All posts by Michael Sabrio

bicycles, Tanzania

Tanzania Report, Spring 2020

By Norbert E. Mbwiliza
Spring 2020 Newsletter

[Our partner organization in Tanzania is The Norbert and Friends Missions (NFM). A Report from Fall 2019 gives an introduction to their program and offers stories from people who have received a bike or a sewing machine. Here is their report from spring 2020.]

The February shipment was due to arrive in Dar es Salaam on 16 December 2019, but in fact arrived on 16 February 2020. The delay of the container entailed a long wait of the NFM envoy tasked to process the container clearance. We had trouble getting information on the schedule of the arrival. The long-awaited container arrived on February 16, incurring unexpected expenses. We thank God that finally the container arrived safely and the clearance process started the same day, taking 11 days, from February 16th to February 26th.

The transfer of the container to Arusha started on February 26th and arrived at NFM headquarters on February 27th; unloading began immediately. Bicycles and sewing machines were given to beneficiaries according to the preferences indicated in their orders, as shown in this table.

Region District Number furnished to beneficiaries
Bicycles Sewing Machines
Arusha Arusha DC 350 12
Kurasini – 2
Dar es Salaam Segerea 4 13
Kilimanjaro Moshi DC 10 4
Kigoma Kigoma DC 10 2
Singida Ikungi 2 –
Total Distributed 376 32
Remaining stock 52 20

Tanzania Success Stories, Spring 2020

Grayson Godson

Grayson Godson, Remen Eliona, and Junior

[We got personal stories from three students who got bikes from The Norbert and Friends Missions: Grayson Godson, Remen Eliona, and Junior. Here are some of their comments about their lives before and after getting their bikes.]

Before Getting a Bike

“In order to be on time at school, I had to be up very early in the morning, when it was still dark.”

Remen Eliona

“I live a long way from school, so I was already tired when I got there in the morning.”

“The long distance from Sasi to Oldadai primary School was totally discouraging me. . . I was sometimes late.”

“In the evening, I was arriving very late and exhausted at home and did not have enough time and energy to review my lessons and do my homeworks.”

After Getting a Bike

“I do not have enough and proper words to describe my joy and happiness at this time. With this bicycle, I will no longer toil and arrive late at school.”

“This bicycle has provided me with an easy transport that makes me arrive quickly at school without fatigue enabling me to follow lessons in all class sessions.”

Junior

“I can now get an ample time to do my homework and make my readings.”

“I will henceforth have enough time to review my lesson, do my homeworks and rest enough to gather the needed energy for the next day.”

“I am happy that this bicycle will be of a great help to increase my performance as I look forward to doing my national examination this year.”

“I will be swiftly riding to and from school. I will moreover spare my energy for class sessions and am now confident to boost my performance.”

“I address many thanks to the Norbert and Friends Missions for having made all this possible through this bicycle.”

Ruth Mbeho

Being a mother of 3 children without any reliable income is an uncertain life, a life without tomorrow. This sewing machine came to rescue me from this situation as my family and I were deeply sinking in the muddy ocean of poverty. We have been raising our hand for anyone to rescue us and the Norbert and Friends Missions have seen our hand. With this sewing machine, we will help ourselves alleviate poverty and as well other girls and young women who will come our way to acquire tailoring skills or practical tailoring experience. This is the offer I can make to increase the community impact of the tools I have received. May God Bless The Norbert and Friends Missions.

Veronica

I am much this sewing machine and my business that keep me busy apart from generating an income. This sewing machine has created for me an employment and has taken me from the street. I will sell women fabrics in my Tailoring Mart to increase my income. It is very dangerous for a young lady to live a life without any income, heavily depending on parents or family members. This opens a wide door for mischievous deeds as it is easy to get lured. The Norbert and Friends Missions are really helping the very needy category of people like me. May God continue blessing them abundantly so that their helping hand can reach many people.

bicycles, Vietnam

Vietnam Success Story, Spring 2020

By Hanh Nguyen
Spring 2020 Newsletter

Vy Nguyen, 15 years old, was born into a poor family of four children in Vinh Long province, 120 miles west of Ho Chi Minh city. The family had only one dilapidated bicycle, which Vy rode to school, 3 miles from home, with her younger brother every morning. The couple came back home at about 11 a.m. Then Vy took her two sisters to school in the afternoon, and rode them back after school. Vy took care of the four of them while her parents were working.


Vy’s mother, Nga, worked as a lottery ticket seller. Every day she walked to sell the tickets from dawn to dusk, hardly making ends meet. The family’s income depended largely on her daily sale of tickets because they had no land for agriculture. The family faced a financial crunch due to her father’s unstable employment. The pressure of household and educational expenses of four children was continuously increasing. Sometimes they had to borrow money from relatives or friends to meet their daily household needs.

In 2015, when she was selling lottery tickets at a coffee shop, Vy’s mother met the local loan officer of The Dariu Foundation, P4P’s partner in Vietnam. The loan officer suggested that she join our microfinance program for loans and savings. In 2015, Nga took her first loan of 250 Swiss francs (about $250 U.S.) to invest in raising chickens and pigs. She continued her job selling tickets until 2016, which enabled her to repay the loan in weekly installments. In 2016, as part of a Dariu Foundation program, Vy’s mother got a P4P/SP sewing machine. She started a part-time job with the sewing machine instead of selling lottery tickets full time, and her income improved slightly.

In 2018, Vy was granted a bicycle donated by P4P via The Dariu Foundation. She used the bike in the morning and her sisters used it in the afternoon. In the afternoon, she also helped her mother with sewing jobs. This September, she will move to high school, which is 5 miles from home. The bike will be a great help to her and her family.

Over the past five years, the used bikes and sewing machines donated by P4P via The Dariu Foundation have enabled hundreds of families to overcome their difficulties, improve their mobility, incomes, and quality of life. This year, the foundation continues its partnership with P4P to extend its services to our friends and partner in Thailand. “I am sincerely grateful to P4P for your generous support,” said Hanh Nguyen, General Manager of The Dariu Foundation in Vietnam.

bicycles, Guatemala

Guatemala Success Story, Spring 2020

Isabel and Daniel

Maria Isabel Luna Salazar graduated from Perito Contador high school at 18 years old. She has a 13-year-old son named Juan Daniel. She is a single mother and lives with her 62-year-old mother since her father passed away when she was 24. Since then she had to take care of her mother and her two brothers. In February 2000 she started working at FIDESMA, keeping the accounts of the Foundation. She has been in charge of delivering credits and giving training to women’s groups in rural and urban areas, and also working in the sale and repair of bicycles. In 2019 we received our 20th container from Pedals For Progress, and Isabel completed her 20th year of working at FIDESMA.

Daniel at 3 months with his aunt while
Isabel inventories Container Guatemala #6

It is incredible how the donation of a bicycle can change the life of a person, a family, and an entire country. Isabel has had the opportunity to work at FIDESMA and thus has been able to support her family and pay for her son’s studies since second grade. Now that he is a teenager he volunteers to fix bikes at FIDESMA in his spare time. Isabel’s son has been growing along with the Bicycle Project.

During these twenty years the progress of Isabel and her family has been thanks to all those people who donate bicycles, resources no longer used in the U.S. There are many single mothers like Isabel who struggle to support their families doing decent work, and there are many more stories of how bikes can change lives. Isabel has shown that with a good attitude and teamwork it is possible to achieve dreams for both yourself and your family.

That is why Isabel wants to thank with all her heart Pedals For Progress and especially President David for this support, as well as all those who donate their bicycles in the U.S. We know that everyone makes a great effort to collaborate, and the results are very satisfying in the end. THANK YOU!

Collectors, InGear - The Newsletter of P4P

President’s Message, Spring 2020: Coronavirus

By Dave Schweidenback
Spring 2020 Newsletter

I was really excited coming into this spring as we had a great collection schedule. Over the last year and a half we have created many new exciting partnerships overseas: Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Togo, Tanzania. We had demand from our current partners in Albania, Kosovo, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. And we had a constant stream of solicitations from potential new partners. It was such a nice plan: a great collection schedule and lots of potential shipments. Then the coronavirus struck.

We run public gatherings with over 100 people attending. We run work crews of five or six men who load containers for shipment. On March 16th I made the decision to shutter all operations until April 20th. On March 29th I extended the shutdown until May 31st. It is just necessary. [On May 14th, we canceled the last of our spring 2020 collections because of the closure of South Brunswick High School, where the collection was scheduled for June 7th.]

Shutting down our spring operations means shutting down half of our annual production. A significant piece of our finances is the actual collecting and shipping of bicycles. That $10 donation with each bicycle or sewing machine adds up. It is what we use not only to pay for the truck, but also to pay our rent and for essential services. Is it possible we could run collections in June? I just don’t know.

Assuming we receive no assistance during this crisis, Pedals for Progress is in a position to maintain paying our employees through September. One would hope that in September we will renew our operations and then restart the cash flow. There is going to be a lot of pent-up demand from our partners overseas that were really expecting shipments this spring. We have 500+ bikes that were scheduled to be loaded for shipment to Thailand on March 28th. We cannot safely put five men in a 40-foot metal box for five hours to load the container. Like our collections, shipments also need to be put on hold.

The newsletter we can alter right up to the day we launch it on the website. But the solicitation that we sent to you needs to go to the printer then get labeled and mailed. It was written a month before you see it, and a lot can happen in a month these days. Since I wrote the solicitation, I have applied for a grant from the Small Business Association, a grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Association and the Paycheck Protection Program through our bank. We have not yet received any of these funds; however I do think there will be help coming from the government and that should help with our overhead for a minimum of two months.

Usually in the spring we are really busy with collections and then we produce our newsletter as time frees up near the end of the collection season in June. This year I hope to have some early summer collections, but at the moment we have lots of free time. So we decided to produce our spring newsletter now during this lockdown so we will have more time to run collections when this situation is behind us.

As always, we send a prepaid remit envelope in case you wish to make a donation. In this time of social distancing and limiting contact, consider making your donation online at our website www.p4p.org. It is a little more expensive than the prepaid envelope but might be safer.

Stay safe. Stay home. Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace will be back as soon as it is safe.

Sincerely,

Albania, bicycles

Coronavirus pandemic crisis in Albania, 15 March 2020

By Pass/Ecovolis
Spring 2020 Newsletter

P4P and PASS/Ecovolis support the community’s need to go on in the middle of a global crisis.

  • Free bicycles for doctors, nurses, and hospital staff in Tirana, Albania.
  • Brake adjustment and tire-inflating for anyone who still has to work or who has an immediate need to move.
  • Free bicycle transport for food, for pharmacy needs, for other support, for lonely elders.

Free bicycles for doctors, nurses, and hospital staffIt was the 15th of March, Summer Fest in Albania, one of the most popular holidays welcoming the summer, when everything was suddenly canceled. The decorations of that holiday still line the empty streets of Tirana.

The final order of the Albanian government: everything shuts down, everybody stays home. The situation is critical. Two weeks ago the pandemic had exploded in Italy, only 25 miles away from Albania. Thousands of Albanians fly in and out of Italy every day for work, business, and to meet their families. Many Italians work in Albania. The probability that the virus has invaded Albania is very high. The invisible enemy was in the air and sacrifice from everybody had to start.

A nurse says thank youQuickly we began supporting doctors and nurses by offering them free bicycles. Seventy bicycles from P4P are in use by doctors and nurses in Albania.

There are no cars in the city, no buses, no public transportation. The police and the military are serving 24 hours a day, every day. Ecovolis donated 30 children’s bicycles for the children of the police and soldiers on the front lines of the war with the virus.

Ecovolis also donated 15 bicycles to support employees of the postal service.

We donated 10 sewing machines to the elderly in difficult economic situations so they can work from home. Our activists also distributed food to poor communities.

The bicycle has helped fight the virus in Albania. P4P helped a society to continue life in the middle of a global crisis.

Sewing Partners, Togo

Robert Musil’s Sewing Machine: from New York to Sandra Anani in Togo

By Sandra Anani
Spring 2020 Newsletter

[The fall 2019 newsletter had the first part of the story of Robert Musil’s sewing machine, a 1912 Singer treadle machine that he used for several decades in his profession as a tailor. Robert’s family donated the machine to P4P/SP in 2019 and in October we shipped it to Togo. Here is the next part of the story, written by the woman who got Robert’s machine.]


My name is Sandra ANANI. I am a 37-year-old widow with two daughters. The older one is Joséphine, who is in her final year of high school. The second is Marceline, also a pupil in the high school. I lost my husband 11 years ago. I worked part-time as a housekeeper and as an assistant cook in a restaurant to support my family. In addition to this work, I also did laundry for people in need. I do everything that falls into my hand to earn money and take care of my daughters. I pay for food, tuition, and rent with enormous difficulties, despite the fact that I am a seamstress. I am a high-fashion designer and I sew clothes for men and women, but I could not afford to buy a sewing machine.

My husband had promised to open my workshop at the end of my apprenticeship, but unfortunately he died after a short illness just a year before the end of my training. My step-family put me and my two daughters out; since that time our life became really difficult.

Like many women my age in our community, I never had the chance to go to school. One day, I attended a talk organized by the DRVR Association at a literacy center in my village. That’s when I discovered that the DRVR Association runs a program that supplies sewing machines to the needy. I joined their program and now I have my very first sewing machine. With this machine I can open my workshop and practice my sewing trade, earn money and save money to support my family. My daughters’ future depends on their studies and now I have my machine which will allow me to work and pay their school fees.

Words fail me. The photo shows the joy that animates me and my daughters at this moment. We thank the DRVR association, Mr. David of Pedals for Progress, and especially the family of Mr. Robert, who donated this pedal sewing machine. As my family life has just changed and improved, I ask those responsible — DRVR and Pedals for Progress / Sewing Peace — to do the same for other people like me.

Business, Collectors

Letter on the Coronavirus, 17 March 2020, Updated March 27th

Dear Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace supporters,

We live in interesting times! Who could have guessed? With the present circumstances with the coronavirus it becomes incumbent upon all decision-makers to make decisions. While a spring cessation of collection activities will be decisively negative to the empowerment and development we do overseas, for our employees, collection sponsors, and the general donating public, for the immediate future, this seems like a no-brainer. We are in the time of crisis when we need to band together, independently with social distancing, to confront the crisis that immediately threatens us.

I am canceling all bicycle and sewing machines collections scheduled before June 1 April 20, 2020.

Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace are my dream. My sole endeavor has been to find a way through thoughtful recycling to help needy populations worldwide. For three decades we have been able to be successful and I have hopes we will continue in the future. However at this particular time in history, there exists a great existential financial threat to our institution. We need to cancel many of our most essential fundraising activities: bicycle and sewing machine collections.

Donations at bicycle and sewing machine collections represent a significant amount of our total income. While it is uncertain if we can survive such a blow, it is even more evident that we cannot put our staff, collection sponsors, and potential donors in harm’s way. At this time, every person and institution needs to do their part to help stop the spread of the virus.

While I am presently completely assured of the correctness of this decision, I, like most, do not have clarity into the length of the necessary cessation of activity. This is such a fluid moment that it’s very hard to tell what is true; there is just a lack of reliable information.

I gave the collection sponsors authority to reschedule or cancel their spring collection if it was in their best interests. I want to humbly thank the collection sponsors for their insistence to try to move on with the collections and get by this current virus problem. However as President, the buck stops here! At the end of the day I am responsible for everything that is done under the name of Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace. I accept this responsibility, always have, and take that responsibility with great humility.

A few years ago I listened to Channel 13 and one of the sponsors talked about a more burdened society. A burdened society is a society that has trouble providing for basic human needs, not only material goods but also social and political culture. It is incumbent on us in the international community to help burdened societies: to look out for the most vulnerable and promote the well being of all.

Canceling spring collections could have a devastating effect to our finances and that of our partner programs around the world. It does not however change the fact that I need to announce the cancellation of all bicycle and sewing machines collection before June 1 April 20, 2020. I am hopeful that as the springtime warmth returns, the virus will look less threatening and those early spring collections which are so critical to our overall success can be rescheduled to the fall or to June and July. I, like all of you, am hoping for a quick and immediate end to this crisis. Meanwhile we all need to act in the interest of our greater society for calm and safety.

I plead with you to continue supporting Pedals for Progress. We are a small institution doing vital work but this sort of financial threat could potentially be quite devastating. We are doing the best we can given the situation we are put in. I promise that we will always do the best we can do to fulfill our mission as soon as we can get out there doing public collections once again.




David Schweidenback
President, Pedals for Progress / Sewing Peace

bicycles, Collectors

Lesson Learned: kids are not buying as many bikes as they used to

By David Schweidenback

February 2020

In February 2021 I will have spent 30 years collecting bicycles. A lot has changed over the years. Initially we received mainly 10-speed bicycles with a smattering of old English 3-speeds. The most common brands were Schwinn and Huffy. Today we receive mainly mountain bikes and the most common brand name by far is Trek! This is actually quite an improvement because mountain bikes are much more useful in the areas we ship to.

When I started we received one 20-inch-tire bicycle for every two adult bikes we collected. This was important for several reasons. A 20-inch BMX or banana-seat bicycle is a great bicycle overseas. It’s the correct size for many adults in the developing world. And these bikes are basically indestructible.

The 20-inch bicycles were also very important in shipping. When we load a container, we put a row of adult bikes side-to-side in the container, plywood on top of them, and then a second tier of adult bikes. We then put cardboard on top of the second tier of adult bikes and have enough room to stand up a row of 20-inch bikes as a third tier. This arrangement uses all the space in the container, so we can fit more bikes.

During the last year or two we started just getting fewer and fewer 20-inch bicycles. When I first started we had no competition for bicycles but now there is significant competition from other groups that are also collecting bicycles for their own domestic purposes. Initially I just assumed someone else was getting those bikes before Pedals for Progress could. The number of 20-inch bikes just continued declining and I realized that competition could not explain the lack of collectible 20-inch bikes. It really has become a problem in the loading process: instead of rolling 20-inch bikes on top of the second tier we now need to lay adult bikes flat on top, which is very strenuous for the guys doing the loading: they’re in a cramped space, lifting 30-pound bikes, and bending forward to stack them.

I was speaking with a bike shop owner and I mentioned this problem of not having enough 20-inch bikes to fill the smaller places in our containers. He was not surprised at all and told me that although he had 20-inch bikes in his shop he almost never sold any. That’s when the light bulb lit up in my mind.

It is not competition taking the bikes but just the sheer lack of availability. Very few 10-year-old kids ask their parents for a bicycle for their birthday. New iPhones and virtual-reality goggles are preferred. There are still many kids of that age who have a bicycle, but every 10-year-old used to have a bike. Now it seems having a bike at that age is the exception, not the norm. Who knew? The lack of 20-inch bicycles is not some fault in our collection system. It is not a serious problem that threatens our Corporation but I was glad to learn the lesson: societies change.