Walking Alongside Communities

October 29, 2020

We may be working from home, but that hasn’t stopped ASJ (formerly known as AJS) from connecting with the communities where we work in Tegucigalpa! While both our staff and community members have felt the weight of this season – caring for sick family members, tending children, feeling isolated – our staff has gone above and beyond to stay in the lives of some 300 families.


Through a messaging app, our staff continue to hold weekly sessions with our youth clubs, offering emotional support, homework assistance, and conflict resolution lessons.


We also conduct periodic online surveys with community members on their access to food, health, and education, allowing us to identify how we can best support them and advocate for them.


Staying in such close contact with community members helped us clearly detect the challenges our dedicated youth club members face to remain in school. When we learned that parents were debating taking their children out of school so they could redirect money for mobile data to food, we supplied internet packages.


Throughout this journey, we’ve been humbled by the way community members are leading the work of justice. Community auditors who monitor local schools and health clinics are still gathering virtually for training – even many of our soon-to-graduate teenagers are getting involved!


Another encouraging example comes from a department in western Honduras that has shown incredible dedication in not leaving any child behind. As we work with this department, we admire how teachers give lessons on radio and TV, and even personally deliver workbooks to homes without internet access. When a corner store owner learned that five children living on a mountainside had no access to internet, she invited them to use her business' TV for their studies. At a time when many students are dropping out of school, this department’s commitment has brought 790 more students to class!


As the Honduran school year comes to an end in November, we are turning our attention to creatively imagining what a safe return to school could look like when classes start again in February. ASJ is collaborating with teacher unions, youth-focused non-profits, and a major university so that we can identify needed investments in infrastructure, materials, and training. Together, we hope to contribute to an environment that helps families recover and hope in a more just future.

Hondurans cast their ballots during the November 30, 2025, general election, which saw historic vote
By Brian ASJ December 10, 2025
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.
December 2, 2025
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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A call to action for Honduras
By Elizabeth Hickel November 25, 2025
The Association for a More Justice Society-US Supports the Network to Defend Democracy; Calls for Free and Fair Elections in Honduras November 25, 2025
November 13, 2025
Honduras’s Institutional Crisis Deepens Ahead of the 2025 Elections
By Elizabeth Hickel November 12, 2025
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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