All posts by Michael Sabrio

bicycles, Fiji, Peace Corps, Sewing Partners

Bula Vinaka from Fiji

Spring 2016 InGear

My name is Percival Epeli Navolo and I reside on the beautiful tropical land known as the Fiji Islands.

2016springFijiBikeGroupLife here on the Island has not fully modernized in certain areas compared to larger countries and many of us live day to day. Here on the Island income levels are low and many do not have the privilege of high-level education, so they cannot get good jobs. Still they have the capacity and capability of man and will power. I have involved myself in the sport of cycling for 30 years and have seen the benefits the sport brings, physically, mentally and environmentally. With the firm boosting support from the NGO organizations Pedals for Progress and Friends of Fiji, many Fijians now have a milestone opportunity to have their lives transformed.

I am formerly the president for a nationally recognised club known as the Nadi Cycling Club. We just got a 40-foot container provided by Pedals for Progress, Friends of Fiji, Green Mountain Peace Corps Volunteers, and Clif Bar Family Foundation. The container had 440 various species of bicycles and 68 perfectly operabable sewing machines.

With these materials the club can now fulfill our 3 basic goals:

  • Help unemployed youths avoid violence, and instead train them in the field of bike mechanics, the bicycle trade, and the development of the sport in the country.

  • Provide inexpensive, good-quality bicycles to low-income earners who need transportation to distant job locations. Besides giving them efficient transportation, bikes also help maintain their physical fitness.

  • And most importantly, advocate a more environmentally friendly mode of transportation, to lessen the release of harmful gases into the atmosphere, reducing damage to the ozone layer.

2016springFijiSewingGroupWe believe that each individual effort can make a difference. We were also blessed to have the first-hand privilege of helping unemployed widows who struggle to put food on their tables to feed their little young loved ones. With a source of income, these talented ladies can now use these sewing machines and sell garments they sew. Though it may not be hundreds or millions a day, the lovely smiles of relief on their faces gave us a humble relief that it was more than enough.

So we encourage all the donors and volunteers who have contributed to making a difference in individual lives all over the world to continue their hand in creating smiles and happiness.

So from the Nadi Cycling Club here in the Fiji Islands, we would like to convey a Big Vinaka Vakalevu to Pedals for Progress, Friends of Fiji, Clif Bar Family Foundation, Green Mountain Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and all the contributors for their extensive support in helping us here in the Fiji Islands move forward towards a better tomorrow.

bicycles, Guatemala, Sewing Partners

FIDESMA report, January 2016

by Margarita Caté de Catú, President of FIDESMA, Guatemala

From December 1999 through 2015, we have received from Pedals For Progress 16 containers with 8,160 bikes and 400 sewing machines, which have directly benefited more than 8,560 people and their families.

The program has brought important benefits to our organization, to our communities, and to the country of Guatemala as a whole.

In San Andrés Itzapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, we face many problems: lack of employment, lack of opportunities for women, lack of education about the environment. Children suffer from malnutrition and lack of education and job training.

201601GuatBoyBlueBikeBut the FIDESMA/Pedals project gives kids and adults the chance to buy a bike to get around faster to school and to work, and to get some exercise, all without polluting the environment. As we have heard many times over the years, bicycles help people with their jobs. As examples consider the administrative staff of the foundation: a secretary, an accountant, a salesman, and a mechanic. With the help of their bikes, they all earn salaries that support their families.

Likewise our sewing machines benefit many families. Groups of women artisans work every day to earn a living and buy food for their children.

Besides its bicycle and sewing machine programs, FIDESMA generates funds for the maintenance and operation of the organization, for creating jobs, and for supporting social service projects. For example, we run one project for children and young people with disabilities, and another project that provides medical equipment, medicine, and basic food to the project’s medical clinics. Another project provides teaching materials to schools.

We also provide support groups for the training of women in areas such as these:

  • crafts
  • farming
  • participatory citizenship
  • dressmaking
  • baking
  • food packaging
  • welding

Directly and indirectly, FIDESMA has benefited more than 20,000 people across the country of Guatemala, which is why we are grateful to Pedals for Progress and especially its president David Schweindenback for the selfless support extended to us for the last 16 years.

[To see a recent photo album from Guatemala, click here.]

bicycles, Guatemala, Sewing Partners

2015 Guatemala Photo Album

[Margarita Caté de Catú, President of FIDESMA, our partner in Guatemala, sent in a report on their recent activities. Click here to see her report. She also sent lots of great photos. Here they are.]

201601GuatDonationSixthGrade

Sixth-Grade Raffle

We donated bicycles for a sixth grade raffle to raise funds to buy uniforms and equipment for their soccer and basketball teams.

201601GuatGirlWheelchair

Children and Youth with Disabilities

We deliver groceries to children and youth with disabilities.



201601GuatMenBankPromotion

Community Banks

We promote community banks and training for small businesses.



ecolobiciGuatemalaLogo

Ecolobici

Ecolobici, our bicycle program, provides and promotes bicycles for men, women, and children of all ages.
201601GuatBoyOrangeBike

201601GuatGirlBigPinkBike



201601GuatBikersWkits

We organize cycling events.

201601GuatGroupRideInCity


201601GuatBikesInTrucks

We bring bikes to surrounding communities.



201601GuatKidsInSchool

Schools

We provide teaching materials to schools.



201601GuatWomenMeeting

Women’s Programs

We provide several programs for women.


201601GuatWomanWithProduce

Farming


201601GuatSewingMachinesWomen

Dressmaking



201601GuatWomenBaking

Baking


201601GuatThanksP4P

Gracias, Pedals for Progress!

Sewing Partners, Tanzania

2015 Update from Tanzania

tanzania2menSewingIMG_20151029_114109

[In 2013 and 2014, P4P shipped its first two pallets of sewing machines to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. In November of 2015, we got this update from Mr. Jonathan Mulokozi of Community Support Mission, our partner there.]

Dear David,

Here is our work report.

We sold 35 sewing machines, each for 100,000 Tanzania shillings (about $46 U.S.). These sales cover our shipping and port charges, so we can use the rest of the machines to make a profit.

tanzaniaManModelingSuitIMG_20150924_160339We sold 10 of the other machines to a Member of Parliament in the Mbeya region, where she distributed the machines to women’s groups.

We use other machines in the three new sewing and training centers we opened in Karagwe. We employ 3 technicians to teach tailoring, and we have 6 students. Our main customers are primary schools and secondary schools. From the sale of clothes we make, we made 2,100,000 Tanzania shillings (about $1000 U.S.).

With income from the sewing centers plus a donation from the Edinburgh Global Partnerships, we bought a corn milling machine. With this machine we make Grade A Super Maize Flour.

tanzaniaMachineIMG_20151024_073432Because we did not have a proper power source for the milling machine, we completed a separate project to supply it with electricity. The electricity project involved running new power lines to our machine from the main power line from Uganda to Tanzania. With the new power, ten local families have electricity for the first time.

We hope that you will be able to send more sewing machines by early 2016, and that we will have enough funds to get more bicycles and sewing machines after that.

Thanks.
Mr. Jonathan Mulokozi
CSM Tanzania, East Africa
Fall 2015

Albania, bicycles, Sewing Partners

Loading a Container for Albania

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingContainerDSCN2536On Saturday, 14 November 2015, a beefed up P4P crew loaded the eighth container bound for EcoVolis, our partner in Albania.

Loading is one of the P4P activities that happens behind the scenes, and the loading is a marvel to behold. These loadings take a combination of long experience, mechanical engineering, spatial awareness, young backs and muscles, brute strength, stamina, pizza, and the luck of the draw on what we have to load.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingDSCN2542earlyLoadingContainers are not built to fit bicycles, so there are delicate geometric calculations on what goes where. Adult bikes are our primary product, but we always have kids’ bikes, too, of several different sizes, each with its own personal preferences about where and how it wants to be loaded. We use plywood and cardboard to stack and separate the bikes. We use whatever parts and tools we have to fill the nooks and crannies in the rows of bikes.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingAlmostFullDSCN2548Cost of shipping is the same no matter what the container weighs, so the idea is to pack it as full as possible. Dave’s guidelines for processing bikes are very specific: pedals off, handlebars turned sideways and down, seat lowered – we aim to make the bike as narrow and as short as possible.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingAlmostDoneDSCN2559A completely empty trailer is a daunting sight, but it starts to fill up pretty quickly. When all was said and done, here’s what went into the Albania container on Saturday: 483 bikes, 34 sewing machines, 10 wheels, 20 tires, 8 baskets, and 1 child bike-seat.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingDoneDSCN2567Those were the larger items. The smaller items went into 43 gym bags that get stuffed wherever they fit: 31 sets of pedals, 7 sets of training wheels, 1 socket toolkit, 1 pump, 13 helmets, 3 saddles, 2 handlebar bags, 6 sets of pegs, 5 inner tubes, 2 brake assemblies, 2 handfuls of nuts and bolts, and 1 chain-breaking tool.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingClosingDoorDSCN2569As Dave says, there’s no good way to finish the packing. We pack the left side all the way, then shut one of the two rear doors. Then we fill every remaining cubic millimeter in a way, we hope, that won’t cause a huge landslide when the container is opened. Our partners have learned to open the doors gingerly on arrival!

bicycles, Fiji, Peace Corps

A 23-year Relationship with Fiji

by David Schweidenback
Fall 2015

One of the things about Pedals for Progress that makes us most proud is the tenure of commitment we share with our partners overseas. Indeed, our oldest partner, EcoBici, in Rivas, Nicaragua, has been receiving shipments regularly since 1992: in the last 23 years, we’ve delivered 24,214 bikes and 182 sewing machines there.

After Nicaragua, the second nation that we shipped bicycles to was Fiji back in 1993. In those days the port facilities had not been improved since World War II and the cranes were only capable of lifting 20-foot containers. Between 1993 and 2002, we made six shipments of bicycles to Fiji totaling 1,012 bicycles.

The program started out as a Junior Achievement Project and has been continuing ever since. Percy Navolo, the director of the Nadi Cycling Club, dedicated himself to the sport of cycling and the promotion of cycling in Fiji. Indeed, even more than the distribution of bikes and the promotion of cycling in general, Percy has engaged at risk youth into the sport of cycling by training them to be bicycle mechanics.

We had not heard from Percy in over a decade but he wrote to us this summer expressing his desire to receive another container of bicycles to push the program forward again. Beyond training youth, Percy is keenly aware of the daily stress on the many Fijians who lack basic transportation. The Nadi Cycling Club will use the bicycles in the training of its students but also will distribute the bicycles to the general local population as basic transportation.

Percy had saved up a little over half of the cost of shipping the 40-foot container. The Friends of Fiji, a national organization of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Fiji, has once again stepped up to the plate with funding to help with the shipping costs. So, too, has the Clif Bar Family Foundation, whose financial support has made Pedals for Progress more nimble, agile, and flexible over the last 10 years. Their assistance greatly extends the reach of Pedals for Progress and has allowed many more containers to reach those in need.

2015 Oct 24 Loading Fiji ContainerWhile the majority of the bikes were collected for Pedals for Progress by service clubs such as Rotary, religious institutions, and state agencies, 140 bikes in this shipment were collected by the Green Mountain Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (GMRPCV). This unplanned bonus closes the circle for Peace Corps involvement in all phases of the Pedals for Progress program: collection, consolidation, shipping, and distribution. The Green Mountain RPCVs held their annual Pedals for Progress bicycle collection in late September. The third goal of the Peace Corps is to take what you learned while serving and continue the mission. I, as a former Peace Corps volunteer, take the third goal very seriously and have dedicated my life to economic development in the Developing World. So two organizations in the United States, GMRPCV and P4P, while pursuing the third goal of the Peace Corps, will have a dramatic impact on the first goal of the Peace Corps, which is to create positive change. It is so satisfying when it all comes together.

2015 Oct 24 Fiji Container LoadedSo today, October 24th, 2015, we loaded a container with 440 bicycles and 68 sewing machines bound for Fiji. A special thank you to the Vineland and Westfield Rotary clubs in New Jersey, the Middletown Rotary Club in Delaware, and the Newtown Rotary Club in Pennsylvania, who kindly donated the volunteer effort to collect the bikes and sewing machines that allowed this shipment to happen. The shipment, while a small drop in a very big bucket of need, will allow at least 500 families to help themselves with sustainable basic transportation and many more with sewing machines. That is all they ever ask for, a helping hand, not a hand out.

Albania, bicycles

Klodi, a New Bike Owner in Albania

by Ened Mato
Fall 2015 InGear

Pedaling towards freedom… This is a story about a 7-year-old boy named Klodi. Because of a vendetta initiated by his father and the resulting threats from another family, Klodi has lost his opportunity to go to school and to learn basic mathematics and how to read and write. Klodi is one of 70 similar children who share the same isolation from society and isolation from opportunities.

2015fallAlbania_Klodi_AlbaniaEcovolis donated the first 3 bikes to these children in the Malesia and Madhe region of Albania. The Malesia and Madhe region is in the far northwest of Albania, about 100 miles from the capital, Tirana, where the P4P partner Ecovolis runs the bike sharing program described in the Summer 2011 InGear newsletter. The Malesia and Madhe region is home to about 40,000 of the 3 million people of Albania. The region lies on the Albanian border with Montenegro. To the west lies the Adriatic Sea, which separates Albania from the bootheel of southeastern Italy.

2015fallAlbaniaKlodi_10We’ve had a very positive reaction from the community and the media, so we decided to expand our program to the children of 20 other families who remain confined to their homes because of vendettas.

What we saw when we visited these families was really different from what we usually see on TV, as this subject has been covered by the media in Albania many times. We knew of difficult living conditions; what we learned was that not only were the situations unchanged for many years but that children were under even more pressure than we thought. Not only did the families have little to no access to education. The children were also robbed of their childhood in other ways, because a majority of the families had little to no income and they could not afford the simplest of toys.

We were accompanied by a local volunteer teacher, Liljana Luani, who teaches these children basic reading skills and math. She told us many details of how these families lived and survived; it was really sad how little was done for them.

5-1We talked to many children. Most of them, because they had no social life, were terribly withdrawn. They spent all day with their families but they made no friends and were eager to do something new. They did not know that we were coming to visit, and you could see the surprise and pleasure in their eyes to meet new people and receive a gift most loved by children, this small symbol of freedom – a bicycle. We spent some time with each of them in order to learn their names, ages, and daily routines. But they could not take their eyes off the bikes. Even though the Malesia and Madhe region is very near Shkodra, which historically is the Albanian bike capital, half of the children didn’t know how to ride a bike. We helped them with the basics and did our best to equip and modify the bikes to the needs and pleasures of the children.

We had a very positive reaction to our social programs. The media drew attention to the problem once more, but the coverage was different: this time there were more smiles. As we made clear on every single occasion, we know the needs of these children are big and various. If we could, we would do more, give more. Equipping these children with bikes is a pleasure for us, because it’s a pleasure for them.

We are talking with Liljana about giving sewing machine to some of the mothers so they can create handicrafts to sell and raise their income. We will let you know the details as our plans evolve.

bicycles, Guatemala, Sewing Partners

Guatemala Update

Spring 2015 InGear

San Jose Artesanas

There is a small town in Cimaltenango, a department of Guatemala, where a group of 17 housewives and mothers have changed their fortunes. San José Poaquil is an isolated area and the residents of this municipality have little opportunity for economic and educational improvement. Still, one particular woman named Marta had the initiative to work for change. Under her guidance, the local women learned the craft of sewing and began to create and market blouses that are typical of their region.

San Jose Poaquil, Guatemala
San Jose Poaquil, Guatemala

They began with only one sewing machine to share among them. The success of the sales of these blouses enabled them to save enough so that they, through FIDESMA and P4P, could acquire more machines. Each blouse brings in about Q50.00 or Q100.00 (Guatemalan Quetzals), which is enough to improve their ability to get better food and other important resources for their families, which consist of anywhere from 3 to 9 children. Access to these sewing machines will eventually lead to long-term opportunities as these women continue to establish themselves as artists and businesswomen.

Abner Ottoniel Siquinajay Popol

Abner on his bicycle
Abner on his bicycle

Abner has a small family since his father abandoned them when he was only eight months old and his older brother was two years old. The child’s mother, whose name is Reyna Elizabeth Siquinajay, works in a tortilla company, where she earns very little and not enough to pay for the education of her children. Therefore Abner has worked as a shoeshine boy since he was 7 years old. He works during the evenings in the park and in the different houses of the village. Abner received the donation of a BMX bike from the FIDESMA Foundation to increase his mobility so that he could complete more work in his evenings. With support from Pedal for Progress, FIDESMA has received 15 containers of bicycles, parts, and sewing machines for sale since 1999. Most of the bicycles and sewing machines are sold at low cost; however occasionally for cases like Abner’s the bicycle is donated. It is a special case of a child working in the evenings to pay for school in the morning at the National Urban Mixed School September 15. It is admirable that a human being at such a young age can take responsibility and desire to excel as this boy of just 12 years, whose dream is to some day graduate Master of Primary Education.