Category Archives: Sewing Partners

bicycles, Guatemala, Sewing Partners

FIDESMA report, January 2016

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.

201601GuatBoyBlueBikeBut 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

[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.]

201601GuatDonationSixthGrade

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.

201601GuatGirlWheelchair

Children and Youth with Disabilities

We deliver groceries to children and youth with disabilities.



201601GuatMenBankPromotion

Community Banks

We promote community banks and training for small businesses.



ecolobiciGuatemalaLogo

Ecolobici

Ecolobici, our bicycle program, provides and promotes bicycles for men, women, and children of all ages.
201601GuatBoyOrangeBike

201601GuatGirlBigPinkBike



201601GuatBikersWkits

We organize cycling events.

201601GuatGroupRideInCity


201601GuatBikesInTrucks

We bring bikes to surrounding communities.



201601GuatKidsInSchool

Schools

We provide teaching materials to schools.



201601GuatWomenMeeting

Women’s Programs

We provide several programs for women.


201601GuatWomanWithProduce

Farming


201601GuatSewingMachinesWomen

Dressmaking



201601GuatWomenBaking

Baking


201601GuatThanksP4P

Gracias, Pedals for Progress!

Sewing Partners, Tanzania

2015 Update from Tanzania

tanzania2menSewingIMG_20151029_114109

[In 2013 and 2014, P4P shipped its first two pallets of sewing machines to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. In November of 2015, we got this update from Mr. Jonathan Mulokozi of Community Support Mission, our partner there.]

Dear David,

Here is our work report.

We sold 35 sewing machines, each for 100,000 Tanzania shillings (about $46 U.S.). These sales cover our shipping and port charges, so we can use the rest of the machines to make a profit.

tanzaniaManModelingSuitIMG_20150924_160339We sold 10 of the other machines to a Member of Parliament in the Mbeya region, where she distributed the machines to women’s groups.

We use other machines in the three new sewing and training centers we opened in Karagwe. We employ 3 technicians to teach tailoring, and we have 6 students. Our main customers are primary schools and secondary schools. From the sale of clothes we make, we made 2,100,000 Tanzania shillings (about $1000 U.S.).

With income from the sewing centers plus a donation from the Edinburgh Global Partnerships, we bought a corn milling machine. With this machine we make Grade A Super Maize Flour.

tanzaniaMachineIMG_20151024_073432Because we did not have a proper power source for the milling machine, we completed a separate project to supply it with electricity. The electricity project involved running new power lines to our machine from the main power line from Uganda to Tanzania. With the new power, ten local families have electricity for the first time.

We hope that you will be able to send more sewing machines by early 2016, and that we will have enough funds to get more bicycles and sewing machines after that.

Thanks.
Mr. Jonathan Mulokozi
CSM Tanzania, East Africa
Fall 2015

Albania, bicycles, Sewing Partners

Loading a Container for Albania

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingContainerDSCN2536On 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.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingDSCN2542earlyLoadingContainers 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.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingAlmostFullDSCN2548Cost 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.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingAlmostDoneDSCN2559A 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.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingDoneDSCN2567Those 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.

2015NovAlbaniaLoadingClosingDoorDSCN2569As 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, Sewing Partners

Letter from Fiji

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.

fijiBikeShopP4PshirtIMG_0015 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.

fijiBikeShop2youthSAM_2925As 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

Sewing Partners

Looking for a few good volunteers

You know Pedals for Progress (www.p4p.org) because we have had great success recycling used American bicycles from the greater New York City / Philadelphia area. In fact we have collected and shipped more than 150,000 bikes to developing nations to spur economic growth. What you might not know is we have a sideline which we hope will become almost as important. We have shipped over 4000 sewing machines!

SDC11190

While a bicycle will get an individual to work, to school, to play and generally improve their life, a sewing machine is a job in a box. The personal elimination of poverty requires employment. P4P has long had in its mission to create economic opportunity. The bicycle is not a handout; you still have to pedal to make it successful. Likewise a good portable sewing machine gives certain individuals the ability to immediately earn income.

P1020096

We have a very specific plan for collecting bicycles—one-day, three-hour events—and we do collect many sewing machines at our bicycle collections. But we need an alternative cost-effective way to more successfully harvest the sewing machines sitting in closets and to do it year round.

P4P would like to assemble a cadre of people who could serve as local collection points in an ongoing collection of sewing machines. If we could find some volunteers who could save up to 20 sewing machines in the corner of their garage, it’s then cost-effective to send out the truck to pick them up. I tell our partners overseas that P4P is item-rich cash-poor and it is true. In many ways we work as a trucking company and need to be mindful of all of the transportation costs from the time we get a sewing machine from the donor until it is delivered to a recipient overseas.

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Our bicycle collections are limited to just the months during the spring and fall. Once we have a large number of sewing machine collection points we will be able to be fully operational 12 months of year. P4P will still collect bicycles only six months a year in the same way we have in the past, but if we run sewing machine collections independently of bike collections we hope to get to 1000 sewing machines per year starting in 2017, which would be a threefold increase in sewing machine production.

3

We will also need more tinkerers, to help clean up and refurbish the machines as they come in. If you have a little space and are willing to help please contact Dave at dschweidenback@gmail.com or 908-638-8893. 

bicycles, Guatemala, Sewing Partners

Guatemala Update

Spring 2015 InGear

San Jose Artesanas

There is a small town in Cimaltenango, a department of Guatemala, where a group of 17 housewives and mothers have changed their fortunes. San José Poaquil is an isolated area and the residents of this municipality have little opportunity for economic and educational improvement. Still, one particular woman named Marta had the initiative to work for change. Under her guidance, the local women learned the craft of sewing and began to create and market blouses that are typical of their region.

San Jose Poaquil, Guatemala
San Jose Poaquil, Guatemala

They began with only one sewing machine to share among them. The success of the sales of these blouses enabled them to save enough so that they, through FIDESMA and P4P, could acquire more machines. Each blouse brings in about Q50.00 or Q100.00 (Guatemalan Quetzals), which is enough to improve their ability to get better food and other important resources for their families, which consist of anywhere from 3 to 9 children. Access to these sewing machines will eventually lead to long-term opportunities as these women continue to establish themselves as artists and businesswomen.

Abner Ottoniel Siquinajay Popol

Abner on his bicycle
Abner on his bicycle

Abner has a small family since his father abandoned them when he was only eight months old and his older brother was two years old. The child’s mother, whose name is Reyna Elizabeth Siquinajay, works in a tortilla company, where she earns very little and not enough to pay for the education of her children. Therefore Abner has worked as a shoeshine boy since he was 7 years old. He works during the evenings in the park and in the different houses of the village. Abner received the donation of a BMX bike from the FIDESMA Foundation to increase his mobility so that he could complete more work in his evenings. With support from Pedal for Progress, FIDESMA has received 15 containers of bicycles, parts, and sewing machines for sale since 1999. Most of the bicycles and sewing machines are sold at low cost; however occasionally for cases like Abner’s the bicycle is donated. It is a special case of a child working in the evenings to pay for school in the morning at the National Urban Mixed School September 15. It is admirable that a human being at such a young age can take responsibility and desire to excel as this boy of just 12 years, whose dream is to some day graduate Master of Primary Education.

bicycles, Costa Rica, Sewing Partners

Costa Rica Update

Spring 2015 InGear

Carlos making his daily drop off
Carlos making his daily drop off

Carlos Camacho lives at the bottom of the hamlet in Dulce Nombre de Coronado, Costa Rica. He works in the workshop of a flag factory located near Coronado. He put a basket on his bicycle so he could begin to deliver vegetables and fruit to some of the families that are along his route on his way to work. Some of the fruit and vegetables are from his own garden and others he buys the day before. He manages to generate a little income while he is commuting, which he puts towards the cost of his five-year-old daughter’s education. The bicycle allows him to manage to drop off the vegetables and fruit to several households on his way to work.


Martha working in her house
Martha working in her house

Martha Bejarano raised her daughter alone doing needlework. She lives in Aguas Zarcas of Ciudad Quesada, Costa Rica, in a very humble village. At great cost she is sending her daughter to school to become a professional, so now she is caring for her granddaughter. The daughter gave her a better P4P sewing machine with more stitches, so she can be more productive while her granddaughter is at school. She now lives much happier because one needs to save. She learned to operate the new machine almost immediately and it is allowing her to be more productive and do more work. Now her dream is to improve the kitchen and the refrigerator of her humble cottage with the added income she is earning.


Javier and daughter on their daily ride
Javier and daughter on their daily ride

Javier Baldivia and his family live in the district of Los Guidos in the heavily populated canton (much like a county) of Desamparados, Costa Rica. In this urban environment, Javier and his wife work hard to maintain a steady income in order to afford both the basics for the family and school for their older two children. Construction is his main occupation but, as in many places, the work varies as much as the demand. He waits for his boss to let him know where and when to be at a job and needs to be able to get to the assigned location as quickly as possible.

Not only does he compete with Costa Ricans for work, but he must also contend with the enormous influx of other Nicaraguans looking for a better life and steady wages. The ownership of a single bicycle has enabled Javier to remain reliable and, thus, competitive in a congested world of surplus able bodies. As a bonus, on weekend mornings, he can also make use of his bicycle to run errands for the family, such as shopping with his daughter at a “Pulpería” to buy cheese and bread for their breakfast.

As our American cities embrace bicycle commuting and sharing as a new (much needed) trend, people like Javier have known for some time that two wheels mean much more than less traffic and good exercise. Bicycles are the most economical and efficient tool for many people of many incomes to keep their families secure and their environment healthy.

Albania, bicycles, Sewing Partners

Albania Update

by Ened Mato
Spring 2015 InGear

It has been a frenzy driven period for us. In between the activities we are organizing many society projects and we are preparing for many more.

Kidical Mass ride in Tirana
Kidical Mass ride in Tirana

I am more than happy to tell you about Kidical Mass, which is a younger version of Critical Mass, and it has been a success for parents and children alike. The weather here is also very harsh on bikers but as soon as it gets a bit warmer and a bit less rainy we will return with this project as it was a wonderful occasion for parents to spend time with their children while doing something fun along the way. There was a significant participation in our last events in the year 2014 and we are constantly told how eagerly people await the return of these events in 2015. Participation was enabled by the many and many children’s bikes you sent us, and we really hope to draw attention to these bikes because not only they are (probably) the most entertaining gifts for a child but also the healthiest.

Planting trees at a local landfill in Albania
Planting trees at a local landfill in Albania

I must thank you for the sewing machines. We are currently putting them to use in a small project for a small economic empowerment of families in the north of Albania, where conditions are difficult to live and survive. As soon as we get some results and individual perspectives of the project, I’ll let you know and maybe we can include those in the newsletter.
2015springAlbaniaPlantingTreesOnePerson

Also I want to tell you of a very important project for us. We are currently totally engaged to make it work. With the sales of the last 2 months from the bikes (and of months ahead) we are working to plant 1000 trees near a landfill site called Sharra, with the hope of a better environment for the adjacent villages and the general area where the fumes from the landfill make living hard. “Plant Your Tree” and Ecovolis have the motivation to make this work. Phase One is three days away with a first step of 1000 trees, and based on the participation we get we are going to plan and go all the way until we hit the target of 1500 trees (and who knows how many more later). Soon enough I’ll have some photographic material to send to you so you can also give impressions and include it in the newsletter.

There have also been smaller scaled projects but with a considerable success upon drawing attention of the public towards a greener living in general and biking in a more specific manner.

Best regards,
Ened