Spring 2019 Newsletter

On March 19, 2019, Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace signed a partnership with the New Jersey affiliate of the Peacemakers Community Development Foundation (PCDF), Nigeria.

PCDF has organized training initiatives for widows and youth for the past 12 years. They offer training in photography, event planning, decoration, fashion design, soap making, and baking. Working with local and national government groups, they plan to open bike shops and a sewing center in Nigeria. Their programs are open to all citizens.

We made contact with PCDF through Shola Adedeji, MPH, a pastor in New Jersey. Ms. Adedeji had planned a trip to Nigeria for later in March, so she came to the Sewing Peace warehouse and picked up four sewing machines to carry back to Nigeria.

When a full container became available for shipping in June, we were able to fund it thanks to the Clif Bar Family Foundation. Our revolving fund idea is that the profits from this shipment will be able to fund the next shipment, and so on.

On June 7th we did a small preload: we loaded a row of bikes and moved a bunch of sewing machines into place for the main loading. On June 8th, the main crew loaded 463 bikes and 141 sewing machines.

Nigeria is a new country for Sewing Peace and Pedals for Progress — a first container in 2019, but hopefully many more to come.