En route to the pre-school today, a 4 year old boy fought with his mother and said he wouldn’t go to school. He ran off and she couldn’t catch him. A search party was despatched and he was eventually caught when he ran into a dead-end. He was brought back to the school kicking, screaming and biting anyone that held him. Back at the school, his mother screamed at him that she would kill him herself before he became a thug…Isabel, one of the nuns, spoke at length to the boy. He was adamant he would never come to school and started saying, quite articulately for his age, that his brother wasn’t a thug but they still killed him. Due to the terminology he used, Isabel assumed he was referring to an adolescent brother. However, it eventually transpired that he had been in a car that was attacked (not clear but think it was an attempted car-jack). He was with his father and 5 year old brother and was about two and a half years old at the time. His brother was shot dead and his father was shot in the leg but survived. 
The pre-school has attempted to have a psychologist on duty at the school; for short periods they have had students on work experience etc but have been unable to find anybody willing to work in the barrio long-term. It is sometimes possible to arrange for support outside of the barrio but that inevitably proves complicated as parents are working, can’t afford the transport or are unreliable in attendance (or all if the above).
I also visited a primary school that is run by the nun that founded and built the school, starting in about 1978. The nun is now 67 years old but runs the school and works in the barrio at the weekends too. She lives with two other older nuns in a different neighbourhood. She is fairly devastated as it appears her congregation may leave Caracas. In part this decision is due to a lack of younger nuns to fill the roles; not everybody wishes to work in deprived areas either and when the leadership of the congregation doesn’t prioritise deprived areas, they can get dropped. This nun did have a younger nun working with her for a few months but she opted to be re-located as she couldn’t cope with the nature of the work in a barrio. Although such schools don’t necessarily require a nun, they do require leaders that see their work as a vocation as the committment, time and persistent energy required is far beyond that of a regular job. At this school most if the teachers are sent in a lottery basis. They are often unprepared for teaching in a barrio and don’t want to be there, meaning they look for a new job very quickly etc 
I took a jeep up to the school as there is road access there; we walked back down. Starting with a killing near the school of an ex-pupil who was aged about 15, she pointed out where people had been killed and which families had lost family members…it was almost every doorway…she also told me that somebody had mounted a jeep in order to shoot another passenger…Glad we were walking back down then…
