Afranio was greatly impressed by two phenomena which he saw in great abundance in the North East of Brazil: the lack of apprentice schooling side by side with an abundance of talents. These people have a very hard life, but life teaches them to make a lot from very little. They have a great desire to learn, so whatever opportunity comes their way to acquire technical skills is received like water falling on a desert.

These training programs were not limited to his companies and to the regular courses for its mechanics, welders, and office workers etc. In the 70´s the Manoel Affonso Ferreira School was created for poor young people (these young people did not have the normal access to schools) in Teresina, São Luis and Aracaju. The word poor used here is not a euphemism, giving an example which almost seems a joke: one candidate was not admitted because his family income was completely above the others; his family was the proud owner of a cow.

The Linck Schools of Porto Alegre were replicated. Unfortunately the acute economic crisis in the construction area and its infra-structure forced the provisional closure of MAF schools.

In 2003 the heirs of Afranio decided to re- start the project of the training of needy individuals and adapt it, due to its new reality. Still with the same spirit, but not for the running of a school. With the sale of Bahema Equipamentos the family no longer had an access to the use of factory training, so IAAF now proposes to be only a catalyser instead of teacher and trainer.

According to the research by Fundação Odebrecht, churches, community associations and unions have in Brazil 1.686. It is with these types of institutions that IAAF wants to work.