“Don’t Trade Your Backpack For A Baby”

September 25, 2015

The schoolyard rings with the laughter of children as volunteers pin a sign on the wall – “Don’t Trade your Backpack for a Baby,” it reads, the motto of a campaign against teen pregnancy.


Other volunteers lead the children in silly songs and dances, and from the perspective of the schoolyard, it’s hard to tell that this community is one of the poorest, most violent, and most dangerous areas of Tegucigalpa.


Noe (pronounced “No way”) wears a laminated “volunteer” badge over his t-shirt and looks out watchfully over the dozens of children writing in notebooks or helping each other finish their crafts.


Only 20 years old, Noe is already a respected community leader. He was voted president of his neighborhood, and in that position, he’s been instrumental in connecting his neighbors to electricity and even replacing the roof on the community center.


When his work in construction allows him, he loves to come and work with the same Youth Impact program that helped him not that many years ago. When he was 11, he said, he started attending ASJ’s (formerly known as AJS) Youth Impact Clubs.

The weekly clubs group children and teens with Christian mentors, social workers, and psychologists who teach them cooperation, respect, conflict-resolution methods, and self-esteem.


Noe contributes a lot of his accomplishments to what he learned in Impact Clubs. “I’m doing things I never thought I’d achieve, that I would never have dreamed about,” he said with a shy smile. “The clubs help us to be better. They change lives.”


More than 350 children attend Impact Clubs in three of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa and even more attend events and trainings like this one that Impact Clubs hold at local schools. In neighborhoods where the pull of drugs and gangs are strong, the clubs are designed to teach children that they have options — and that there is hope.

“There are a lot of good things and a lot of bad things in this world,” Noe shrugs, “we have to learn to choose.”


Impact Club volunteers silence the school children and launch into a skit that, in an age-appropriate way, shows a girl rebuffing the advance of an untrustworthy man.


“Get out of here!” the volunteer shouts, “You don’t respect me or my body.”



Stefany, the starring volunteer, is 19 and has already been leading a club for a year. It’s hard to believe that the enthusiastic, outgoing young woman used to be “in her own bubble,” as she said, not wanting to talk to anyone.


Stefany started going to an Impact Club when she was 14 and said it was the first time she felt she could step out of her shell: “I would get so excited when people would encourage me when they said I was doing something well.”


When she was 18, Stefany stepped into a leadership role. It’s been a lot of responsibility, she said, but gratifying.


These kids here think, ‘I’m poor. Why should I study? I’ll always be here, in this neighborhood.’ It’s so hard to change their minds.” But after a few years of encouragement, she says, “They have dreams. They say “I’m going to be a doctor, a nurse, an engineer.”


Stefany teaches initiative by example. With her mom working abroad, Stefany, like many other ASJ staff and volunteers lives out her faith with courage and resilience. She has to look out for her siblings and manage the small family store — still, at night she goes to a local university to study Preschool Education.


“My goal is to graduate and to work with kids,” she says, and passion lights up her eyes. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Hondurans cast their ballots during the November 30, 2025, general election, which saw historic vote
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Hondurans cast their ballots during the November 30, 2025, general election, which saw historic voter turnout and a peaceful process supported by more than 12,000 national and international election observers working to safeguard transparency.
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ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US Congratulate the Honduran People,  Call for Full and Transparent Results As sister organizations committed to justice, peace and hope in Honduras, ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US extend our deepest congratulations to the people of Honduras on the peaceful conduct of their national elections on November 30, 2025. With the initial tally showing an extraordinarily close vote, we call on election authorities to do what is necessary to ensure a transparent count of the remaining ballots in order to guarantee public trust in the final outcome. We commend the Honduran voters for their dedication to democratic participation and their commitment to shaping the future of their country through civic engagement. We also recognize the efforts of electoral authorities, civil society organizations, the international community and the thousands of volunteer observers who worked to ensure a transparent, orderly, and secure process. We are especially proud of our sister organization, ASJ-Honduras, for their unwavering commitment to democracy demonstrated through their electoral observation efforts, their analysis activities, and their consistent call for a fair and orderly process. Now that such a process has been achieved, the work turns to counting the votes with accuracy and transparency. The results remain close, increasing the possibility of a contested result. We support the work of the election officials at the National Electoral Council to give Hondurans confidence in the final results by conducting their count with rigor and transparency. We remain hopeful that the spirit of peaceful participation in the democratic process embraced by the electorate will carry forward into the post-election period to come. We look forward to continued collaboration with ASJ-Honduras as we all work together toward a just and hopeful future for all Hondurans. Matthew Van Geest President, Board of Directors ASJ-Canada Russ Jacobs President, Board of Directors ASJ-US
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Dear friend,  I couldn’t stop looking at the picture. Of course, there had been plenty of inspiring photos from this summer’s Prayer Walk for Peace and Democracy. The sea of blue and white rising and falling as hundreds of thousands walked the Honduran hills through Tegucigalpa, flowing like a never-ending stream. Catholic nuns praying their rosaries alongside Pentecostals dancing in the streets. But the picture that still knocks me flat is the closeup. The one of the two men standing side by side (picture enclosed). They are exhausted, and the shorter collapses into the taller. The tears mostly hold joy and relief, but they are mingled with something darker. After all, there had been threats—promises of harm done to themselves and their loved ones if they led their followers through the streets of Honduras in prayer. Despite the fear and intimidation, Pastor Gerardo Irías and Monsignor José Vicente Nácher forged ahead. They knew Honduras needed unity and, above all, prayer before the looming November 2025 presidential elections. As an ASJ supporter, you know that these kinds of threats aren’t out of the ordinary, and your support has helped slow and reverse violence in Honduras. Today, I am writing to share a way you can continue standing with brave Hondurans like Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José in hope. The Evangelical pastor and the Catholic archbishop put the word out as widely as they could to their churches, hoping to mobilize 20,000 to walk and pray. Instead, an estimated 230,000 walked in the capital of Tegucigalpa alone. It was a historic moment. And without your past support for ASJ, it may have never happened. After all, two years prior, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José didn’t even know each other’s names. They first met in 2023 at ASJ’s offices. They were two of many civil society leaders convened by ASJ to discuss safeguarding democracy– especially before the election in 2025. It was at that meeting that they shook each other’s hand and learned each other’s name. It was at that meeting–and many subsequent meetings–where old religious prejudices began to be replaced by trust and mutual affection. So, when the moment came this summer to act, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José knew what they had to do. And they knew that they had to do it together.
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