Category Archives: Sewing Partners

Sewing Partners, Sierra Leone, Uncategorized

report from sierra leone, june 2021

By Shed Jah
Summer 2021 Newsletter

Woman sewing in Sierra LeoneIsatu Kamara is a single mother. She is just returning to the country from the UAE, where she has spent almost 4 years with captors who tricked her into leaving Freetown for what they said was a greener pasture in the UAE. After 4 years as a sex slave, she was repatriated by the Sierra Leone government. With no home or savings, she was left begging to feed herself and her one-year-old son. She was living in abject poverty, sometimes bunking with her sister, who is herself barely surviving.

When we opened the fashion school it was meant to address the issue of lack of skills amongst our youth, especially girls. Isatu heard about us from a friend and enrolled immediately. These days she spends her days at the school whilst we watch her little son. She is very grateful and happy. In the near future we will provide a day care facility for the children in our community.

Isatu Kamara is one of the many vulnerable women who are benefiting from the sewing machines sent to Sierra Leone by Sewing Peace.

bicycles, Marketing, Philippines, Sewing Partners

Rolex laureates discuss recycling

This post from our Fall 2020 Newsletter gives the background to this 19-minute discussion of recycling. The discussion, moderated by Jeff Kirschner, CEO of Litterati, was part of a collaboration between the Washington Post and the Rolex Perpetual Planet project. The discussion features P4P President, David Schweidenback, and Rags2Riches President, Reese Fernandez-Ruiz. This audio is part of the multimedia piece Trash-to-Treasure Hunters.

Click here to hear the 19-minute discussion.

bicycles, Sewing Partners, Togo

Togo #3, Fall 2020

On 02 October 2020 we loaded our third shipment to Togo: 513 bikes and 47 sewing machines. We just got mail reporting that it arrived on November 24th.

Simon Akouete at the arrival of Togo #3

From: Simon Akouete <simonakouete@gmail.com>
Subject: Informations
Date: November 25, 2020 at 9:57:29 PM EST
To: David Schweidenback <dschweidenback@gmail.com>

Hello David,

You are fine I hope. Finally the bicycles and sewing machines arrived at the headquarters of the Association Défi et Révolution de la Vie Rurale DRVR-TOGO in Vogan yesterday. The young beneficiaries were eagerly waiting for it.

Togo #3 at Vogan, Togo

All our thanks to you especially and to your entire team for a job well done. I am sending you some photos from the opening of the container at the port and the arrival in front of our headquarters in Vogan.

AKOUETE Yawo Galé Simon
Coordinator of NGO DRVR-TOGO

On 24 December 2020 we got mail from Simon with photos of some of the people who got a bike or a sewing machine from the new container.

Philippines, Sewing Partners

Rags2Riches, Philippines: New Partner in 2020

By Reese Fernandez-Ruiz
Fall 2020 Newsletter

[This is an introduction to our newest partner, Rags2Riches of the Philippines. We met because of a partnership between Rolex and the Washington Post, described here. Our first shipment, a pallet with 36 sewing machines, arrives in the Philippines November 16th.]

Rags2Riches, Inc. (R2R) is a fashion and design house empowering community artisans in the Philippines. We create fashion and home accessories out of upcycled fashion waste materials and indigenous fabrics. We sell our products and share our stories through our Philippine-based online store ThingsThatMatter.ph as well as our recently launched online store for North America, R2RShop.com.

Our goal is to be a life and livelihood partner to artisans from communities who do not have access to opportunities that will help lift their lives and families out of poverty. We do this through an end-to-end inclusive supply chain that reaches out to various urban and rural poor artisan communities that have no regular market access or opportunities for employment. We work with these communities through providing them with regular training (that we call our Artisan Academy), access to upcycled fashion waste materials, design direction and collaboration, and reliable livelihood.

For the past 13 years, we have provided sustainable livelihood to about 200 community artisans fairly and consistently. In the Philippines and in various parts of the world, artisan livelihood is intermittent, inconsistent, and seasonal. Thus, 13 years with monthly job orders is considered a huge milestone and the longest standing livelihood for the communities that we are in. We have the community building tools, learning modules, design translation expertise, and dedicated team to make R2R truly a life and livelihood partner for artisans for the long-term.

Through this partnership with P4P, we’ll be able to provide more sewing machines for our artisans who are now mostly working remotely. Our artisans are used to weaving but with the help of sewing machines, they can create other products that can further supplement their income and provide for their families especially during this challenging time.

Sewing Partners, Uganda

Uganda: Report from the Mityana Open Troop Foundation, April–September 2020

By Mathew Yawe
Fall 2020 Newsletter

Mityana Open Troop Foundation is a registered Community Based Organization, with a Vocational Skills Training Centre, which recruits and trains disadvantaged youths, including young girls formerly selling sex for survival and girls expelled from schools due to teenage pregnancies. We teach sustainable vocational skills. Before the closure of all institutions because of Covid-19, the school had a total enrollment of 105. Since we began vocational skills training in 2007, over 801 have graduated; some got jobs while others set up their own workshops.

Every graduating youth is given a sewing machine from Sewing Peace, USA. If we did not award a machine as a benefit of the program, the training would be a waste of time, as 90% of graduates can’t afford to buy one.

Learners are trained for 2 years. We offer programs in Sewing & Fashion Design, Hair Dressing & Weaving, and Motor Vehicle Mechanics.

Irine Nakazzi

Irine Nakazzi is a Sewing & Fashion project graduate of 2018. She has 2 children. After graduating, she and her fellow graduate Agnes Nanyange rented a room in Mityana Town, where they installed their sewing machines. At their shop, they make and sell curtains, mattress covers, and school uniforms. They also sell sodas and water.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, they are making face masks, charging US $1 for 2 masks. They can make 30 masks a day.

Achievements

  • With the help of Mr. Chris Eldridge of the UK, we are getting another shipment of sewing machines from Pedals for Progress / Sewing Peace, USA.
  • We are painting and renovating the Mityana Open Troop Foundation Main Block, sponsored by Mr. Colin Dippie & Mrs. Jane Louise Dippie of the UK.
  • We are buying bricks and constructing a septic tank for the boys toilet, sponsored by Mr. Nino Ardizz & M/s Madison Ardizz of Canada.
  • To slow the spread of Covid-19, our sewing shop is producing face masks and selling them at a low price.

Challenges / Limitations!

  • All training institutions have been under lockdown since March 2020 and cannot reopen until 2021. This has caused serious loss of income at the vocational project, as trainees pay some school fees!
  • Since January 2020, we have had a shortage of sewing machines for sale,
    so we have nothing to sell the many schools and tailors who come to buy machines.
  • We still have trouble raising funds for shipping sewing machines from Sewing Peace.
  • We lack a computer, printer, and photocopier, which would make it easier to print our end-of-term exams and other office work. Currently all computer work is taken to town.
  • The project requires a new embroidery machine that is faster and more reliable than the one we have.
  • The organization requires a staff office and office furniture; for now our instructors don’t have a place to sit and keep their kits.
  • The Training Center is short of clean water. Our 2000-liter water tank is emptied in 2 days. Then students have to walk 1 km to get water from unprotected water sources.
  • There are many malaria cases among project trainees, as they lack mosquito nets.
  • There is a great need to renovate the leaking roofs of our training halls.

Way Forward & Recommendations

  • We are fundraising for a 2-classroom block, to enable us to create a conducive training environment and to accommodate more students.
  • We wish to repair the roof of the Tyne Hall workshop, for our programs in hair dressing and weaving.
  • We hope to renovate and paint the girls dormitories, sewing workshop, and Tyne Hall.
  • We need to build a Boys Toilet. Boys currently share with girls, which is not recommended!
  • We are asking for donation of embroidery machines, as the one we have is slow and requires mechanical servicing all the time!
  • We welcome volunteers who can teach sustainable skills to our youths. We would like to partner with similar vocational training institutions elsewhere in the world. This will help us learn how they operate. Plus it will help our Ugandan youths create friendships with fellow youths and learn about their cultures.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I thank Mr. Chris Eldridge, Mr. David Schewdeinback, president of Sewing Peace, Mr. Colin Dippie & Mrs. Jane Louise Deppie, Mr. Nino Ardizz & M/s. Madison Ardizz, who have been so supportive to our organization, especially now during the pandemic. This has been and still is a very challenging season of limited funds and people losing their jobs.

I extend our thanks to the generous communities in the USA, who have been donating their used sewing machines to our needy Ugandan communities. Please, the used sewing machines, which seem not important in the USA, have really uplifted our Ugandan communities, changing peoples’ lives by raising their income.

Finally, I am calling upon who ever can enable us to construct at least a 2-classroom block and who ever wishes to sponsor some needy Ugandan youths to acquire sustainable vocational skills. For each training term, each trainee requires at least US $95, to cater for all working materials, food, and school-maintenance fees.

The struggle continues and we really would love more in-kind and financial support to enable us to deliver services to needy communities.

Please continue giving a hand up, not a handout. Thanks.

Stay safe from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yours,
Rev. Mathew Yawe
Executive Director, Mityana Open Troop Foundation

More photos

Collectors, Sewing Partners

Donation from Grandma Betty

By Richard Ravin
Fall 2020 Newsletter

[We got a sewing machine with a lovely personal message written on the box it came in. Here’s the note we got when we asked the donor about Grandma Betty.]



Dear Pedals For Progress and Sewing Peace:

Thank you for accepting the donation of the Singer sewing machine. The donation is made in the loving memory of my Grandma Betty Ravin, who used the machine to make and mend things for her family. Nothing gave my grandmother more pleasure than doing things for her grandchildren and other relatives, such as sewing, but most of all, cooking and baking, especially on the high holidays (oh, how I miss her gefilte fish!).

I have held on to the sewing machine for 25 years, during which time it got very little use. I am very happy that it will find a new home. Grandma Betty would have been very pleased to know that her sewing machine will be getting a second life that will help enable those in need to help support themselves and their family through use of her donated Singer Stylist 543, and thus perpetuating her credo – love of family.

Thank you for your charitable work that means so much to so many people in need around the world, and congratulations on redistributing more than 5,000 sewing machines and nearly 160,000 bicycles to date!

Richard Ravin
September 23, 2020

Sewing Partners, South Africa

Report from South Africa, Spring 2020

By Cosmas Bwanya
Spring 2020 Newsletter

More Care International is a registered Non Profit Organization operating in South Africa in a village near Pretoria.

More Care International operates in the rural areas where the majority of women and girls are in need of upliftment. The majority of our communities do not have skills development centers. We reach out to the poor without discriminating on the basis of religion.

The organization started a program called Woman and Girl-Child Empowerment, which seeks to offer sewing and tailoring skills to women and girls. A sewing project has great potential to create employment, offer skills transfer, and create income.


In all the four provinces of South Africa where we reached to offer our services, we witnessed a great need for sewing projects. Our goal is to help as many women and girls as possible to acquire sewing training.

Since 2008 the Founder/President Mr. Cosmas Bwanya tried to source sewing machines from different individuals and organizations, including our own government, but with no success.

It was last year when our leader Mr Cosmas Bwanya send an enquiry email to Mr. David enquiring if P4P could help in donating sewing machines. It was all joy when the response from Mr. David was positive. He offered to extend the helping hand. The donation of 71 sewing machines was sent to us. We received them with much joy.

While we were still preparing to start our project the coranavirus pandemic led the Government to order a lockdown. We hope that the lockdown will soon come to an end so we can start our project.