He Shoots, He Scores (High in Poverty)

I've talked about this poverty thing before.

To me it remains a four letter word. But no matter how much I dislike it, the concept remains very relevant for the work we try to do here in Nicaragua.

Here's an example.

BECA is about giving opportunities Nicaraguan high school grads. But not all of them. We want to lend a hand only to those that want to go to school, but can't afford it.

That's the easy part.

The hard part is . . . how can you tell how poor someone is?

Here is what we used to do. Go visit the scholarship applicant at home, eyeball the situation, and make a subjective call. "Yeah, this looks like a pretty rough situation. Juan deserves a shot."

I remember arguing with one of my Latin American workmates. I saw a newspaper in a house we were visiting. BINGO! That was enough for me. "This family doesn't need any scholarships . . they can afford to buy the newspaper!"

Not very scientific, and, ultimately, unacceptable.

So this year we are trying out something new. A score card. You can check out the English version here (pdf).

Last weekend we visited 21 families. And we kept score. The initial results were encouraging. Well, not encouraging of course . . . but, you know, I think this scorecard concept has potential.

Now the question is . . .

What to do with all these numbers?

[sigh]