ASJ Featured On Television Stations Across The United States

February 26, 2019

A group of U.S. broadcast journalists recently visited ASJ (formerly known as AJS) in Honduras to learn more about what we are doing to reduce violence and corruption, two of the root causes of migration from Honduras.


Now we’re excited to share that our work to make Honduras a more just society is being featured on local television stations across the United States this month!


About 30 years ago, Kurt Ver Beek and his family moved to Honduras. As they got to know their neighbors, they became increasingly aware of an unaddressed problem: violence. One day, one of Kurt’s neighbors was brutally killed.


He remembers,

“A few months went by and ended up 13 more people got killed. That’s after we knew who the murderers were. We had a witness, but we didn’t know what to do with that.”

Click to Watch the Full Interview >

Kurt and his friend Carlos Hernández were compelled to stand up to violence in their community. Together they organized a team of brave Hondurans – a lawyer, a psychologist, and an investigator – to help victim’s families and murder witnesses feel safe enough to testify. They also provided technical support to improve the police’s investigations of crimes. Over time, murders in the neighborhood dropped from about 42 to a year to 8 a year!


Next, the ASJ team decided to tackle the police, long known for being either corrupt or ineffective. Alongside other civil society groups, ASJ participated in a national commission to purge and transform the national police.


The commission evaluated every single police officer, and as a result, Kurt reports,

“They’ve ended up firing over 5,000 out of a total of 13,000 cops. That’s almost half of the police force.”

Now the ASJ team is working to make sure police officers operate ethically and effectively in Honduras. We invite you to watch and share this video as we continue the work of reducing violence and making systems work in Honduras. Thank you for supporting the work of these change-makers!

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
November 28, 2025
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.
November 11, 2025
Calvin alums turn faith into action through nonprofit
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September 10, 2025
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When Policies Shift, Families Pay the Price * by Jo Ann Van Engen
September 2, 2025
Inspiring civil society in the US with a vision of a more just society
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