After a decade of independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the southern Caucasus region — Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan — continues to face economic difficulties and the risk of renewed conflict and internal strife. Specifically, conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh, and secessionist movements in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and south Ossetia have created more than 900,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Caucasus.
In response to this growing humanitarian crisis and rapid decline in living standards, IRD began operations in this country in 1999. Some highlights of our work include:
Rural Enterprise Support — Assistance to farmers and other rural entrepreneurs to improve the quality of their lives by increasing their incomes;
Health Care — Emergency distribution of pharmaceutical and medical supplies, training for medical professionals and construction of medical facilities;
Emergency Survival Aid — Distributing food parcels, hygiene kits, school kits, blankets, tools and seeds to refugees, IDPs and local vulnerable populations;
Repatriation and Reintegration — Providing direct assistance to IDPs and refugees through direct food and clothing distributions and income generation opportunities; and
NGO Capacity Building — Providing small grants and management assistance to local NGOs to help them improve and expand community services.
Retrieved from http://www.ird.org/our-work/by-region/europe/georgia on 1 November 2014 by the Internet Archive WayBackMachine.
On May 17th, 2014, the Norristown, PA, Rotary Club ran a collection as part of West Norriton Township Community Day. We were basically part of a community fair, which made the collection really unusual: besides our bicycles and sewing machines, also on hand were pony rides, a SWAT team, a helicopter landing, a magic show, Pinkie the Clown, a police exhibit with handcuffs that one of the Rotary members tried to use on her club president, and “Costumed Characters”—Batman stopped by to give the thumbs up to our bikes. A Rotary Club member has a heating and air-conditioning business with a trailer where the club collects and stores bikes and sewing machines throughout the year. We got 39 bikes and 4 sewing machines, including a gorgeous old Singer treadle machine with ornate wooden carving on the drawer fronts. Great job, guys, and keep up the good work.
You’ve read about our partner in Guatemala, FIDESMA, the organization that promotes economic development through micro-credit, training in textile design and agricultural programs, among other efforts. They are doing so much to contribute to the needs of the people in their region and we are pleased to have some updates for you.Grant Recipents with their P4P bicycles
Three young men, poor students, were awarded a grant from FIDESMA for employment training in welding. The funds were raised through the sale of the bicycles sent from P4P. Without the bicycles that were transformed into needed funds, these young men could not possibly have begun, much less finished, the four months of required training. They completed their course in November of 2013.
These young men also needed to be able to put these skills to use. This of course meant that they needed employment opportunities and a way to access the locations where they would work. A blacksmith shop was made available to them and there they created metal ornaments, bikes and candlesticks to generate the income that would continue to reinforce their financial independence. In December, these men were able to acquire bicycles that had arrived in the 14th container shipped from P4P and received by ECOLOBICI. They can now travel readily between home and work. Ease of travel was one of the obstacles the young men had to overcome since, as you’ve read so many times about so many of the people in our partners’ regions, they would have to pay for public transportation, walk many miles or, in this case, take a motorcycle taxi.
Now 6.00 quetzals (about .75 in US currency) a day are saved by using a bike and they have the added advantage of keeping in shape. They have benefited from ECOLOBICI’s project supported by P4P and they plan on continuing their studies and efforts at financial success in 2014.The women outside the Santa Apolonia Municipal building
In the container mentioned above, there were also 15 sewing machines, some earmarked for particular women who had visited the FIDESMA training center. These women, from Santa Apolonia in the District of Chimaltenango, work sewing typical huipil blouses mostly. These are traditional garments that are loose fitting like a tunic. Since these kinds of shirts are in demand, they stand to make a reliable income continuing to sew these and other viable pieces of clothing. There are more men and women who will be able to access these machines and learn how to use them or continue to work at their tailoring businesses.
We love to hear from people whose lives have been touched by P4P and our partners. We have been contacted by a woman who is connected with the Peace Corps and is in the process of campaigning for P4P to come to Grozesti, Moldova. If all goes well, we will ship to them in early spring. Just one container of bikes can change the lives of people in this small isolated town. Here is her message:
“My name is Carol Stadden. I am a retired baker serving as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in a small Moldovan village in Eastern Europe called Grozesti. Moldova is a country approximately the size of Pennsylvania and is considered the poorest in Europe. Peace Corp’s mission is to promote world peace and friendship with a commitment to improving the quality of life in each host country. I am in the Small Enterprise Development program. When I first arrived at [the] site, I heard there was a village where everyone rode a bike. How incredible! In 2005, a Peace Corps volunteer, working with P4P, had arranged for 500 bikes to be shipped to his village of Pelenia. I talked to the mayor of my village and she was eager to give Grozesti the same opportunity.
“Many people in the village own bikes, but they are extremely old and heavy one-speed models unsuitable for navigating the rocky, hilly, unpaved roads of Grozesti. Because of P4P, the communi ty will not only be able to purchase sturdy, quality bikes for an extremely affordable price but the bikes will enable farmers to get to and from their fields more easily and children to ride to and from school–sometimes as far as 5km. I hope to work with a group of high-school students to catalogue, repair, and sell the bikes so they can learn valuable business and employment skills. There is also the possibility that a community member will step forward to start a small bicycle parts/repair shop. Any surplus funds from this project would be used to assist them.
“I am an avid cyclist back home and the first thing I did once I arrived in Moldova was to buy a bicycle. This is the perfect way for me to share my enthusiasm for cycling while promoting small business. These bikes are generating so much excitement in the village, I believe there may be a bicycle club in Grozesti’s future! To learn more about Grozesti, please go to grozesti.weebly.com. One of my first projects was to create this website as a means of promoting the village and assist me in integration.”
How nice it is to donate a smile! It is a grim fact that some Albanians face the indifference of passers by and the silence of fellow citizens in general. Many children are mired in a cycle of hopeless days without experiencing the joys of a real childhood and, confused, stare straight into the future without a sense of hope. Nearly 120 of these children at the Colourful Lodge and its twin centers, every day, find not only hospitality, accommodation and a warm meal, but above all the care, love and why not, the image of what they lack and miss: Home!
In the framework of the initiative which has already made possible the delivery of 100 bicycles in 10 similar centers in Albania, the New Year’s holidays at the Colourful Lodge came under the rhythm of chiming bicycle bells that were donated by Ecovolis in collaboration with Pedals for Progress. Ecovolis representatives spent the holidays with these wonderful children, helping them learn to pedal the colorful bicycles that they, before, could only watch go by on the noisy thoroughfares of the capital city. The little ones learned that use of these bicycles created an excellent opportunity to secure a beautiful, clean, green and friendly environment to live in, quite different from the dusty wild roads of the city they wander every day.
This is not all. The people from Ecovolis also promised that they would work with the children every week, to continue helping them ride safely and have fun. For these children it was wonderful discovering that bicycles from Pedal for Progress were previously used by their American peers, whose stories and names were shared.
It was so miraculous to see the smile on a young boy named Zino. He was the first to learn to ride a bike and even swore that one day he would become the fastest cyclist in the world. Little Izidora, who spent the day cleaning the windshields of “four-wheels” vehicles as they call them, said that she loved the bike exactly because it did not deliver those “disgusting fumes and that disturbing noise.” A child named Abel immediately began calculating the increased number of packages sold, if he was to rely on his own bike instead of his tiny legs.
One of the girls, Mira, she begged for one last ride and said she would have loved to have her own bicycle so she would have the opportunity to visit her mother during the day and show her her earnings. When she was told that there would be no “last ride” because those bicycles would be staying at the Colourful Lodge, her happiness was immense. Her felicity was shared among Adrian, Ihsira, Ledio, Daklea, Oriada, Teuta, Laert , Esdalin, Landi, Artemis, Donna and dozens of other children, whose smiles were the most precious gift for the representatives of Ecovolis. “This is one of those cases, when you start making a gift, but you are the one receiving the most wonderful gift of all. To us this great gift was the smile of these kids,” Ened Mato, the Director of Ecovolis said. “Ecovolis in collaboration with Pedals for Progress is determined to continue this initiative. So far we have donated 100 bicycles in 10 centers and we are merely getting started. We will make other children smile by riding bicycles. And it’s not just about entertainment, but also presenting to them the vision of a beloved city, clean, and safe, since they are precisely the ones who walk on these streets every day.”
It is great discovering that besides the gift of a smile, there has been bestowed upon these children a chance for a new world view—a new, achievable dream for those who all they have had are dreams. All this from the presence of a simple bicycle. In the mean time, they are riding—and smiling—without even knowing that this may be may be a ride towards the future.
In October of 2013, with the generous support of grant money from one of our valued supporters, Clif Bar Family Foundation, P4P shipped 41 sewing machines to the region of Dar es Salaam (DSM) in Tanzania. Our partner there, Community Support Mission (CSM), works closely with those in poverty to help them earn their own living and create a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
According to CSM’s director, Jonathan Mulokozi, four of the machines went to the Messack Secondary School, located in Kivule, in the District of Ilala. Of the 350 students, 60 are orphans and 42 are from very poor families. The machines’ primary use to date has been to sew uniforms for schools. The income earned from the production of this clothing has covered school fees among other difficult costs these children must meet if they are to have an independent and economically viable adulthood.
CSM also works with families or groups in need. They donated 3 machines to women whose families were struggling to maintain decent living conditions and hoping to stay together instead of dispersing for work in far-away districts or regions. One particular woman, Anna Ntimba, was fortunate in that she already knew how to sew; however, she did not have the income to afford her own machine. Her husband was recently diagnosed with a heart disease and could not easily support the family, much less pay the hospital bills. With the machine in hand, Anna was able to earn the income she needed to keep her family together and enable her husband to begin healing.
In January of this year, CSM donated sewing machines to 4 women whose families are in poverty and cannot afford to send their children to school. CSM has also pledged to provide 2 machines to each group of 3 people who wish to form their own business. As well, 2 secondary schools in Kagera are slotted to receive sewing machines so they can continue to earn income to cover basic school needs for local orphans.
Not all the partners we work with request both sewing machines and bicycles. When this combination does come into play, there are double the opportunities opened up to people in a region, thus increasing the odds that we can create a lasting positive impact. We are looking forward to receiving news and photos of the students and their families as more machines and bicycles become available to them.
Spring 2014 InGear
Pedals for Progress’s mission is really to give these people a viable chance of a wonderful life. We certainly concentrate on employment opportunities and healthy transportation alternatives, but sometimes we stray.
In the last shipment of 2013 to Guatemala we included 100 pairs of cleats and 18 used soccer balls. The soccer balls act like large Styrofoam chips protecting the bicycles, and the soccer cleats just fall down between the bikes, taking no space.
Supplying sporting equipment is certainly not the most important thing we do and not something that we will ever do a lot of, but when we can put a smile like this on a young person, how can we not?
23-year old Santiago Romero lives in La Guacima in the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica with his wife and two daughters, who are 1 and 3 years old. Santiago’s wife spends her day at home with the children and additionally takes care of Santiago’s sister’s two kids in the mornings. There are many factories and corporations in La Guacima and its surrounding areas; Santiago works for a hardware company ordering construction materials and recording customer orders. It takes him about 25 minutes on his bike to travel the 5km distance to and from work.
Guillermo
Guillermo Mendoza is a resident of the multicultural Costa Rican city of Limón. As he spends most of his time on his bicycle, making his living selling fresh fish and other food items, he makes certain to keep safe by wearing a helmet and reflective vest. Guillermo always has the freshest catch. The fishermen of Limón approach him daily to buy his fish to resell at the nearby fish market.
Miranda Family
Due to its warm, sunny climate, Tacares de Grecia in the Alajuela Province is one of Costa Rica’s main areas for growing tomatoes, the dry season being the most suitable for planting crops. The Miranda Family owns a small plot for producing tomatoes. They distribute and sell their goods through roadside vendors as well as deliver tomatoes directly to customers using bicycles outfitted with baskets, charging 1000 colones (approximately $2.00) for every 2 kilos of tomatoes.
Juan
Juan Rodríguez is 72 years old. He and his wife own a small plot of land (about 200 square meters) in the outskirts of San Ramón, a city in the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica. Juan and his wife use their spare time to plant cilantro and celery. Juan’s bicycle allows him the time he needs to grow his crops. With it, he can get around his neighborhood and sell his produce easily and with no transportation costs.
Pedals for Progress seeks to stimulate the economy of developing countries through its work. This would be impossible without the cooperation and tireless efforts of its partners throughout the world. One such partner is Wright Enterprises, a company that imports consumer goods to Ghana. Working in conjunction with P4P, Wright Enterprises founded WEBike, an organization that, for little to no profit, distributes bikes and sewing machines to those in need of them. Here is a selection of stories of Ghanaians whose lives have benefited from the work of P4P and WEBike.
1. Usifu is a student teacher in the small town of Walewale in the Northern Region of Ghana. A limited staff at his school means that Usifu must perform multiple duties. First and foremost, he teaches a fourth grade class. Additionally, before morning lessons begin, the students sweep the classrooms and school compound, a job Usifu must be present for to oversee and provide assistance with. There is a distance of 4 kilometers (about 2½ miles) between Usifu’s home and the school. Having to walk made it difficult for him to arrive before the start of classes to complete his duties in time. Furthermore, traveling by foot daily would leave him exhausted, not to mention would cut into the time Usifu, like any teacher, needed to prepare for upcoming lessons. Now, thanks to WEBike, Pedals for Progress’ partner in Ghana, Usifu rides a bicycle to and from school each day. This drastically decreases his travel time, giving him more of the time and energy he needs to do his job. He can now get to school on the dot and is prepared and focused every day when he enters the classroom.
2. In some Ghanaian villages, it is common practice for citizens to pursue auto mechanic apprenticeships. It is a worthwhile career track for many people as, once they have become proficient in the field, they can bring their talents to the bigger cities where the need for mechanics can translate into a lucrative job. Paa Joe is a young man hoping to procure such a position. An apprentice in the Suhum/Kraboa/Coaltar District in the Eastern Region of Ghana, Paa Joe must traverse a distance of 5 kilometers (or over 3 miles) to get from his residence to where he is learning his future trade. Formerly, his only transportation option was one very early bus that would get him to his apprenticeship before the workday proper began. If he missed this bus, he was forced to walk. Either approach left him exhausted. After receiving a bicycle from WEBike, Paa Joe became able to bike to and from his auto mechanic apprenticeship every day. Functioning on his own schedule, he is now energized in his work and much more hopeful that he will one day be able to move to the city to begin a profitable career.
3. Yaw Aboah is a gristmill operator in Kasoa, a suburb in the Central Region. Long work hours and a distance of 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) between his house and his workplace meant that Yaw was often forced to sleep at the mill. Obviously, this was far from ideal as an industrial building hardly possesses conditions conducive to a good night’s rest. Worse, however, was that sleeping at work would mean Yaw would typically not see his family for days at a time and, further, often had to spend money on meals away from home. Thanks to the bike he’s received, staying overnight at the gristmill isn’t even something Yaw has to take into consideration. He is able to bike easily to and from work every day, providing him with a more economical lifestyle and, most important of all, giving him back his time with his family.
4. Nana Yaw teaches a sixth grade class at the LA Middle School in Nsawam, a town in Ghana’s Eastern Region. He lives quite far away in a small village called Ayakwah, on the outskirts of the Nsawam area. Covering this distance daily was a huge issue for Nana, but then he received the gift of a bike from WEBike. He can now go between school and home much faster and with much less effort. He is thankful to WEBike for this, as well as for providing him with the means to perform various errands and to travel around the area with ease.
5. Coming from a poor background, Ama Attah became a seamstress’ apprentice, hoping to learn and eventually use the skill to improve her family’s financial standing. However, shortly after the completion of her apprenticeship, Ama’s sewing machine was one day accidentally knocked from a table to the ground, damaging it beyond repair. As a result of WEBike’s intervention, Ama received another, working sewing machine. She is overjoyed that she can now put the sewing skills she worked so hard to learn to use and can make money to support herself and her family.
6. Esi is a teenager who lives in a small village in the Nkwanta North District of the Volta Region. She is a student at Nkwanta Senior High School. The school is located so far away from where Esi lives that it would take her two hours to walk there. With the school day beginning at 7AM, Esi had no choice but to be up every morning well before 5 in order to be sure to get to class on time. Furthermore, the road she travels on is frequently a busy one, making her daily trek all the more arduous and slow-going. All of these factors contributed to Esi’s fatigue, which was obviously detrimental to her health, especially at a developmental age. It also made it difficult for her to be attentive during school and hard for her to dedicate energy to schoolwork in and out of class. After receiving her bicycle from WEBike, Esi found she was able to negotiate the distance between school and home within an hour, sometimes even managing it in 45 minutes. She is no longer unnecessarily exhausted and is sure to be on time, prepared, and fully alert in class each day.
7. Efoe Kojo lives in Nkwanta in the Volta Region and works as a harvester. Going to and from the field where he works, he had to walk a distance of 6 kilometers (over 3½ miles) in total daily. He also had to carry with him a canteen of water, his lunch, and the machete with which he does his work. This proved to be a serious problem for Efoe as he would repeatedly, upon reaching the field, find himself too tired to do any harvesting. Now that Efoe has his bicycle from Pedals for Progress and WEBike, he is no longer too exhausted to perform his duties. Not only does his bike transport him to work quickly and easily, but, rather than lug his supplies around himself, he can put everything in the bike’s basket.
8. The partnership with Pedals for Progress doesn’t just benefit those on the receiving end. Joe is an employee with WEBike, distributing bikes around the Kasoa area in the Central Region of Ghana. Thanks to his involvement with WEBike, the people of the Kasoa area now know to go to Joe for reasonably priced bicycles. The money he is making helps him support his family. He is able to afford his rent and pay for any fees that might arise from his children’s schooling.
9. In Accra, the capital city of Ghana, there are many boys and girls who, after finishing high school, wish to learn to sew. Maame Yaa is a seamstress who runs an apprenticeship program training young people to be seamstresses and tailors. She would not have been able to offer this education without all of the sewing machines she received from WEBike for the children to train on. With her program as a springboard, many of Maame Yaa’s students are able to become self-employed and Maame herself profits from her business, all thanks to the sewing machines from WEBike and Pedals for Progress.
Last year as I sat at the high school graduation in the rural community of Balgüe, Nicaragua, I counted that a third of the girls in my class were either pregnant at the time or already had a child. I know I am failing to count a few as I was unaware they were mothers and that many other girls failed to make it to graduation day, dropping out previously due to teen pregnancy. Aside from this obvious problem, many other young Nicaraguan women choose to drop out of high school due to the pressure to provide for family needs within the household. Many may feel a need to be at home to complete daily chores like patting tortillas and cooking beans, looking after the men’s needs in the household, or caring for young children. While many urban communities may see a different situation, this is still the reality of a Nicaraguan woman in a rural community.
The island of Ometepe, Nicaragua
You see, this takes place on Ometepe, an idyllic island where at any point you look up to find two looming volcanoes within a freshwater lake. It’s considered the pearl of Nicaragua. Mark Twain has been known to write of it and a couple years ago it was shortlisted for the seven great wonders of the world. It is essentially a little slice of paradise. But, on the other hand, this paradise falls short of providing many opportunities for youth to plan their futures. Employment opportunities that allow islanders to stay on the island are hard to come by.
With the brightest students, you often see that a “brain drain” syndrome is ever present. Usually if youth come from families with resources they will study in the university in the capital, pick a career that makes it hard to find work on the island, and are forced to stay in the capital to find employment. I was proud to see many of my last year’s high school seniors go on to study advanced careers, but the reality is—how many dentists do you need on a rural island when dental care is still viewed as a luxury? For those that do not or cannot choose higher education, employment is still a challenge. Last year when I asked a young woman what she would do following high school, she told me that she would most likely emigrate to Costa Rica to find work. Many feel that more opportunities lie abroad than in Nicaragua.
Hopefully, as the economy shifts from agriculture to tourism, the diversity will bring more opportunity and islanders will realize the necessity to focus on the training of trades. With tourism, there is a need for some push from government and educational institutions for programs like business education and English training. With sustainable employment opportunities, more islanders will be able to stay closer to home while also allowing tourism to develop in a sustainable manner where the benefit is felt in more island communities. Girasol Members in Ometepe, Nicaragua
A recent donation of six sewing machines by Pedals for Progress has helped to improve the lives of one particular group of women, Girasol Sewing Cooperative. (A girasol is a sunflower in Spanish). This sewing cooperative on the Island of Ometepe was started to provide an opportunity to learn the trade of sewing to improve their personal economic situation as well as that of their families and community. Sewing provides an income-generating activity for the women of the community of Balgüe, where employment opportunities for women are virtually non-existent.
Creating a self-sustaining sewing cooperative on an island can be difficult, as resources like sewing machines and materials still have to be imported by boat. This in turn drives up the prices of basic goods like school uniforms. However, what is beautiful about the Nicaraguan entrepreneurial spirit is that these women can view opportunities when many others view challenges. For Girasol, these challenges bring opportunities as tourism grows, and there is opportunity to break into a market where the majority of souvenirs come from the off-island departments of Masaya or Granada.
In March of 2012, these women were sitting in a classroom as we reviewed what a basic fraction and decimal were, as none of them were able to finish high school due to circumstances beyond their control. At the same time, the women participated in sewing classes led by the designer Kim Farrugia and began laying the foundation for their very own sewing workshop. Currently, in a little over a year, they have begun selling in multiple locations on the island and preparing their first international orders.
Pedals for Progress has continued to lend a helping hand promoting economic development in Nicaragua as well as many other countries around the world. It is notable what a couple hundred cordobas extra a month can do for a women. However, less talked about and equally important is the role of this cooperative in the personal lives of these women. The majority of these women are single mothers and have also never had the opportunity in their lives to earn a peso for themselves. Many still have to ask permission from their spouses to buy basic household necessities like toilet paper. With learning the trade of sewing, these women are allowed to see the potential of their own two hands, develop their creativity in a society that does not always nourish it, and understand the pride that comes from being able to contribute a small income to their families.
With P4P’s donation, the current cooperative will be able to formalize. More importantly, these sunflowers will be able to grow. With the new machines, there are plans to hold a new sewing course and to allow new women to be incorporated into the group as it expands. This means more women within the community are given a reason to get out of the house to go to triweekly meetings reminding them that they are strong, creative, and smart women. This is women’s empowerment, and it would not have been possible without the help of P4P.
Pedals for Progress has improved the quality of life for many Nicaraguans in the department of Rivas, with currently over 22,500 bicycles donated. In addition, P4P’s new partnership with Girasol Sewing Cooperative and donation of sewing machines has helped to lay a foundation for sustainable economic development on the island of Ometepe. Girasol’s transition from a project to a sustainable, independent business would have been difficult without the help of David Schweidenback, his team, and the contributions from Pedals for Progress’s supporters.
Noelle London
Peace Corps Nicaragua
Small Business Development 56
London.noelle@gmail.com
Donate bicycles and sewing machines to developing countries
