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"We would like to consider rethinking all the programs that have to do with poverty alleviation and really start thinking about programs that deal with poverty elimination."
Warm. If I had to use one word to describe Martin Burt, that would be it. The first time you meet, he treats you like an old friend. He can kick back, smile, laugh. Perhaps its this warm presence that has helped him to accomplish so much.
After studying in the United States, Martin Burt returned to his home country of Paraguay. Excited to put his education to practice, he soon founded Fundación Paraguaya to offer microfinance and entrepreneurship education to Paraguay's poor.
But it is his self-sufficient school that has won him global attention. In 2002, Fundación Paraguaya acquired La Escuela Agricola San Francisco, a small agricultural school in Cerrito, Paraguay. The idea was to try to make the school self-sufficient by selling the school's products and services to pay for the costs of running the school. It was a daring experiment, but Martin hoped that the school could provide Paraguay's poor with a relevant education at an affordable price. The amazing thing is that it worked! Since 2007, the school has able to cover 100% of its operational costs, making it the first self-sufficient school in the world.
Today Fundación Paraguaya owns two other Paraguayan agricultural schools that are working towards self-sufficiency. Martin Burt travels the world working with Fundación Paraguaya's sister organization Teach a Man to Fish to coach other schools throughout the world in their efforts to become self-sufficient. He envisions the self-sufficient school as an important answer to the global problem of rural education.
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