7. Why?
social problems
+
weak institutions
=
Violence
Source: World Development Report 2011
8. Association for a
More Just Society
Brave Christians dedicated to making
Honduras’ system of laws and government
work properly to do justice for the poor; and
inspiring other Christians to do justice.
But as Christians, we can’t be ruled by fear. I John 4:18 says…
Honduras—middle of Central America.Gorgeous country--friendly, hardworking people.
Problemsis COMBINATION of stresseslikedrugs, poverty, lack of jobs and opportunities PLUS weakinstitutions:-law-enforcementsystem, and Government in general, thatisnotstrongenoughtoprovidesecurity, etc—and in some cases isn’treallyinterested in doingthis in thefirst place.
AJS wasbornout of a contradiction:In the time we’velived in Honduras, Protestant / EvangelicalChristianityexplode – from 5% of thepopulationtoalmost 50%; and renewal in theCatholicChurch.Founders of AJS worked in projectsthathelpedthepoor—literacy, feedingprograms, medicalebrigades, microloans—-and seenanexplosion in thiskind of worktoo. SeemslikeeveryplanecomingintoTegus has at least 3 short-termmissionsteams!Butwhatwaseffect?povertystayedthesame. Corruptionworse. Violence--murderstripled in thelastdecade, todayhavehighestmurderrate in theworld. Even “good” projectsaffected—peopledon’twanttoaccept micro-loansbecauseworriedgrowingbusinesswillattractextortinggangs, kidnappersWhat’sthepoint of growingchurch, volunteering, etc.—if no effectonissuesthathavesuchdeepeffectonlives of allHondurans, especiallythepoor?What’s holding us back isn’tthatChristians in Honduras don’tknowtheyshould be doingsomething—they do—butfear,hopelessness.So almost 15 years agoAssociation for a More Just Society was foundedMission is to be…Focusing especially on:ViolenceCorruption (abuse of entrustedpowerforprivategain – thinkpoliticianwholineshisownpocketswithGovtmoney)
Let’s put a personal face on the violence:Daniel—married, father of two. lives in one of the most dangerous and poorest neighborhoods Worked as fare collector on bus –instead of putting bus fare in a machine, just hand it to him. Big yellow busses, look like school busses
But most people in Honduras don’t trust policeSurvey we did a few years ago in our neighborhood:45% of those surveyed had been victims of a crime in the last 12 monthsOnly 4% reported it to the police.Not all police corruptBut 1 or 2 of ten —don’t know who you are talking to…3 examples of why afraidDDG: Dec 2006—one of 2 hit-men was on-duty police officerOctober: Son of President of the University of Honduras was carjacked, killed BY 8 POLICEMEN!December: one of Honduran governments experts on drug-trafficking was killed on his way to work—strongly suspect 2 high-level police officialsSo you are thinking about reporting a crime, you weigh the risks—you get one of the bad ones—might get you killed—is it worth it?
Police, prosecutors and judges also don’t trust and are afraidDon’t trust—if victims and witnesses won’t show up to testifyThey take risk arresting, preparing case—only to have it thrown outAfraidThen bad guys can go after them for arresting themOver 70 lawyers killed in last 3 yearsOver 40 police killed last year and 7 police killed just so far in 2012See the cycle of fear and mistrust feeds on itselfVictims don’t trust—so don’t show up for trialNeighbors see bad guys go free—see police/judges in their pocketsPolice and judges see victims not show up and co-workers killedWhy bother?We saw this happening in our neighborhood and decided needed to do something
Sohereiswhatwedidtogetjustice for DanielDaniel (red and whitestripedshirt)—withfearlessHonduranswhodaredtoriskthemselves, stand up for him:Wehired a Christianinvestigator—Wilson (onleft)Wehired a Christian psychologist--KarlaWehired a Christian lawyer—LuisAllcouldhavesafer, higher-payingjobs.Butinstead decide tohelp Daniel and otherslikehim.Theywere in this hospital roomwhen he woke upDaniel trustedusbecausewehadhelpedhisniecesAfter 5 years of workingwithauthorities—weknewwhoto trustBythe time he gotout—2 guyswerearrested and havenowbeenconvictedStilllives in sameneighborhoodwithhisfamily, feelssafe
Not just for Daniel--For whole neighborhood of Nueva Suyapa Remember in last decade murders in Honduras as whole tripliedIn NS--down by 80%If NS had just kept up with Honduras trend—over 80 homicides in 2010, instead had 8Power of fearless Christians—standing up, building trust
And we’ve been able to help over 200 people like Daniel—affected by assault, extortion, people whose family members have been murdered, children who have been sexually abused…Network of 70 collaborators established in neighborhood109 perpetrators convicted (out of 120 who went to trial)—good police, prosecutors and judges.HUGE: Honduras on average, 2% of crimes reported result in conviction; our cases: over 90%Some recent examples, all from the last month:Arrest of a serial rapist who had abducted and violated between as many as 40 young girls in the last year.Arrest of orphanage director who’d been abusing girls under his care for two decades.Conviction and sentencing of man who pulled teenage girl into an empty church building, raped her, stabbed her to death.A citywide criminal network trying to extort busses in Daniel’s neighborhood again—we’re working with bus owners, Govt, US Embassy to go after them.201 people receiving Christian healing with Karla and coworker Ada
Basedonourexperience in Nueva SuyapaAttorneyGeneral’s office and the detective unit of policeinitiallyinterested in designing a pilotproject—havebeenworkingonit for about a yearButnow—Honduras #1 in homicides, more pressure—wanttointergrateoursuccessinto a homicidemethodology for thewhole country!!
More and more AJSnotjustworkingon local level3 cases I mentionedbefore:DDGskillers—tooksus 2 yearsbutthe 2 killerswerecaught, tried, convicted and in jail for over 20 eyarsAndUniversitypresident’s son and Alfredo Landaverde’s cases notprogressing—in largepartbecause of lack of trust and fearonbothsidesBothfamilieshaveasked AJS to be thatbrdige of trust/toaccompanythem and authoritiesonthese 2 casesVictims trust us and weknowwhichinvestigators and prosecutorswillsolvethe cases
Notonlyjust Daniel, or Nueva Suyapa orHomicidemodel…HonduranCongressapproved in January a commissiontoclean up and reform—police, Attorney General and Courts—3 Honduranexperts and 2 internationalexperts (probably 1 from US)Wecreatedcoalitiontopush for reformVerycooltoseehowbroad, diverse; membersonleft and right. WorldVision, NationalAssociations of EvangelicalChurches, Catholicorganizations, NationalUniversity, majorFederation of Labor Unions…Lastfewweeksmetwith UN, EU, US ambassadorCarlos has methalf a dozen times with Pres Lobo in lastfewmonths…Goal—getrid of those 10-20% badapples and reformthesystem—more and more thinkitisgoingtohappen
And allthisjust a smallpart of whatwe are doing: ASJ – 60 peopleon staffAlsoaddressingviolenceonpreventionside – 250+ youthswhowereneitherworkingnor in school, startingtogetinvolvedwithgangs—now in ouryouthgroups, studying, havejobs.Investigatingmajorcorruption cases—misuse of publicfunds, abuse of power-- in congress, publiceduciationsystem, publichealthsystem; thisyearbecamepartner in Honduras forTransparency InternationalProviding legal services, counseling, and more tothousands of peopleeachyear…workingonLandRights, Labor Rights….-Ifyou’dliketoknow more abouttheseparts of ourwork, be happyto chat in Q&A; -and we are planning a tripto Honduras in Jan—askJillfordetailsSo as I hope you can see, even in themidst of thechallengingsituation in Honduras, thereis hope! There are manyvictoriestocelebrate!And many more to look forward to!Uniqueabout AJSBraveChristiansWorkingwithGov’tWorkingon individual butalso macro level
End with my favorite versePerfect love seems very abstract/impossibleMaybe not too connected to justice/AJS workBut when we talk about doing justice in Honduras/US—scary, fearful, why do it?But I have a daughter Anna, 18, If someone trying to hurt her—wouldn’t matter….. That is Perfect loveand if she was here at William Jewel and someone going to hurt ….And if your brother/sister/ were in Honduras—you would want meEveryone—Anna/daniel/bienvenida… is someones daughter, brother, mom… and all have someone who wants us to actChallenge—To all of us today—seek to love like that, a love that drives our fear, a love that empowers us to do justice
SO, thechallenge for ustodayistwofold:How can we love Fearlessly the Hondurans working for justice3 exciting and scary opportunities to transform the future of HondurasI would ask all of you to consider--prayer,encourage, advocate, support…How are we doing in our own lives? Where is God pushing us to love more fearlessly??Takes courage and love—but God wants to use us to do great things!
