Teach A Man to Compete: Paraguay’s Self-Sufficient Agriculture School

Fundación Paraguaya, winner of Atlas’s Templeton Freedom Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2009, has been racking up awards for its development of the San Francisco Agriculture School – a financially self-sufficient educational experience for transforming poor youth into successful entrepreneurs.  The School runs 17 small-scale, on-campus, farming enterprises that train students not only how to increase crop yields, but how to maximize profits as well.  The aim is for these micro-businesses to earn enough to cover all the operational costs.  So far it’s been a smashing success.  San Francisco’s model is being replicated in 25 developing countries and Fundación Paraguaya has been recognized by UNESCO, named the 2008 BBC/Newsweek World Challenge runner-up, and most recently was awarded a $35,000 prize from the Global Development Network & the government of Japan.  On its website, Paraguaya provides a manual on how to replicate the “education that pays for itself” model.

BBC World Challenge – Paraguay – Escuela Agricola

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 4:00 PM. It is filed under Atlas Award Winners, Latin America and tagged with BBC, education, Fundacion Paraguaya, Global Development Network, micro, Newsweek, Paraguay, San Francisco Agriculture School, Templeton Freedom Awards, World Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.