Three of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas—2.1 billion living on less than $2 a day and 880 million on less than $1 a day—and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (World Development Report 2008).  Most of them have inadequate education and live in poverty.  The only hope to improve their lives is through their children's education.

The Family Farm School was established with the primary objective of uplifting the lives of those living in rural communities.  This is done through activities involving the families, where teachers are community workers, and involved parents are concerned with the community's development.  This is coupled with values formation that leads to productive responsible individuals and independent "employable" citizens.

By definition, the Family Farm School is an association of heads of families, individuals, professionals, and institutions committed to the development and upliftment of people living in a rural setting through integrative learning activities and technical training, particularly directed to young people, as answers to common and shared problems.

As such, the Family Farm School is built on the following fundamental principles, called four (4) pillars:

• Commitment of families, organized into an association, to participate in the education, management and daily operation of each Family Farm School;
• A method of teaching and learning using a system of alternating periods (alternancia, in Spanish) between the world of real work and classroom setting.  It creates a permanent link between theory and practice, work and study, experience and knowledge, etc;
• An integral educative approach, inspired by a personalist philosophy, that is actualized in the Family Enterprise Project individually formulated by each students with his or her family;
• Rural development that is both platform of the students' training and collective goal of the association's initiatives.

The Family Farm School is designed to promote growth.  It is a vehicle for transforming individuals into prosperous and upright persons for God and country.