Sustainable Success

As you may have gathered from my last two posts (about green microenprenuers and green MFIs) I’ve been getting increasingly excited about the green side of microfinance and this post is no exception!!

I recently had the unique opportunity to spend some time at two agricultural schools funded by the Fundación Paraguaya, the first was, 9 hours from our base in Asunción, in Mbaracayu and the other, closer by – a ‘mere’ 2 hours, in Cerrito.

Besides the beauty and peace of the Paraguayan countryside and the exhilarating feeling of being out of the city and getting ‘down and dirty’, like Hannah mentioned in her post on our Mbaracayu visit, the wealth of knowledge that the students had about agriculture and sustainability was overwhelming – one easily forgot that the youngest ones were only 14 years old.

The Escuela Agricola de San Francisco in Cerrito was the model on which the all-girls school in Mbaracayu was based – alternating class, farm, tourism, kitchen and hotel work these kids learnt all the trades, specialising in their third and final year in what they enjoyed the most.

What struck me as most exciting about both these schools was their bioorganic, self-sufficient and sustainable aspect.

In Cerrito, like in Mbaracayu, the school owns and takes care of its own livestock, crops and vegetable gardens. They have plenty of animals: horses that are used for labour in the fields, cows and goats that are kept for milk, making cheese and, a Paraguayan favourite, dulce de leche, chickens for their eggs and, a recent development, for their meat, while pigs are sold off on markets.

The Huerta Bio-intensiva at the Escuela Agricola de San Francisco in Cerrito.

They also have a bioorganic vegetable garden, where they grow more types of vegetables and herbs than I can name, and use the most innovative processes for maximum productivity. They also make their own compost and used various methods to create the best natural fertiliser; one example being putting worms in horse excrements to break it down organically and quickly to make a beautifully soft and fine final product. Both the staff and students seemed extremely up-to-date with all the latest bio intensive techniques available – I was really impressed!

What I liked the most about these schools is that they are entirely self-sufficient and sustainable. Once the school’s needs have been met, the students sell their produce – milk, eggs, cheese, dulce de leche, vegetables and herbs – door-to-door in the neighbourhood and once a week at an agro-market in Asunción. The profit earned from the sales is invested back into the school, whether it is for buying more seeds or some new plumbing, making them completely sustainable.

The Escuela Agricola San Francisco.

The Agricultural School San Francisco in Cerrito, Paraguayan Chaco – a region ofter referred to as “the green hell” – lies just an hour and half away from the traffic and smog of Asunción. The school, founded in 1964 by a group of german missionaries, host today about 150 boys and girls between 15 and 18 years old. They come from low income families all over Paraguay (as well as from neighboring countries). When Fundación Paraguay took over the administration of the school in 2003 the mission was to transform it in a self sufficient institution. After five years the dream came true and now the school is financially self sufficient. Every year 50 kids graduate with a Technical Agriculture-Livestock High School Degree. They do not learn just agriculture, as classes include also accounting, psychology, administration, computer science. For this reason some of them are been hired by Fundación Paraguaya as loan officers; today is not uncommon to meet some 18-19 years old loan officers recently graduated from one of the agricultural schools. A very important aspect is that the students learn how to become agrarian entrepreneurs and after finis

cerrito

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The infrastructures of the school include, a part from the classrooms, an hotel (from which a large part of the earnings of the school come from), a pigsty, a stable for cows, a hen-house, a fish farm, a dairy plant and of course – we are in Paraguay – soccer fields.

The dairy plant in particular, is a golosos (sweet tooth) paradise: the most successful products are dulce de leche, vanilla yogurt and jam, sold in the shop on the highway just outside the school, as well as in the agro-shopping market in Asunción.

The success of the self-sufficient agricultural school is leading to the replication of this model both in Paraguay, where two other schools are active, and abroad. There is a plan to implement a partnership that will bring students from Mali to study in Cerrito.

Fundación Paraguaya’s newly adopted child: the agricultural school in Belén, Paraguay

Getting to know the multiple facets of the Fundación Paraguaya has been exciting. This is especially the case when I got to be one of the first two interns to visit their newest undertaking: the escuela agrícola (agricultural school) in Belén, Paraguay.

This is the youngest out of three agricultural schools operated by the Fundación Paraguaya; it is part of the Fundación’s family as of July 2010. Most students attending these agricultural schools come from poor underprivileged families. Many of the students at Belén work for agriculture cooperatives, but want to improve their position in the cooperative and thus attend the escuela. Previously, SOS Kinderdorf, an organization most known for its dedication to creating a safe space for orphaned children, funded the school.  However, the renewal of financial support tended to be uncertain, like for many NGOs. Thus, one of the goals of the Fundación is to make this school in Belén financially self-sufficient, following the model of their agricultural school San Francisco de Asis in Cerrito, Paraguay.

The Fundación has many plans for the improvement of the escuela. Currently, Belén is a post-high school vocational school, where the students between the ages of 18 and 25 learn about horticulture, fruit growing, agriculture, animal husbandry etc., as well as continue studying mathematics and language. But, with the Fundación Paraguaya now in charge of the school, there have been significant changes (and more to come). I spoke to one of the students, Fidelino, who saw a dramatic shift a month ago. Fidelino told me that prior to the Fundación taking over their school, they did not have Computer Science classes. Now, the students are learning how to use a computer and surf the Internet.  One might ask: how important is IT to students at an agricultural school in Paraguay? Simple: Fundación Paraguaya does not want the students to simply graduate with a vocational degree but to also learn how to be rural entrepreneurs.  IT classes are just the first step!

The Fundación Paraguaya is a versatile NGO that has a microfinance department, agricultural schools, a Junior Achievement program and more. These different departments do not just work separately, but there is some cooperation between the agricultural schools with the microfinance department through a new project in work: microfranchising. But more on that on my next update!

Agricultural School in Bélén

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Afterthought: how would you explain the vast world of the Internet to people who have never really used the Internet? Anyone have best practices to share?