classes open to members of the community willing to improve their education.

The community was granted the right to teach the government directed educational schemes - Robinson, Rivas, and Sucre. Mission Robinson is Venezuela’s nationwide literacy campaign; Mission Ribas represents secondary level education, and Mission Sucre is preparation for university. They also teach mission Vuelvan Caras, a basic practical vocational training that focuses on learning skills such as plumbing and electrics.

The community committee, with the help of one of Venezuela’s national television channels - Vive! TV - created within the school a media department that produces a newspaper for the children and a special facility entitled ‘the Popular School of Latin American Cinema’. It consists of a media lab in which the children are taught how to produce and direct their own documentaries, which are then broadcast weekly on Vive! TV.

All of this has been achieved in the two years following the occupation of the school, and is still going on today.