Julieta and Tami: All That and a Bucket of Tortillas
To Rescue a Girl and Catch a Kidnapper

>Video Interview with Doña Julieta

"He even bought my entire bucket of tortillas." That's how doña Julieta,* a resident of an impoverished neighborhood on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, explains the way lawyer who works for the Association for a More Just Society's Honduran partner organization, ASJ, went above and beyond the call of duty in rescuing and defending her teenage granddaughter from a kidnapper.

Let me explain.

Doña Julieta makes and sells tortillas for a living. She rises early each morning to mix ground corn and water into masa, pat out balls of this dough into tortillas, and cook them on a griddle over a wood fire. She makes hundreds.

When she has filled a bushel-bucket full of tortillas, she or her granddaughters, who she raised herself almost since they were born, walk around the neighborhood selling them. Over the years they have established a regular routes and clients who await hot-off-the-griddle tortillas delivered to their doors each day.

One day not long ago, while Julieta's granddaughters were out on the daily tortilla route, an older man who was a regular client grabbed the oldest granddaughter, Tami, pushed her into a taxi, and sped off with her.

In days previous, this man had taken an unhealthy interest in Tami. Her sisters were wild with fear, and when, sobbing, they told doña Julieta what had happened, she was too.

For two days Julieta was paralyzed with helplessness. Tami did not reappear, and Julieta did not know who to turn to. It was one of her daughters who asked her why she didn't try her luck at a legal office just a few blocks from her home. Like in North America, lawyers
in Honduras charge a lot—and doña Julieta didn't have an extra cent. So she was skeptical.

But she went to the legal office anyways. It was the right decision.

The office was one of ASJ's Gideon Centers, and as soon as the paralegal volunteers there heard doña Julieta's story, they set out with her to report Tami's kidnapping to the police and other appropriate authorities

On her own, Julieta would likely have gotten lost in the maze of Honduran bureaucracy in trying to report Tami's kidnapping. In fact, she would not have been able to afford the bus and taxi fares needed to visit all police stations, court buildings, and other government offices necessary.

But the ASJ paralegals' knowledge of Honduras' police and court systems—and their
willingness not only to help Julieta for free but moreover to pay her bus far everywhere they needed to go—resulted in the police swiftly organizing a raid on the home where Tami was being held, resulting in her rescue and the kidnapper's arrest.

Tami was safe back at home, but being kidnapped and abused had left her emotionally traumatized. ASJ's psychologist began weekly therapy sessions to help her begin healing.

Now here's where that bucket of tortillas comes in. On the day doña Julieta was set to testify in court against the man who had kidnapped and abused her granddaughter, Luís, the ASJ lawyer who was representing she and Tami in court, drove up to their poor mountainside neighborhood to bring them to court. But when he pulled up to the corner where Julieta had set up shop, she had sold only a few of the hundreds of tortillas she had made early that
morning.

Fresh tortillas don't keep—if Julieta waited until she got back from court to sell all that remained in her bucket, they would go bad. But she had to get to court to give testimony that would keep Tami's kidnapper in prison and out of her life.

So that day Luís bought an entire bucket of tortillas.

That's the kind of dedication ASJ has to bringing about justice for the poor.

And this story is just one of hundreds of stories of fear, oppression, and injustice being replaced with justice and hope—thanks to your support of the Association for a More Just Society.

Learn more about the Gideon Project.

*Names changed for privacy and security.

>Video Interview with Doña Julieta

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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.