Category Archives: bicycles

It’s Not Just Any Bike That Will Do

March 19, 2016 Michael Sabrio

by Patricia Hamill
Spring 2016 InGear

When requests for donations are made, it’s often assumed that any item, no matter how worn or outdated, is better than none at all. That is correct—for the most part—because old and unwanted cycles definitely can be resurrected, recycled, and repurposed. We have taken even the most well traveled bikes and turned them into viable and reliable transportation for many new owners. But here is the catch: What if the recipients have special requirements or requests? Is it enough to send what happens to be donated at a particular time and let those at the receiving end figure out how to manage from there?

The bikes we send are in good shape and ready to be purchased, so it’s not like anyone has to repair anything before they get rolling. So maybe that is good enough. But who is to say what enough is? There is a story that Gloria Steinem tells about a turtle she found near a road. She was sure the turtle was in danger and in need of help. She made a point of returning it to the river it “belonged” in only to find out later that she had interfered with the turtle’s arduous efforts to travel to her nesting spot. Steinem took that lesson of assumption to heart and began to apply it to all she does when she helps others. Basically she admonishes us all to “Always ask the turtle.” So, we at P4P find ourselves in a similar situation except the turtle has come to us. In other words, we have found out that the concept of what is good enough is relative and our assistance is needed not just for access to jobs but to athletic ambitions that can offer opportunities for life improvement. There are recipients that know better than us what they need and we should pay attention to that.

In 2014, we introduced a young man named Juan Carlos Jimenez based in Rivas, Nicaragua. The article, “For the Love of Bicycles” shares Juan’s ambitions to become a competitive bicycle racer. It was the donation of a carbon fiber Motobecane bicycle that made this possible. In fact, his daily employment was in a bicycle shop, so his financial and professional aspirations were both enhanced by his association with P4P. Today we reflect on Sergio Ramos Antonio Quintero, a 25-year-old living in the Nicaraguan municipality of Diriamba. A textile worker by trade, his great interest is in racing bikes and he hopes to do this full time; but he lacks access to the kinds of cycles that can propel his goals into reality.

So far, he has participated in a number of long-distance races in Nicaragua, winning many second places and bronze medals. His ambition is to be able to have more time to hone his skills; but this means less time at the textile plant and less income. If he becomes good enough to participate consistently and, of course, win, he could merit financial backing from local sponsors. If Sergio leaves the textile mill, his spot will go to another who is in need of work. It’s a winning situation for more than one person.

So, returning to the example of the turtle, we all probably should work on shifting our perceptions about who is in need and what our contributions can really do. It’s not just one bike, one person. It’s about the person as well and what he or she really needs. Their locations, their terrain, their employment or lack of, and their personal ambitions and desires are all part of one large equation that we may not be able to know, but we can offer the widest range of options for them to make use of. If our recipients can thrive better with high-end competition bikes, then let’s make it happen! The good old cruisers have their place and it’s a given that children’s bikes are valued, but if you aren’t spinning past the finish line these days, there is someone out there who is working hard to earn that honor!

Let’s ask our activist and philanthropist selves not just who we can donate to but what they best need. If you don’t know the answer, ask this turtle: P4P.

bicycles, Fiji, Peace Corps, Sewing Partners

Bula Vinaka from Fiji

March 19, 2016 Michael Sabrio

Spring 2016 InGear

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

Life 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.

We 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

February 24, 2016 Michael Sabrio

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.

But 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

February 24, 2016 Michael Sabrio

[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.]

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.

Children and Youth with Disabilities

We deliver groceries to children and youth with disabilities.

Community Banks

We promote community banks and training for small businesses.

Ecolobici

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

We organize cycling events.

We bring bikes to surrounding communities.

Schools

We provide teaching materials to schools.

Women’s Programs

We provide several programs for women.

Farming

Dressmaking

Baking

Gracias, Pedals for Progress!

Albania, bicycles, Sewing Partners

Loading a Container for Albania

November 18, 2015 Michael Sabrio

On 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.

Containers 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.

Cost 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.

A 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.

Those 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.

As 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

October 24, 2015 Michael Sabrio

Partner: Nadi Cycling Club

Articles

bicycles, Fiji, Peace Corps

A 23-year Relationship with Fiji

October 24, 2015 Michael Sabrio

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.

While 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.

So 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

September 1, 2015 Michael Sabrio

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.

Ecovolis 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.

We’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.

We 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, Fiji, Sewing Partners

Letter from Fiji

August 14, 2015 admin

Bula Vinaka, Greetings from Fiji

Between 1993 and 2002 we were lucky enough to receive six shipments totaling 1012 bicycles from Pedals for Progress. We were very successful reaching at-risk youth, teaching them basic mechanics and instilling in them a love for cycling.

Due to a variety of reasons both personal and political I was not able to keep the program going. Now I hope to reinvigorate the program for the benefit of all Fijians and have petitioned Pedals for Progress for our sixth shipment of bicycles.

The beautiful Fiji Islands are well known for their unique tropical scenery, tasty food, and eco-friendly life-style, but Fiji is still a developing country. Systems and life-style aren’t diverse compared to other countries.

To help establish a solid foundation I would like to introduce cycling as a major event.

The program I would like to highlight mainly targets unemployed youth and settlers in rural areas. As an example, consider our sugar cane farmers. Many travel quite a distance to their work fields, working long hours and earning a gross salary of $100 U.S. a week.

As a volunteer, I live day by day and cover expenses with my own earnings. I do not receive government grants nor have any major sponsors, but due to my love of cycling, I do my best to maintain the bikes. I conduct workshops on topics such as the importance of healthy living, safety and fitness, reasons for cycling, rules of the road, and cycling skills and techniques. I have average turnouts and a good number of trainees and cyclists but do not have enough equipment.

We have very dedicated youths who hold great pride in this sport, but cannot afford bicycles. Receiving another container will give some employment to the youth who are studying mechanics by rebuilding the bikes for the general population, fulfill the needs of the youth who wish to compete on bicycles and also grant mobility to many workers who need basic transportation. Now that Pedals for Progress also ships sewing machines, this would give valuable work opportunities to even more people. It is my ardent hope that the people of the United States will once more aid me in helping my fellow countrymen by donating bicycles and sewing machines so that I can receive a container this autumn.

Vinaka Vakalevu
Percival Epeli Navolo

bicycles, Collectors, Peace Corps, Sewing Partners

U.S.A.

March 30, 2015 Michael Sabrio

pedals for progress