Miriam Mondragon: Impacting Honduran Communities

April 17, 2019

ASJ’s (formerly known as AJS) impact clubs reach hundreds of children each year in some of Honduras’ most challenging communities. But our dream is even bigger – we want to equip other churches and organizations to use our methodology in their own communities, impacting children across Honduras to be peacemakers and agents of change. One of the principal leaders behind this replication movement has been Miriam Mondragon, who recently returned to her home country Sweden after nearly 14 years of work with ASJ. While we will miss her in our Honduran office, the project she led is only just beginning.

Miriam has been a tireless supporter of ASJ’s community programs since she joined the organization in 2005.

Seeing the pressures that children faced in Honduras’ most violent neighborhoods, a challenge weighed on her heart – “Who will reach these children first?” she asked herself, “The gangs, or the church?”

Through weekly youth impact clubs, ASJ seeks to be the church in the lives of these children, keeping them from violence and creating opportunities in their lives.

Over the years, these impact clubs have provided mentoring, community service opportunities, life skills classes, and psychological care to over 1,000 children, some of whom now work at ASJ. Miriam’s team also created “Strong Families,” workshops that equip parents and children to communicate better about love, boundaries, and discipline, challenging cycles of interfamilial violence. In her many years with ASJ, Miriam led youth protection advocacy in many sectors, including improving conditions for youth in juvenile detention centers and for children who testify in court after surviving violent crimes.

Whether it was helping to pass new legislation or quietly arranging to provide uniforms and school supplies to ASJ’s impact club children, her coworkers remember, “She always found a way.”

Though this work was often difficult, Miriam’s persistence and dedication led to many open doors. Even pastors or community leaders who were resistant to ASJ’s work would find their minds changed after a phone call with Miriam! In the office, her coworkers remember her generosity, encouragement, and creativity. Leading worship at staff devotions, devoting long weekends to community work, praying with a colleague after a difficult day – Miriam not only did justice, she lived her life justly.

Miriam’s most recent position at ASJ was the leader of a new team dedicated full-time to replicating our children and family programs. With new manuals and guides, Miriam and her team travel to churches and organizations to give them the tools and preparation to lead their own youth clubs and “Strong Families” programs. Now, new partnerships with the Catholic Church in Tegucigalpa, and the Church of God, one of Honduras’ largest denominations, promise to bring ASJ’s programs to hundreds more children and offering even more opportunity for expansion in the future.

As Miriam’s work expanded from community interventions to advocacy to replication, so did ASJ’s mission. Miriam exemplifies ASJ’s powerful approach to change—caring for survivors of injustice while also working to strengthen government systems.

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ASJ-US and ASJ-Canada Joint Statement on Honduran Elections

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

Artisans of Fraternity, Guardians of Hope

November 28, 2025

A call to action for Honduras

November 2025 ASJ-US Statement about Honduran Elections

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

Context Updates on the 2025 Elections in Honduras

November 13, 2025

Honduras’s Institutional Crisis Deepens Ahead of the 2025 Elections

HOPE

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.