This work is about bringing together different perceptions of poverty to improve the design of poverty alleviation policies. A case study in Honduras shows how locally derived poverty indicators, developed from village-level participatory appraisals of perceptions of poverty, can be extrapolated to country level using raw census data. The "well-being index," an average of several indicators, is robust and reflects actual local perceptions with 90% accuracy at village level. Because the index includes information that corresponds to the real-life situation of the poor, I suggest that policymakers consider building and using such bottom-up indicators. This implies a shift from economic to critical thinking that would lead to policies that are more easily adopted and monitored locally.