Poverty Crushers

Four years ago, I made “a big ask” of a successful business owner and well-respected Catholic philanthropist I had only recently met. A big ask for us is finding people willing to sponsor ten of our scholars at $3,000 each–or $30,000. Before answering my request, she asked me a really good question: “How do you know that what you are doing works?”

To be honest with her—and you—we had no proof. We had lots of stories about misery and resilience and a deep conviction in the difference we are making, but no empirical evidence I could point to. After sharing a few stories about our scholars, I confessed to our lack of good data and asked her to give me a year to gather it.

As life went for all of us, the pandemic got in the way of our plans, and what I thought we could gather in one year ended up taking four years. Thankfully, our delay did not impede her support. She made a gift so that we could begin teaching self-defense to girls in Ethiopia who are at constant risk of gender-based violence and police indifference in their community. Then, she started sponsoring ten of those young women each year in their quest for a college education too.

A few weeks ago, I emailed her the answer we discovered to how we know if our scholarships are working.

First, we asked all of the parents of our current Samaritan scholars to tell us how much income they bring in each month. We learned that our current scholars’ average household income is $152 per month. (Please note that this makes sense: We know from the World Health Organization that one out of ten people in the world live on less than $2 per day—or $60 per month—but in finding work inside a dumpsite, families can earn an average of $5 a day.)  

Then we researched the average household income in each of the seven countries in which we work, and we learned that the average household income is $222 per month.  

Finally, we surveyed our 300+ Samaritan Scholars who graduated from college or trade school since 2019 and asked them how much they make each month. This was a gulp moment for us, as we had no clue what the answer would be, but we began to think that we would be on the right path if our scholars were making at least twice as much as the homes from which they came.

When all of the data came back, and it includes scholars who are still unemployed and under-employed, we discovered that Samaritan alums are making an average of $422 per month—or almost three times as much as the homes of our current Samaritan Scholars!

This is a huge success that every one of you who gives has helped to make possible. When I emailed my friend a few weeks ago to share these results, this is what she wrote back:

What a beautiful way to start my day! Mike, this is such important information—praise God for his goodness to these beautiful people. The thought that I have as I review this is to acknowledge the critical fact that the young people already earning 3x their parents today are not yet their parents’ age.  Imagine what they might be earning ten to twenty years from now based on the start they have been given! International Samaritan is breaking the cycle of poverty so powerfully—it’s in the trash, crushed, ground to dust. Thanks be to God.

Thank you, each and every one of you—from the runners in the 5K to the donors who support this mission to the team members in each nation and the scholars themselves—for crushing the cycle of poverty. 

Thanks be to God!

International Samaritan is a Christ-centered organization built on Catholic Social Teaching. Our mission is to walk hand-in-hand with people who live and work in the garbage dumps of developing nations to help them break out of poverty.

We provide holistic scholarships for students from kindergarten through college, and we’re currently supporting nearly 1,000 scholars in Central America, the Caribbean, and East Africa.

Would your church or school group like to partner and travel with us? Learn about our Learn, Serve, Grow program.

Empower our scholars to change their lives. Become a monthly supporter.

Mike Tenbusch, President

Mike joined International Samaritan in 2018 after two decades of leading social change in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. He’s a University of Michigan Law grad and author of The Jonathan Effect: Helping Kids and Schools Win the Battle Against Poverty. He and his wife, Maritza, have three children who keep them young.