Transformemos Honduras is a coalition of over 20 Christian nonprofit organizations in Honduras, including the Association for a More Just Society, World Vision, Compassion International, and many others, who since 2009 have worked together for better public health and public education in Honduras.
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Coast To Coast 2017 Tackles New Advocacy Issue: Hours In Class
Jan 19, 2017
- With ASJ (formerly known as AJS) coalition “Transformemos Honduras”, over 130 cyclists biked 271 miles across Honduras to raise awareness for public education.
- Cyclists stopped at eight cities in seven days to recognize Honduras’ best public school students.
- At each event, ASJ announced new advocacy efforts to improve public education in Honduras.
From Honduras’ rainy Atlantic coast to its sunbaked Pacific shore, over 130 cyclists shared a simple message – for public education to improve in Honduras, all must do their part.
This is civil society coalition Transformemos Honduras’ seventh year hosting the annual bike race “Costa a Costa” or Coast to Coast. The event has grown to become not only a beloved tradition but also an important advocacy tool.
As the race threads through eight of Honduras’ biggest cities, Transformemos Honduras (TH) hosts public events recognizing Honduras’ best public school students, and calling on the government, on nonprofit organizations, on parents, teachers, and school administrators to work together to improve education in Honduras.
“We can’t just demand change from the government, we all need to join the work,” said Carlos Hernández, president of the Association for a More Just Society, a central member of Transformemos Honduras (TH).
Transformemos Honduras works to train and mobilize citizens to audit corruption and inefficiencies in public systems like health and education. TH then holds the government accountable with detailed diagnostic reports, as well as clear plans for improvement. This aligns with the coalition’s shared motto – “Pray. Dream. Work.”
“Sometimes as Christians, all we do is pray that things will change,” Carlos Hernández said, “We have to do more than that. We have to dream that things can actually be better. And then we have to work.”
This work has already seen clear results. When Transformemos Honduras started working with education, schools met for fewer than 125 days of class per year (students met just 88 days in 2009); teachers showed up to class sporadically, or not at all; and Honduras’ test scores ranked dead last in Latin America, a place they had kept since 2000.
Transformemos Honduras organized parents and concerned community members to record exactly how often schools met, bringing their findings before the government, the media, and the Honduran public. As a result, thousands mobilized around education reform, the Minister of Education was fired, and education in Honduras began to change. After just five years, days in class had jumped from an average of 125 to well over 200, teachers skipping class dropped from 26% to 1%, and test scores jumped from last place in Latin America to 10th out of 15th.
“I think we have to be optimistic and say that though grave challenges remain, we have achieved important things in education,” said Carlos Hernández, “This is thanks to the efforts of teachers, of students, of parents, but also civil society, which we are honored to be part of.”
Working with Honduras’ public education system means holding it accountable where it fails, but it also means recognizing where it has succeeded. Over the course of the Coast to Coast bike race, Transformemos Honduras awarded 40 children, five from each city, who had achieved academic excellence in their public schools.
These children, deep thinkers, eager learners, and big dreamers, serve as examples of what is possible.
During the event in San Pedro Sula, seven-year-old Genesis Amaya thanked Transformemos Honduras and the cyclists for the prizes, which included medals and shiny new bicycles. “It encourages us to continue learning,” she said, smiling through missing teeth.
“I feel really good and happy,” she added later, “Everyone in my house was so happy for me.”
As these students pursue their dreams, a strong education system will help make them possible.
“I want to be very smart so that I can do many things,” said Amner Padilla, who was the top student in his 2nd-grade class. “Sometimes I don’t really like to study, but my mom always makes me! Then they congratulate me in school.”
“I really like numbers and accounting,” said twelve-year-old Efrain Lopez, who finished sixth grade with 100% in all subjects. “I think one day I would like to work in a bank or a business.”
When asked what she hoped for from the future, seven-year-old Alexa Calix thought differently: “I want to be happy!”
In our work to improve education for the more than two million students in Honduras’ public schools, ASJ is working so that all these dreams – especially Alexa’s – can come true.
In its seventh annual year, Coast to Coast drew cyclists from seven different countries, from honeymooning Danish couple Hanna and Carsten to Honduran Supreme Court Justice Rafael Bustillo.
At the event in the city of Comayagua, his hometown, Bustillo thanked Transformemos Honduras for organizing the event, adding, “Children like this are our future, and we must continue to support them – young people, prepare yourselves, study, that is how our country will move forward.”
Nine cyclists from the United States also joined the race, fundraising to support ASJ’s education reform programs.
One of these cyclists, eleven-year-old Jonathah Bouwman from Grand Rapids, MI, who rode accompanied by her father, Joel, became the youngest cyclist to ever finish the race. “In my school, I have really good teachers,” she explained in Spanish, “Here in Honduras, it should be the same!”
At events in each of the eight cities, representatives from nonprofit organizations, local governments and school districts, and private businesses came together behind a common message.
“We are grateful to Transformemos Honduras for giving us this opportunity to participate in this event,” said Gennie Flores, general manager of Bikemart, a Honduran cycling store. “As civil society, we should be the first auditors of public education. I’ve been a volunteer with ASJ, and I can say that as a person I am motivated to continue in this movement.”
“Education is a very fundamental theme,” said Roman Canales, a representative from World Vision, “Education changes your life, it can cut the cycle of poverty. Without education, it is very difficult for us to develop our country. That is why we want a quality education for all children in Honduras.”
Since Transformemos Honduras began advocating for 200 days of class per year, the standard has been met for four years in a row. Now, says Transformemos Honduras coordinator Blanca Munguía, it is time to go farther.
“We have another goal in 2017,” said Munguía. “We want to go beyond the 200 days of class and ensure that each of those class days is effective. We want to push for continued changes so that in 2017 we ensure that each hour provides learning for the children.”
Transformemos Honduras published a study in December 2016 that found that just 74% of a typical school day was focused on academic content, below international standards.
In other words, though Honduran schools were now meeting over 200 days per year, some students still weren’t getting the full amount of education.
“Each hour should have content, it should have results,” said Munguía “The government should oversee this, and ensure that teachers that they hire are professional and come in through a clear and transparent hiring system. In that way, Honduras will have teachers who know how to best use class time and are able to teach students well.”
Over 130 cyclists biked across 270 miles of rough roads and mountains, through sun and rain, to add their voices to this message.
“We are finishing a week where these cyclists put forth a great deal of effort, and at the end, were able to say, ‘we did it!’” said Munguía, “I hope that at the end of 2017, in our fight for quality education we will also be able to say, ‘we did it!’.”
Check out Coast to Coast’s website for more photos and information about the event. For another chance to cycle in support of ASJ’s consider joining the Sea to Sea race across the United States and Canada this summer. Contact us to learn how to get involved!
Dear Friend, When I started as Executive Director at ASJ-US last October, I had many questions. How do I print to the office printer? What’s that password? Where’s the office coffee pot? What’s that password again? With a little over six months on the job now, I’ve had a lot of these early questions answered (blessedly, I found the coffee pot right away). There is one question, though, that I’ve become fixated on: What might Honduras look like 25 years from now because of the work of ASJ? It’s a big question. Sometimes, my present feels so full that it’s hard enough to even imagine what’s for dinner. But with some effort and creativity, I can catch glimpses of what this future can look like.
Why Justice Matters To Me: Omar Hernández
Mario the Bus Driver
ASJ’ Work Building a Safe Home Brave Christians working for justice in Honduras.
In recent issues of Justicia, we have shared about the melodies that inspire us to continue working for justice and why our staff call Honduras home . In this issue, we want to share with you what it means for Hondurans to build a safe home. We often see many people leaving other countries and coming to the US, searching for a better life. Although immigration is a complex topic, we understand there are always push and pull factors that motivate people living anywhere to either leave or stay in their home countries. Extortion in Honduras is one of the most pressing push factors displacing people from their homes. Gangs have been the traditional perpetrators of this crime. It’s so common Hondurans have a colloquial name for it: the “war tax.” Typically, extortionists will force business owners like bus and taxi owners, produce vendors, restaurant owners, and other members of the community to pay them a recurring fee under the threat of committing acts of violence against them or people they love if they fail to pay. Over 200,000 Honduran households are forced to pay extortion fees every year. On my first visit to Honduras as Executive Director in January, I witnessed the tremendous beauty of the country and its people. I also learned about the challenges Hondurans face. These two realities–beauty and challenge–exist side by side. But what we hear most clearly every day at ASJ from our Honduran friends and partners is how much they love their home. Many Honduran immigrants will say they would have stayed if they had felt safe enough to stay–if they knew their businesses could thrive and they could raise their children in peace. Staying true to our mission of being brave Christians, ASJ has been investigating the topic of extortion and developing proposals for how to address it in Honduras. With our work, we aim to build a safer Honduras for people like Mario, whose story you will read in this issue. As Mario will tell you, there is no place like home, and we are honored to participate in this work of building a safe home alongside our Honduran brothers and sisters.
November 2023 through January 2024
Hi Friend, It’s hard to do justice to the view of the mountains surrounding the town of La Union. Words (and even pictures) don’t quite capture it. I had caught glimpses of its panoramic majesty during the steep uphill drive into the mountain range the evening before, but its full beauty only hit me the next day. The morning had started with some cows in the dark and a handful of men coaxing milk from grateful udders. After the jugs had all been filled, a new task presented itself. A group of cattle had broken out of their enclosure on the other side of town and would need to be driven back. I mounted my horse, looking more at ease in the well-worn saddle than I felt, and joined the procession through the town's streets to the pasture where the cattle belonged. When we rounded the corner, my breath caught in my chest. “Pasture,” it transpired, meant something different here than it did to my Midwest mind. Rather than flat grassland, we found ourselves on a gently sloping hillside with a soaring vista of the surrounding mountains dotted with lavish forests, coffee fields, and other grazing livestock. Thousands of feet of ancient elevation pulsing with beauty and life. I couldn’t stop staring.
English ASJ-US calls for the Honduran government to protect and promote a strong civil society. ASJ-US expresses concern over continuing and escalating intimidation against non-governmental organizations that advocate for effective and transparent governance. In particular, it calls attention to attacks against ASJ-Honduras following the release of Transparency International’s annual report on the perception of corruption, which disclosed the country's stagnation in the fight against corruption, lack of accountability and high impunity. For over twenty five years, ASJ-US has supported ASJ-Honduras’s work on behalf of the most vulnerable Hondurans. Inspired by the commitment of brave Hondurans to advocate for justice, ASJ-US has provided financial support, including the full funding for ASJ-Honduras’s offices that opened in 2020. ASJ-US will continue to stand beside ASJ-Honduras’s work identifying areas needing improved government accountability and solutions to bring about that accountability. The independent and non-partisan monitoring and advocacy provided by ASJ-Honduras and Transparency International are essential to protect the interests of the Honduran people. Attacks and restrictions on civil society organization stifle the robust dialogue and engagement of the Honduran people essential to ensure a transparent government that meets the needs of the electorate. ASJ-US calls on the Honduran government to work with ASJ-Honduras to address the public’s concerns about impunity and corruption identified in the Transparency International report. Español ASJ-US pide al gobierno hondureño que proteja y promueva una sociedad civil fuerte. ASJ-US expresa su preocupación por la continua y creciente intimidación contra las organizaciones no gubernamentales que abogan por una gobernanza eficaz y transparente. En particular, llama la atención sobre los ataques contra ASJ-Honduras tras la publicación del informe anual de Transparencia Internacional sobre la percepción de la corrupción, que reveló el estancamiento del país en la lucha anticorrupción, rendición de cuentas y alta impunidad. Durante más de veinticinco años, ASJ-US ha apoyado el trabajo de ASJ-Honduras a favor de los hondureños más vulnerables. Inspirados por el compromiso de los valientes hondureños quienes abogan por la justicia, ASJ-US ha proporcionado apoyo financiero, incluyendo el financiamiento completo de las oficinas de ASJ-Honduras que se abrieron en 2020. ASJ-US continuará al lado del trabajo de ASJ-Honduras identificando áreas que necesitan una mejor rendición de cuentas del gobierno y soluciones para lograr esa rendición de cuentas. El monitoreo independiente y no partidista y la incidencia que proporcionan ASJ-Honduras y Transparencia Internacional son esenciales para proteger los intereses del pueblo hondureño. Los ataques y las restricciones a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil ahogan el diálogo sólido y la participación del pueblo hondureño necesarios para garantizar un gobierno transparente que satisfaga las necesidades del electorado. ASJ-US hace un llamado al gobierno hondureño para que colabore con ASJ-Honduras a fin de abordar las preocupaciones de la población sobre la impunidad y la corrupción identificadas en el informe de Transparencia Internacional.
On January 30th, 2024, ASJ unexpectedly became the target of a ferocious attack by the Honduran government—an attack that is escalating and has put ASJ and our staff at risk. I am writing to ask you to raise your voice in prayer, support, and advocacy as we determine how to best respond to this situation while continuing to work for justice in Honduras. The Situation: ASJ has the honor of being the Honduran chapter of Transparency International (TI), which produces the most influential corruption index in the world. On Tuesday, January 30, ASJ held a press conference to share Honduras’ ranking in the index published by TI early that morning (Honduras' rank had stayed the same as the previous year--154th out of 180 countries). Government officials, furious that Honduras’ ranking had not improved, immediately began to threaten ASJ and our staff in the media. First, the president of Congress, in his opening session of the year, said that “there would be consequences” for ASJ’s report. An hour later, another high-level official warned that “ASJ’s days are numbered.” On Wednesday, the minister of transparency announced that government authorities “would definitely be taking legal action against ASJ.” This is certainly not the first time that ASJ has been attacked and threatened for speaking up and telling the truth. We know from long experience that doing justice makes those who abuse their power angry. But this is the first time these attacks are coming directly from the Honduran government, which has the power to use legal and physical force to intimidate and silence its critics and seems increasingly willing to do so. The government’s threats are a stark example of the threats to democracy that are increasing around the world. We are taking these threats seriously and doing everything we can to ensure that our justice work continues uninterrupted. My friend and co-director, Carlos Hernandez, reminds us often that “Truth has power.” At ASJ we are committed to telling the truth —through our investigations and our press conferences. It is how we carry out God’s call to do justice for those most vulnerable, and it is not negotiable. But we know we cannot do this alone, especially in these moments. Our staff is always encouraged and sustained by the knowledge that thousands of people around the world care about what happens in Honduras and walk alongside them as they do this difficult work. Here are three ways you can stand with us today: Pray for wisdom as we respond to this threat, for the safety of our staff, and for a path forward as we continue our work. Sign up for prayer alerts here . Support us financially as we increase security measures in Honduras to make sure our staff stays safe during this volatile time. Call your congressional representative to tell them what is happening and urge them to speak out against the attacks against ASJ and against the Honduran government's increasing disregard for democratic rule. You can enter your zip code here to find your representative's office phone number. Feel free to use this script as a guide: My name is [NAME], and I am a constituent from [CITY]. I’m calling to tell you about very concerning attacks on a civil society organization that I support in Honduras called the Association for a More Just Society. Simply for publishing an independent report on corruption in the country, they are now being threatened and attacked by the Honduran government. Please do all you can to speak out against this abuse of power and to support civil society—in Honduras and around the world. Thank you for standing with us!
“At its simplest, justice is the way God intended for things to be.” -Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
Association for a More Just Society - U.S. (ASJ-US)
PO Box 888631, Grand Rapids, MI 49588
| info@asj-us.org | 1 (800) 897-1135
ASJ (formerly known as AJS) changed our name in 2021 to reflect our partnership with Honduras and our Honduran roots. Learn more.
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