Local non-profit in Caracas uses art to help youth get through trying times

World Today

Sometimes there isn’t enough to eat in the slums of Caracas, but there is hope for one group of young people.

A local non-profit is using art to help them transcend their troubles and nourish them, body, mind and spirit.

CGTN’s Juan Carlos Lamas shines the spotlight on the Musical Theater of Petare.

It’s been called the most dangerous slum in Caracas. And for many of the young people who live in Petare, life on the streets has become fodder for their creative pursuits at a seven-year-old performing arts venue — The Musical Theater of Petare.

This nonprofit acts as a free training space to engage children and young people in musical theater and life lessons are part of the mission.

Through acting, singing and dancing, the teachers of the school show their students, who range in age from 7 to 19 years old, a reality that reaches beyond what they see around them in the Petare slums.

The school provides food and drinking water to children who might otherwise not eat during the day and it allows children who are not currently enrolled in traditional schools to participate in the theater.