All posts by Michael Sabrio

bicycles, Uganda

Uganda

Spring 2005 InGear

The most remote places on Planet Earth are very often the poorest because it is so very difficult for products and materials to reach such distant locations. This remoteness usually causes bicycle container shipping costs to be quite exorbitant, and, for example, shipping bicycles to the very center of the African continent is two times more expensive than shipping the same bicycles to Central America. This is further complicated by the insistence of governments in these countries to tax heavily these goods. These high shipping costs and taxes have severely challenged attempts by Pedals for Progress to establish partnerships in Central African nations, but, despite these tremendous financial challenges, in late 2004 Pedals for Progress initiated a program with the Biikira Development Centre Project at the Biikira Health Center (BHC) in Masaka, Uganda.

This new partnership with the Biikira Development Center (BDC) in Masaka-South Buganda in Uganda began with a shipment of 436 bicycles, predominantly women’s bicycles. BDC Supports different development projects in the area all revolving around St Andrew’s Biikira Health Center (BHC). BHC provides primary health care services and health education through an extensive network of volunteer health workers, most of who are female. Uganda Electronics & Computer Industries Ltd Company funded the trans-Atlantic freight costs for this initial shipment, and it also funded the costs of trucking the bicycles from the port of Mombasa-Kenya to the BHC site about 1,000 miles inland.

Pedals for Progress has applied for a grant to fund this program during 2005. This grant is imperative because the cost of trucking the bicycles across Kenya to Uganda increases the total transportation cost per bicycle to more than $21, well beyond the $10 per bicycle transportation cost that allows a typical partnership to remain self-sustaining. Although this specific Biikira Project is urgently needed by the people of Masaka, its viability is extremely challenged due to these high transportation costs. Pedals for Progress has accepted this program fully acknowledging that its standard financing program will never be sufficient, but it is hopeful that long-term financial sponsorship will be received for both this Biikira Project and other programs in sub-Saharan Africa.

2005springUgandaKibiThe initial 400+ bicycles received by Biikira Development Center have already changed the lives of many Ugandans. Hopefully many more shipments will follow. Here is one story about a bicycle recipient – it illustrates the significant value of this entire project. Pictured here in front of the St. Andrew’s Biikira Health Center Administration Building is Mr. Kibi Francis Xavier, a Community Based Health Care Outreach Staff Member who works as a professional trainer for Community Health Worker trainees. Kibi works with the Franciscan Congregation in the Biikira Health Center in Rakai District in Masaka Diocese. He is routinely assigned to a wide variety of job responsibilities for the Health Center, and his newly purchased bicycle allows him to now perform these varying job tasks with much greater efficiency and effectiveness.

During a typical week, here’s a brief summary of Kibi’s many varied duties.

  1. Works as a Health Center Mobilizer for immunizations in two neighboring villages (Biikira Gayaaza L.C.1 and Biikira Bijja L.C.1).
  2. Gives personal hygiene, nutrition, and malaria health talks at the Health Center and in nearby villages every Monday and Friday.
  3. Conducts home visits to check on disabled individuals and discharged patients.
  4. Completes school inspections regarding health improvements such as checking school toilets, student linens, and the nature of hostels.
  5. Serves as a trained counselor for the VCI/PMTCI Government Program, even though the community hosts an HIV/AIDS Testing Center.
  6. Counsels attendants, voluntary donors, and other people on a variety of blood-related matters in addition to the local blood transfusion service that is offered.
  7. Assists the Health Center by attending local village council meetings as the Health Center delegate.
  8. Participates in the local HIV/AIDS Data Collection Program in Masaka Diocese.
  9. Partners with the Health Center to provide eye care and dental mobilization systems.
  10. Utilizes his home business management skills by assisting women’s groups, widows, youth, orphans, and guardians with their day-to-day income-generating projects.

Kibi is truly a remarkable man in a remarkable land. His bicycle is his lifeblood. Without it he could not possibly serve the Health Center and nearby villages with the care and compassion that is so vital to the everyday lives of countless people in the remote village of Masaka-Uganda. Despite the tremendous financial challenges, it is this very story and others that propels the desire for Pedals for Progress to continue its partnership with the Biikira Development Project and pray that long-term financial sponsorship will soon be received.

bicycles

Ellsworth, Kansas, Correctional Facility

Pedals for Progress has become a valued partner with the Ellsworth Correctional Facility (ECF) located in Ellsworth Kansas.

2005springEllsworthPeopleThe goals of P4P have become personal for many of the men who work in the bicycle shop at ECF. One of the men, Scott Blanchat, has taken a very personal role with renovation of bicycles by involving his grandfather Bobby Claborn, who has generously contributed a large number of handtools and equipment for the bike project in Ellsworth. Scott has worked in this shop for many months and feels that he is not only using his mechanical talents productively but has also been able to help others through his work. The Pedals for Progress story makes a deep impact on someone who feels they are on the margins of society. The chance to be involved in such a positive activity while doing time in a state prison is very significant since it helps an individual reconnect with the outside world and especially with the good people of the developing world who can really benefit from a well tuned bicycle.

2005springEllsworthBikes

The Kansas program has involved many outside local agencies and today has a vast network of collection efforts that brings bicycles to the correctional facility on a near daily basis. The back lot at ECF has over 1,000 bikes that have been collected and donated from across Kansas. Many of these bikes are not suitable for reconditioning, so these are cut up for scrap and sold to a local junk-iron dealer. The money collected from this recycling effort is then used to buy tubes and tires as well as shop supplies for the bike shop. The money is managed by the local Ellsworth Kiwanis Club. Scott Blanchat has come to appreciate his abilities thanks to his work in the bicycle shop at Ellsworth Correctional Facility. Scott is anxious to get out of prison and find employment that will afford him a similar opportunity to grow and serve others. Pedals for Progress has a new way to touch people positively by partnering with the Ellsworth Correctional Facility. Warden Sam Cline has been very pleased by the work habits and growth in maturity demonstrated by the men involved in this program. It has been his goal to find an industry that would employ inmates within a security setting without a large budget impact. He also hoped to find a project that could involve the men in uplifting work that they could easily see benefits others. Association with Pedals for Progress has been a good marriage for the Ellsworth Correctional Facility and together there is a bright future for many people at home and abroad to benefit. Scott Blanchat and his grandfather Bobby Claborn have seen the vision set forth by P4P and they have come to support the organization with time, talent and treasure. For additional details about the program in Kansas, click here.

bicycles, Guatemala, Sewing Partners

Guatemala Success Stories

2005springGuatemalaBrendaBrenda Griselda Carranza

30-year-old Brenda Griselda Carranza Pérez lives in a small village in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Working as a seamstress sewing by hand, she was barely making enough to live. FIDESMA, our partner in Guatemala, imported 41 sewing machines from Pedals for Progress in the last three years. Brenda considers herself extremely lucky that she was one of the persons who received one of the sewing machines. She paid about $43 US for the machine and has in 7 months paid for the machine many times over. In fact, working five hours a day on the machine she now makes enough money to support herself and is putting money aside with the hopes of purchasing a second machine. This is just one machine of hundreds shipped by P4P that has allowed a person to help themselves.

2005springGuatemalaCarmenCarmen Castillo

Carmen Castillo is a 37-year-old single mother of three young girls for whom she is the sole provider. She and her daughters live in Nandaime, Nicaragua, where Carmen’s job as a maid brings 1000 cordobas of income into their household each month. Recently, in order to pay for an urgent increase in living expenses, Carmen sold the bicycle she had been using for 2 years and acquired (from one of her employers) a replacement bicycle – a high-value mountain bike at the bargain price of 650 cordobas.

She rides this bicycle every day – minimally 4 miles round trip from her house in the “campo” (city-outskirts) to the center of town. Since the mountain bike is so strong, Carmen can carry a second person to see a nurse/doctor or to the marketplace; or she can transport firewood from the hillsides for cooking. While the physical effort Carmen exerts (the surtax of owning two wheels!) is significant, cycling gets her to work reliably, assures her the security of regular income, saves 6 cordobas daily bus fare, allows her to take things into the market to sell and makes her feel healthier. When her bike breaks down, occasionally, Carmen goes to a local mechanic – but not for a flat tire. She felt it necessary to learn how to patch inner tubes herself; thus, she can save additional bus fare!

2005springGuatemalaPaolaPaola Roxana Juárez

Getting her first professional job as an elementary school teacher was a great step forward for 22-year-old Paola Roxana Juárez Garcia. Her great joy became concern when she realized that the school to which she was assigned was 5 km away from her home and public transportation did not exist. She went to FIDESMA because she knew there were bicycles available and was able to purchase a sturdy mountain bike for $15. Monday through Friday she uses her bike to commute back and forth to work and on weekends uses the bike for shopping and meeting with friends.

2005springGuatemalaSandraSandra del Carmen Hernández

Sandra del Carmen Hernández has owned her bicycle since she was 10 years old. Her father bought it for her originally to go back and forth to school; however, during the last six years there is no member of her family who has not had the occasion to use it. In fact it is often the commuting vehicle of the whole family – dropping off and picking up people much as Americans do in a minivan. This minivan, though, is a mountain bike that someone pedals. CESTA, which obtained this bike from P4P, has imported over 13,000 of our bikes since 1995.

2005springGuatemalaRosendoRosendo Cuadrais

Rosendo Cuadrais is a 65-year-old security guard at the Villa Hermosa in Diramba, Nicaragua. For seven years he has used a mountain bike (purchased for 750 cordobas) to go from his house to his work – bicycling at least 7 miles daily. Fortunately, with the climate in Rivas, he can use the bike every day all year round.

While commuting efficiently to his job is important (he could feed himself on the cost of daily bus fare), Carmen says the most important reason for having a mountain bike is to use it for getting out into the countryside (where the roads are dirt) to visit his daughters, lend it to them when possible and to go shopping in the market without wasting money on the bus. Thus, Rosendo’s bike is in use constantly. He likes the mountain bike’s versatility and sturdiness. He uses it not only to bring back firewood from the hillsides for cooking, but also to transport him rapidly all around the city and countryside with minimal expense. Because he doesn’t have many tools (and wouldn’t know how to use them if he did), whenever maintenance of the bike becomes an issue, he brings it to a mechanic in one of the many small shops in the area.

bicycles, El Salvador, Sewing Partners

CESTA: P4P Partner in El Salvador

24,457 bikes (1995–2012) and 536 sewing machines (2000–2012) shipped

CestaElSalvadorlogo2CESTA stands for the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology. CESTA was founded in 1980 by a group of Professors from the University of El Salvador as a professional organization to promote forms of technology appropriate to the social and environmental conditions of El Salvador. Now the organization is a public foundation with the capacity to execute environmental projects.

Bicycle converted to a garbage truck
Bicycle converted to a garbage truck

The main objectives of CESTA are to:

  • Encourage Salvadorans to adopt lifestyles compatible with the sustainability of the country.
  • Protect humans, animals, and habitats from deterioration and destruction and to enhance their existence by recovering lost ecological balance.
  • Include different sectors of society in the fight for sustainability.

CESTA’s areas of interest include agriculture, forest biodiversity, climate change, and solid and toxic waste.

One of CESTA’s oldest programs is its bicycle workshop, EcoBici, which teaches bicycle repair and encourages bicycle use: for transportation, for its low cost, for its health benefits, and for its benign environmental impact.

Our Training Centers

CESTA training center
CESTA training center

Thanks to the support of organizations like Pedals for Progress and Bikes not Bombs, every couple of months we receive containers of bicycles that are used as educational instruments for our students who are learning how to repair bicycles. The training period is no longer then 6 months; within this time they must learn everything from aligning a tire rim to general bicycle repairs.
 

Click here for an English language description of CESTA from Común Tierra.

bicycles, Colombia

Regaining a Feeling of Freedom

2004 InGear

For six years, Reinel Oviedo sat in a Colombian prison at the foot of the Andean Mountains, about 90 miles west of the capital of Bogota, losing hope and gaining weight. Thanks to Pedals for Progress, however, Reinel is increasingly free to spend part of his day on two wheels, away from the jail’s intensely close confines, earning money for the day when he will regain his liberty.

2004columbiaBikesOnBridgeReinel, and others like him at Colombia’s Picalea Prison, have earned work-release privileges to work for Horizons of Freedom Foundation (FHL) ‘Comp&Mail Messenger Service’. With bicycles provided by Pedals for Progress, inmates travel from the penitentiary to the service’s headquarters and from there to the service’s clients in the city of Ibagué. Reinel, who had nearly forgotten the freedom afforded by a bicycle, reports he has regained his sense of autonomy and self worth while earning an income. In his own words, “The benefits obtained have been many. Riding a bike has given me a feeling of liberty. My job has become almost a recreational activity. My physical condition has improved; the poundage put on by penitentiary food has been eliminated. Today I possess an athlete’s physique. I’ve had to abandon my earlier cigarette vice, and physical activity during the day allows me to sleep all night, without the nightmares of before. Also, I have benefited financially, cutting my transport costs”.

Pedals for Progress’s involvement with FHL goes back to the summer of 2002, when FHL’s founder and director, David Toro, approached P4P, requesting a container of bicycles. Toro, a former Picalea inmate, is a nationally-recognized ‘social entrepreneur’ and winner of a prestigious Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurship. Since 2002, FHL has received two subsidized P4P shipments totalling about 900 bicycles. Besides using bicycles in its successful messenger business, FHL has launched a region-wide environmental awareness campaign centered on mass public bicycle rides, and has bartered surplus bicycles in return for training, accounting, and other services from sympathetic community development organizations.

Although FHL’s program’s have been successful, FHL is struggling financially, and is unable to bear the full costs of a third shipment. A principal reason FHL cannot pay the full cost of the third shipment of bicycles is Colombia’s Customs Regulations, which are onerous and costly. As David Toro reported following the arrival in port of P4P’s second container, “I tell you it is not easy. We have obtained the import license and duty-free exemption consent from the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, but with the Finance Ministry, it’s been much more difficult. A Finance Ministry delegation from Bogota visited us at our offices in Ibagué; they requested financial statements, income tax returns, loan documents, reports, etc. It went well, but all these things have delayed their giving us a decision on the tax exemption”. Furthermore, Colombian authorities require that—in exchange for partial tax exemption—FHL is prohibited from selling any bikes received, thus eliminating sales as a source of funds to pay for a subsequent shipment.

Finally, entering the country expeditiously requires a detailed inventory approved by Colombia’s Ministry of Finance prior to shipment. This requirement is easy for an importer of consecutively-numbered and uniform new bicycles originating with a manufacturer, but a practical impossibility for Pedals for Progress, owing to the variability of used bicycles and limited storage capacities. As a result of these import regulations, the shipment is delayed and additional costs are incurred for port storage, fines, additional container rental charges, and extra paperwork and staff time.

To overcome this constraint, and continue to support this exceptional program, Pedals for Progress is working with the State of Kansas’ Ellsworth Correctional Institute to recondition, inventory, and ship bicycles donated in Kansas to the Colombian program. Pedals for Progress is excited about promoting a prison-to-prison linkage, and about the potential psychological, vocational education, and income-generation benefits to traditionally marginalized population on both sides of the equator.

By enlisting the help of Ellsworth Correctional Institute, Pedals for Progress has been able to overcome Colombia’s onerous import regulations. Unlike Pedals for Progress, with its limited storage capacity and volunteer staff, Ellsworth has plenty of volunteers and space to inventory the bikes, prepare the detailed listing required by Colombian Custom Regulations, and can store the bicycles until Colombian Customs approves the inventory for shipment.

It is these types of creative relationships that have made Pedals for Progress successful.

bicycles, Ghana

Pedals for Progress in Ghana

2004 InGear

Since January 1st, 2000, Pedals for Progress has shipped 4,903 bicycles to five separate partners in Ghana. Although there are many bicycles in Ghana already (and new bicycles are generally available), the cost of a new or locally resold bicycle is well beyond the economic reach of many Ghanaians. Thus, the ability to import used bicycles from us allows our partners to offer used bicycles to the poorest segments of the population with prices more closely aligned with their economic circumstances.

Additionally, the used bikes we have shipped from the United States have been, more often than not, of a much higher quality and lower priced than the new bikes available in that country.

In order to sustain payment of shipping costs for thousands of bikes per year, Pedals For Progress conceived and implemented (and continually administers) a ‘revolving funds’ process. The basic idea is that Pedals for Progress pre-pays the shipping costs of a new program’s first container, using funds retained and budgeted for this purpose and to grow the enterprise. Thus, once an overseas group is qualified as a viable partner, P4P commits to capitalizing the startup of their operation by this one-time only offsetting of their biggest expense — shipping costs.

Subsequently, through the sale of bikes at low cost, our partner organizations generate the capability to pay their domestic operational expenses and still ‘revolve’ money to Pedals For Progress to pay shipping costs for the next container load of bikes. To date, by employing this method, Pedals For Progress has been able to ship 80,000 bicycles to 28 countries worldwide.

One important benchmark included in the maintenance of the revolving funds process is “cost per unit delivered”. (How much does it cost for one bike to arrive at the destination distribution point?) Shipping costs vary due to a myriad of circumstances over which we have very little control. But, ship we must (!), given our fixed and otherwise constrained warehousing space. During the collection season (and at current collection volume levels), we must ship at least one container of bicycles per week. While it is occasionally possible to get the shipment cost for an NGO donated by a foundation or corporation, it has proven to be easier for us to use commercial carriers to deliver our bikes and to simply find a way to cover those costs when they occasionally exceed ‘revolving funds’ revenue.

Our Central American programs function exceedingly well in that the ‘landed cost per bike’ (same metric noted above) is between $8 and $10 depending on the country. Shipping bikes to Ghana costs approximately $15 to $18 per bike delivered. To Central America we are able to ship in a larger 45 ft. container holding 500 bikes. To Africa we are forced to ship bikes in a 40 ft. container holding 400. For this obvious reason then, our “per unit cost” to Africa is bound to be considerably higher because (due to maritime market conditions and ‘land locked’ receiving destinations) we pay a larger amount of money for a smaller number of bikes. At $10 ‘per bike landed cost’, the revolving funds process functions tremendously well. At $15 ‘per bike landed cost’ the revolving fund system breaks down. Pedals for Progress has been shipping to Ghana for approximately five years. Yet, it is now obvious that a future of successful program operation in West Africa, due to the cost picture there, will require a $1,000 or $2,000 subsidy for each container shipped. That would allow our partners in Africa to be paying the landed cost of the programs in Central America.

bicycles

High Productivity and Professional Quality from Ellsworth, Kansas

by Sam Cline, Warden
Summer 2004 InGear

The Ellsworth Correctional Facility (ECF), located in north central Kansas, houses 830 medium-security inmates. Dedicated in 1988, the ECF is located on 60 acres of ground on the northwest corner of the City of Ellsworth, Kansas.

2004summerEllsworthIn 2001, a bicycle program was created at ECF, where donated bicycles are refurbished by inmates for distribution to less fortunate children. The distribution of these bicycles is carried out by civic organizations during the holidays. Any bicycles that don’t go to the children are designated for shipment to developing countries. And that’s where Pedals for Progress steps in.

The most recent shipment of ECF bicycles was in March 2004, when 446 bikes were sent to Kumasi, Ghana. This was helped along by a generous charitable donation from the Post Rock JayCees chapter, which is made up of inmates at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility. By conducting numerous fundraising events within the prison they raised enough money to subsidize the shipment.

The ECF bicycle program employs 15 inmates and provides valuable work for these men throughout the day. Their pay is provided by the State of Kansas and is not part of donated funds for the bicycle repairs. Additional supporting funds for this project come from the Ellsworth Kiwanis Club, which serves as the program’s sponsoring civic group. Through the Kiwanis, necessary funds for the purchase of supplies, parts, tubes and tires are provided.

Bikes leaving ECF are among the best bikes Pedals for Progress collects. After all, these bikes receive special treatment far beyond the usual P4P bike processing. To begin with, the shop area for the ECF Bicycle program is as well organized as a professional bike shop. And the work done to each bike is very thorough. They are cleaned, lubed and tuned up, and even receive some disassembly in order to grease bearings and thoroughly clean the drive components. Worn tubes and tires are replaced with new ones. And when needed, the ECF inmates even go so far as to repaint the bikes. The bikes are made new again.

The inmates in this program are inspired by doing something that benefits others, so their productivity is very high. They also learn new skills and find the work heartening, especially when they receive news about how the bikes are being used wherever they’ve been shipped.

Both ECF and Pedals for Progress are very proud of the relationship that has been created through bicycles and good will. As with all P4P programs, ECF helps to prevent a valuable resource—used bikes—from becoming part the vast waste stream of America and gets these bikes to very deserving people across the world. And as an added benefit, the ECF/P4P program provides meaningful work for men seeking to improve their own lives while incarcerated.

bicycles, Nicaragua

EcoBici Program Anticipates 2000 Bikes per Year

Summer 2004 InGear

As reported in the last issue of InGear, the initial shipment of bicycles to EcoBici in Rivas, Nicaragua, was funded by the Claerbout Family in memory of their late son, Jos, an avid cyclist with a passionate interest in Latin American development and social justice. Ecobici’s inaugural shipment arrived on April 29, 2003, and became the foundation of what is now a thriving new project.

2004summerEcobicicletasIn 1998, project managers Wilfredo Santana Rodriquez and his wife Carla Bello left the Rivas program, Assocation for Community Development (ADC), and went north to Jinotepe to start the spin-off EcoTec. Having left a well-established EcoTec in the capable hands of Martin Melendes, Wilfredo and Carla returned home to Rivas to rebuild ADC, which languished in their absence. Essentially beginning anew in Rivas, they’ve named their project EcoBici.

EcoBici serves low-income residents in the many small towns of the southern Pacific coast region of Nicaragua, where the terrain is flat and rolling, ideal for cyclists. As in the case of EcoTec, EcoBici’s “profits” from sales are financing small-scale rural community development projects selected and implemented by representative community organizations. These include the construction of health clinics, schools, community potable water systems, and the planting of community wood lots. EcoBici has also donated P4P-supplied sewing machines and baseball equipment to the José María Moncada School, the Susana López Carazo School, and the Nandaime Women’s Center.

After receiving the first container of bicycles, so generously donated by the Claerbout Family, EcoBici has since imported four more containers, growth resulting directly from that initial shipment. The sale of those first bicycles provided crucial seed money for future shipments. And now a healthy revolving fund system is sustaining EcoBici.

The revolving fund system created by Pedals For Progress is key to enabling us to continue shipping containers to programs overseas. Combined with the customary hard work of Pedals For Progress bike collectors and project managers, EcoBici can now claim nearly 2,500 bicycles shipped. What’s more, over 2,000 bikes per year will arrive there for the foreseeable future.

A giant thanks to the Claerbout family for making this happen.

bicycles

An Out-Spokin’ Individual

Summer 2004 InGear

Frankie Hinds, the 31-year-old lead bike mechanic for the Pinelands Creative Workshop, was a late comer to the Pinelands bike project, but it would appear that he was destined for it from early childhood. Frankie has been a resident of the Pinelands, a low-income area in Barbados, since age 6. Inspired by a cycling uncle, Frankie took early to bicycles. From his uncle, Frankie got his first bike at age 11, a hand-me-down Raleigh, and rode it constantly.

2004summerBarbadosIn a short time, Frankie’s uncle taught him some basic bicycle repair skills, working on derailleurs and shifters. Noticing some precocious talent, his uncle challenged him to true his road bike wheels. “I told him he’s crazy,” said Frankie, but his uncle started at the beginning, teaching Frankie “how to spoke it”, constructing a wheel from scratch. In so doing, Frankie absorbed the underlying numeric logic of spoke interaction. After all, “it’s a question of numbers.”

Soon Frankie was truing wheels for friends in the Pinelands area. He recalls his early days, working with bikes that were so oxidized that when he trued a wheel using his thumb as a gauge, the rust on the rim wore down his thumbnail.

Pedals for Progress bikes, at least, don’t put his thumbnails to the test on a daily basis. However, they do often require some work. To satisfy local tastes, he modifies “drop bar” road bikes, substituting straight handlebars and new brake assemblies. Although the conditions under which Frankie labors are not always the best, he generally converts each bike in the space of 15 or 20 minutes. His small workspace is crowded with bikes, and lacks a truing stand and even a work stand with a clamp. To work on bikes Frankie must hang the bike by its seat on a strap attached to the ceiling. This makeshift stand is unsteady, but functional, permitting him to use both hands while making repairs.

Frankie did not come straight from the schoolyard to the bike shop, however. On leaving school, Frankie became interested in Rastafarianism and organic foods, selling natural fruit juices as a micro business. However, the competition for space in his mother’s kitchen limited his production and his ability to earn a living—a recipe for frustration. Even with a small loan from the Pinelands micro-credit program, the business simply could not grow.

In early 2001, with the growth of the Pinelands bike project, an opportunity came for him to work in the shop. Frankie began truing wheels on a part-time basis, but when the regular mechanic resigned to take a job outside the cycling profession, Frankie stepped up and took his place.

Not only does Frankie have a natural mechanical talent, he has found helping others fulfilling. There is “always a joy to it.” A neighbor or a customer brings in their bike in need of repair, Frankie works on the bike, and “when it leaves, you got it riding perfect.”

Frankie brings this philosophy to his own bike, converting an old Schwinn one-speed cruiser into a sturdy six-speed mountain bike, with a large basket to carry his tools to and from work.

The Pinelands project receives two 40-foot container shipments and approximately 850 bikes annually. Frankie is able to handle the bike assembly and reconditioning needs of the project with the part-time mechanic assistance of Clyne Alleyne. On an informal basis, customers and young people from the neighborhood hang around and clean bikes. (Pinelands once tried to start a training program, but the first student came one day, and failed to come back the next. Frankie laments that bike mechanics, in this throw-away society, is “a dying trade”.)

Although working with bikes and helping customers ride them is personally fulfilling and pays a modest salary, Frankie has other things that are important to him. He and his girlfriend have just built the shell of their new home and, once they install electricity, they plan to dedicate Sundays to cooking and selling soy-based food products, reflecting their personal values, their enjoyment of each other’s company, and—hopefully—to supplement their family income. A steady job at Pinelands allows Frankie to experiment and take risks.

Not that Frankie forsakes bikes after hours. For now, Pinelands prefers not to make repair services a big part of its income stream. Customers who have purchased bikes generally can bring them back for simple free repairs, paying for parts. Pinelands management feels it is just too complicated and distracting to get into the service business. This does not mean there is not a public need, however. Frankie, who for security reasons already takes his tools home with him every day, also takes customer bikes home from time to time to repair—giving new meaning to the old expression “taking his work home with him.”

Beginning in 1995, the bicycle project of Barbados’ Pinelands Creative Workshop has received more than 6,000 Pedals for Progress bicycles, distributing them throughout this Caribbean island of fewer than 300,000 people. Besides providing affordable transport for recreational, educational, and employment use, Pinelands manages multiple programs benefiting the Pinelands and greater Bridgetown communities, including micro-credit, Meals on Wheels, and youth development through the performing arts.

bicycles, Ghana

Pedals for Progress in Ghana

Spring 2004 InGear

Since January 1st, 2000, Pedals for Progress has shipped 4,903 bicycles to five separate partners in Ghana. Although there are many bicycles in Ghana already (and new bicycles are generally available), the cost of a new or locally resold bicycle is well beyond the economic reach of many Ghanaians. Thus, the ability to import used bicycles from us allows our partners to offer used bicycles to the poorest segments of the population with prices more closely aligned with their economic circumstances.

Additionally, the used bikes we have shipped from the United States have been, more often than not, of a much higher quality and lower priced than the new bikes available in that country.

In order to sustain payment of shipping costs for thousands of bikes per year, Pedals For Progress conceived and implemented (and continually administers) a ‘revolving funds’ process. The basic idea is that Pedals for Progress pre-pays the shipping costs of a new program’s first container, using funds retained and budgeted for this purpose and to grow the enterprise. Thus, once an overseas group is qualified as a viable partner, P4P commits to capitalizing the startup of their operation by this one-time-only offsetting of their biggest expense – shipping costs.

Subsequently, through the sale of bikes at low cost, our partner organizations generate the capability to pay their domestic operational expenses and still ‘revolve’ money to Pedals For Progress to pay shipping costs for the next container load of bikes. To date, by employing this method, Pedals For Progress has been able to ship 80,000 bicycles to 28 countries worldwide.

One important benchmark included in the maintenance of the revolving funds process is “cost per unit delivered”. (How much does it cost for one bike to arrive at the destination distribution point?) Shipping costs vary due to a myriad of circumstances over which we have very little control. But, ship we must (!), given our fixed and otherwise constrained warehousing space. During the collection season (and at current collection volume levels), we must ship at least one container of bicycles per week. While it is occasionally possible to get the shipment cost for an NGO donated by a foundation or corporation, it has proven to be easier for us to use commercial carriers to deliver our bikes and to simply find a way to cover those costs when they occasionally exceed ‘revolving funds’ revenue.

Our Central American programs function exceedingly well in that the ‘landed cost per bike’ (same metric noted above) is between $8 and $10 depending on the country. Shipping bikes to Ghana costs approximately $15 to $18 per bike delivered. To Central America we are able to ship in a larger 45-foot container holding 500 bikes. To Africa we are forced to ship bikes in a 40-foot container holding 400. For this obvious reason then, our “per unit cost” to Africa is bound to be considerably higher because (due to maritime market conditions and ‘land locked’ receiving destinations) we pay a larger amount of money for a smaller number of bikes. At $10 ‘per bike landed cost’, the revolving funds process functions tremendously well. At $15 ‘per bike landed cost’ the revolving fund system breaks down. Pedals for Progress has been shipping to Ghana for approximately five years. Yet, it is now obvious that a future of successful program operation in West Africa, due to the cost picture there, will require a $1,000 or $2,000 subsidy for each container shipped. That would allow our partners in Africa to be paying the landed cost of the programs in Central America.

Pedals for Progress currently has two active programs in Ghana: Nene Katey Ocansey I Learning and Technology Center (NekoTech) based in Ada and Tema, Ghana, promotes teacher and vocational education programs serving the rural poor. With the help of the PFP bikes, the center has been able to expand its HIV/AIDS prevention health campaign via HIV/AIDS Ambassadors – youth who are given bikes to be able to reach the most remote villages to bring awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS, distribute free condoms and to teach abstinence to the youth. This program would not have reached as many recipients without bikes. The War against AIDS was also strengthened through Bikethons – which have drawn youth interest when seminars failed. Additionally, a special program teaching young women to ride has increased the economic productivity of young girls.

The Edikanfo Progressive Foundation (EPF) based in Kumasi, Ghana, promotes community development, education, and health in the impoverished Northern Region of the country in cooperation with government institutions and international agencies such as World Vision.