"Maria Ascanio(center),46, and other students participate in a Mision Rivas class in Catia, a poor slum in Caracas. The class is funded by PDVSA and gives people who were unable to finish highschool a chance to earn a highschool equivalency degree. Since the removal of nearly 18,000 workers after an oil strike in Venezuela in 2002, PDVSA, the state run oil company has gone through drastic changes.  Struggling to replace the dismissed workers and return production to pre-strike quantities, PDVSA has also undertaken the financing and coordination of huge social programs.  PDVSA has invested billions of dollars in various education, food, medicine and infrastructure projects, calling itself the ""new"" PDVSA."
{}