1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Rodolfo's dream — a school in the Andes

November 20, 2024

Rodolfo Dugarte Sanchez has a dream. The young teacher from the Venezuelan Andes wants the children of the remote village of Las Plumas to learn to read and write. He regularly walks almost four hours to teach them.

https://p.dw.com/p/4nC7e

Rodolfo had just started building a school when the pandemic hit. He’s made no progress since. The crisis-ridden state of Venezuela is not supporting him. The provincial government in Mérida also seems indifferent to the children in the mountains. Rodolfo was born and grew up in the remote Venezuelan Andean village of Los Nevados. Los Nevados is located in the Sierra Nevada National Park in the Venezuelan Andes. Here, the majestic Andes mountain range rises up, stretching across nearly the whole of South America. Far from the political events and unrest in Venezuela's big cities, the inhabitants here live a simple life characterized by agriculture and livestock farming. There are almost no televisions here, let alone cell phone reception. Rodolfo was one of the few adolescents who was able to attend secondary school. He then studied hotel management in the provincial capital, before returning home. When he found out that there was a village where the children had no schooling options, he made his way there. Since then, he has been fighting to build a school for the children, because he knows that education is the key to a better future. Now, the pandemic is over and Rodolfo wants to resume his project. Will he succeed in building the children of Las Plumas a school?

Skip next section More from this show
Skip next section About the show

About the show

DW DocFilm Sendungslogo Composite

DocFilm

Exciting stories, a wide variety of topics, fascinating pictures: every day, half or three-quarters of an hour of carefully researched background reports from the worlds of politics, business, science, culture, nature, history, lifestyle and sport.