Summer/Fall 1999 InGear

Desarrollo Rural de Guanajuato (DRG), a 22-year-old affiliate of the Mexican Rural Development Foundation, is P4P’s first partner in this important U.S. neighbor, the hemisphere’s most populous Spanish-speaking country.

In June, 1999, P4P loaded a single-container record of 553 bicycles—collected in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts—and shipped them to DRG, donating shipping as well as the contents.

DRG works in rural communities throughout Guanajuato, an impoverished and arid state in the central highlands northwest of Mexico City. By project’s end, DRG will establish seven bicycle reconditioning and repair centers providing stable employment for bicycle mechanics and managers, while offering reliable and economical transportation to more than 1,000 low-income workers, students, health and education personnel. Guanajuato, which in the 17th century was the world’s largest producer of silver and a prosperous region, has since been in economic decline.