Current Projects
The Association for a More Just Society (AJS) funds and oversees a variety of projects carried out in Honduras:

Gideon Project
This project focuses on working with local churches in marginalized urban neighborhoods to run centers providing legal and psychological services at a symbolic cost. Since opening in 2004, the Gideon Centers have provided legal and psychological services for thousands of poor Hondurans—many of them victims of domestic violence —who would not have had access to these services otherwise. have Click here for the full story.

Land Rights
Thousands of Hondurans do not have legally valid titles to the land they live in, despite having lived on their plots for decades, in many cases with the permission of local governments. Lacking a land title not only produces stress and uncertainty; it also impedes people's ability to invest in their homes, and creates opportunities for unscrupulous but powerful individuals to grab land that isn't rightfully theirs.

A new Property Law passed in Honduras in 2004, thanks in part to AJS-supported advocacy efforts, has set a system in place to register and issue titles for land in hundreds of poor communities. AJS is supporting efforts to educate both residents of poor communities and government officials about the way the Property Law should be implemented. AJS also supports efforts to monitor the government's implementation of the law and to motivate officials to implement the law correctly.

Thanks in large part to these efforts, thousands of families finally have valid property titles for the first time ever.

Read here about how AJS-supported efforts helped the residents of Flor del Campo, a poor urban community, get titles.

Read here about AJS-supported efforts to protect the land rights of the indigenous Lenca community of Montaña Verde.

AJS supports efforts seeking to ensure that the labor rights of workers in three of the worst-offender industries—private security, fast food, and cleaning services—are respected.

Read here about AJS-supported efforts to do justice for fast-food workers whose labor rights were violated.

Read here about AJS-supported efforts to do justice for private security guards whose labor rights were violated.

Read here about AJS-supported efforts to defend the labor rights of cleaning women.

The Peace & Justice Project
The Peace & Justice Project helps make urban communities more peaceful and secure. Areas of focus include collaborating with justice officials in the arrest and prosecution of individuals causing harm to local communities, follow-up with victims of violence and their families, and community education and empowerment.

Revistazo.com
Most of the major newspapers and television stations in Honduras often fail to adequately address problems of corruption and poverty that affect the the most vulnerable of this country, particularly when the interests of the wealthy and powerful are at stake. But an AJS-supported online news magazine, Revistazo.Com, is breaking the mould. Read more.

Read some examples of Revistazo articles in English at www.revistazo.com/english.

Youth Transformation
“Prevention work is very important,” says Luís, a lawyer who works for the AJS-supported Peace & Justice project, which provides legal and investigative aid to poor victims of violent crime. “We can make a neighborhood safer and healthier for a certain amount of time by prosecuting people who are robbing, killing, or raping others. But children and young people in these neighborhoods will become violent as they get older unless they are given more opportunities to grow and contribute positively to the community.”

That's why AJS supports a project that is helping young people in three poor neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa become leaders in their communities. Read more.

Drunk Driving Laws
Despite thousands of accidents that occur every year in Honduras involving drunk drivers, until recently Honduran law failed to establish clear guidelines to control drunk drivers and to ensure consequences for offenders. Thanks to AJS-supported advocacy efforts carried out in partnership with families of the victims of accidents caused by drunk drivers resulted in the passage of new legislation making it easier to arrest and prosecute drunk drivers (Read more). AJS continues to support efforts to promote the just implementation of this law.

Forestry Law
Current legislation does little to protect the forests of Honduras, perhaps the country's most precious resource. Lack of adequate regulations has encouraged widespread deforestation and environmental degredation. AJS is supporting efforts in cooperation with other groups to protect the interests of the rural poor who depend on the forest and to enforce environmentally sustainable practices. Click here to read more.

The Association for a More Just Society (AJS) oversees and funds initiatives carried out by Honduran partner organization la Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ). AJS is a US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so all donations to AJS are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.