The Association for a More Just Society (AJS) began funding the Gideon Project in June of 2004. Gideon Centers are designed to meet the legal and emotional needs of Honduras' poor.
the Association for a More Just Society (AJS)'s Honduran partner organization, ASJ, hired a psychologist and lawyer to train and supervise community members from local churches in how to give legal aid and counseling services to neighbors seeking help, and to handle the most serious cases. Offices have been set up in three communities within Tegucigalpa—Nueva Suyapa, Flor del Campo, and Villa Nueva—as well as in the town of Santa María del Real in the rural state of Olancho. All are services provided for a symbolic fee of just 10 Lempiras (50 cents U.S.).
Since the project started the three Gideon counseling centers have handled well over 1,000 cases, and have directly or indirectly benefitted some 6,000 people!
Below are just a few examples of the many success stories that the Gideon project has produced.
Recovering from Tragedy
A New Home
Angels of Comfort
What's in a Name?
Help for Ricardo
The Gideon center in Nueva Suyapa recently completed a six-month counseling process with a young boy whose aunt had been murdered close to his home. This tragedy caused the boy anxiety and insomnia, and provoked various behavior problems.
The death of his aunt added to problems caused by a previous tragedy—the death of the boy's father several years earlier. His mother was interested in remarrying, but though her son got along well with her boyfriend, he was opposed to their marrying due to an inability to come to closure in respect to his father's death.
After a half-year of therapy, the boy suffers much less from anxiety than previously, and his behavior both at home and school has improved. He has even said he thinks his mother's boyfriend is a good person, and that he would be happy if they married.
The boy's aunt, who lately has been the one bringing him to his appointments at the Gideon center, has thanked our volunteers for their help and told them she would like to bring her mother (the boy's grandmother) to the center, because she still has not been able to accept her daughter's murder.
A New HomeIn January Love, Faith, and Life Church , which provides the locale for the Gideon office in Flor del Campo, agreed to build a small house for Dilia López, a local woman who had been shot in the back by gang members and lost one of her legs due to resulting complications. One stipulation of the agreement was that in exchange for building the house Love, Faith, and Life Church would be transferred title to a portion of the property on which the house was to be built. (At that time the lot was owned by López's sister).
The Gideon legal team successfully guided both parties through the title-transfer process, enabling the church to begin construction of the house for López and her two young children.
Angels of ComfortEliza is a 20-year-old woman with a bright future but a tragic past. She was raped for the first time when she was just 5, and by the time she was in her early teens had been raped several more times, including by her own father. She ran away from home and was taken in by a family who treated her very well and helped her to continue her studies and find a job.
One year ago, having become an independent adult, she went back to live with her family. But being with them again brought back powerful memories of all that she had previously suffered. She went through a number of troubled relationships, both hetero- and homosexual, and suffered depression, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, and intense feelings of guilt. She considered suicide.
Today, six months of therapy with counselors at AJS's Gideon counseling center in the community of Villa Nueva has helped her regain self-confidence, define her sexual identity, and make better choices. She has moved to a different house and has begun attending a local church, determined to welcome Jesus into her heart and let him change her life. She is working on finishing a business degree, and hopes God will eventually help her find a loving husband.
Eliza says Gideon counselors have been no less than “angels” for her, sent by God to arrest her life's suicidal trajectory and put her back on the path of recognizing her own value and abilities.
What's in a Name?Juana Flores came to the Gideon Project counseling center in the community of Flor del Campo because her daughter's name had been incorrectly recorded on her birth certificate: a less-than-attentive official had written that her daughter's name was “Marlon”—a boy's name—instead of Marlén, a girl's name.
This unfortunate fumble had caused Marlén problems both with enrolling in school and with classmates who made mean jokes about her “boy's” name.
Gideon legal volunteers helped Juana make a request at the National Register of Persons that the name be corrected. Her request was accepted.
Today, Juana and her daughter are happy that now Marlén's real name is the one on her birth certificate.
Help for RicardoRicardo is 12 years old and lives with his aunt and uncle in Villa Nueva. Up until last year he lived with his father in the Southern part of Honduras. While living in the South no one worried about whether or not he went to school, nor if he learned behavioural norms and even less, if he learned basic values having healthy relationships.
Ricardo, still in the first grade, appeared to have very little interest in learning and acted out a lot in the classroom. Ricardo’s aunt brought him to the Gideon Project Office to have him evaluated to find out if he had a learning disability. She was worn out, no longer wanting to help him with his school work while he seemed to not understand anything. When Ricardo was evaluated there were signs that he had been sexually abused, which, Ricardo confirmed, telling Gideon Project staff that it had been his father. Signs of mental delay were also found during the evaluation, due partially to a possible brain injury. He was referred to a neurologist. The doctor gave some recommendations to Ricardo’s aunt, who is also an elementary school teacher, to continue with his learning, taking into account what was found in Ricardo’s psychological evaluation.
Through the help of the Gideon Project, the neurologist, and the dedication that his aunt has shown, Ricardo has been improving greatly at school, both academically and behaviourally, and he has been much more willing to cooperate with his aunt and uncle at home.
We thank God for using the Gideon Project to bring healing to families living in marginalized communities.
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.
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