Category Archives: Sewing Partners

Sewing Partners, Togo

Robert Musil’s Sewing Machine: from New York to Sandra Anani in Togo

By Sandra Anani
Spring 2020 Newsletter

[The fall 2019 newsletter had the first part of the story of Robert Musil’s sewing machine, a 1912 Singer treadle machine that he used for several decades in his profession as a tailor. Robert’s family donated the machine to P4P/SP in 2019 and in October we shipped it to Togo. Here is the next part of the story, written by the woman who got Robert’s machine.]


My name is Sandra ANANI. I am a 37-year-old widow with two daughters. The older one is Joséphine, who is in her final year of high school. The second is Marceline, also a pupil in the high school. I lost my husband 11 years ago. I worked part-time as a housekeeper and as an assistant cook in a restaurant to support my family. In addition to this work, I also did laundry for people in need. I do everything that falls into my hand to earn money and take care of my daughters. I pay for food, tuition, and rent with enormous difficulties, despite the fact that I am a seamstress. I am a high-fashion designer and I sew clothes for men and women, but I could not afford to buy a sewing machine.

My husband had promised to open my workshop at the end of my apprenticeship, but unfortunately he died after a short illness just a year before the end of my training. My step-family put me and my two daughters out; since that time our life became really difficult.

Like many women my age in our community, I never had the chance to go to school. One day, I attended a talk organized by the DRVR Association at a literacy center in my village. That’s when I discovered that the DRVR Association runs a program that supplies sewing machines to the needy. I joined their program and now I have my very first sewing machine. With this machine I can open my workshop and practice my sewing trade, earn money and save money to support my family. My daughters’ future depends on their studies and now I have my machine which will allow me to work and pay their school fees.

Words fail me. The photo shows the joy that animates me and my daughters at this moment. We thank the DRVR association, Mr. David of Pedals for Progress, and especially the family of Mr. Robert, who donated this pedal sewing machine. As my family life has just changed and improved, I ask those responsible — DRVR and Pedals for Progress / Sewing Peace — to do the same for other people like me.

bicycles, Sewing Partners, Tanzania

Report from Tanzania, Fall 2019

By Norbert E. Mbwiliza
Fall 2019 Newsletter

[The 2019 spring newsletter described the ordeal of getting a container through the import process in Tanzania after the original destination organization went missing. Norbert E. Mbwiliza, the head of our newest partner organization in Tanzania, The Norbert and Friends Missions, battled tenaciously to get the container to his headquarters in Arusha.

Here are Norbert’s comments on their bicycle program and a few short notes from people who have gotten bikes or sewing machines.]

Our bicycle distribution was very successful and productive in Tanzania. In rural areas where low-quality bikes are the norm, P4P bicycles have earned a superior reputation. Healthcare groups, development organizations, farmers, and individuals sought to purchase our bicycles for their programs and personal use. This market demand led us to create P4P as a social enterprise subsidiary of The Norbert and Friends Missions that sells directly to those in need of reliable transportation.

There are many benefits in combining our philanthropic endeavors with an innovative social enterprise strategy: it is scalable and multiplies our organizational impact; it diversifies our revenue stream and provides funding for programs; it improves the efficiencies and cost structure of our education, healthcare, and economic development initiatives; and it creates a sustainable quality bicycle infrastructure in Tanzania.

The Norbert and Friends Missions has since built programs to provide specially designed, locally assembled bicycles for students, healthcare workers and entrepreneurs across Tanzania. While the bicycles themselves help individuals conquer distance and increase their carrying capacity, The Norbert and Friends Missions through its special P4P Program has also created new economic opportunities by training field mechanics and employing bike assemblers to support our local programs.

The P4P Bicycle Program in Tanzania has had several positive effects:

  • Capacity, time, and distance: Riding a bicycle is faster and easier than walking. In fact, you transport 5x more and travel 4x faster. Also, you reach 4x further compared to walking.
  • Education: A bicycle helps children to reach school faster, be more punctual and arrive fresher. A bicycle also makes a long school journey safer, particularly for girls, increasing enrollment and attendance rates. At the end of the day, more time also means more free time for homework and leisure.
  • Women’s empowerment: The Norbert and Friends Missions trains young girls to become bicycle mechanics. They serve as role models for other women to become independent entrepreneurs. Women and girls suffer disproportionately from poor transport and mobility opportunities. With a bicycle, women and girls can start their own business, perform better at school, and face a brighter future.
  • Business and income: Bicycles have the power to enable new business opportunities, increase business productivity, increase opportunities for trade or increase the delivery of extension services. This leads to new opportunities to generate regular income for households. People who use bikes can save money because there is no need to pay for gas or transportation.
  • Healthcare: Being a fast and reliable mode of transport, bicycles improve access by the community to healthcare centers and access by health workers to the community. Riding a bicycle of course also gives our peoples legs of steel, improves their wellbeing and keeps them fit!
  • Environment: A bicycle is quiet as a mouse and causes zero emissions.

Here are notes from some of the people who have benefited from our programs.

Agripina

I always remember P4P because if not for them what do you think a girl like me would do??? Imagine that I — Miss Agripina — was very unemployed. P4P through The Norbert and Friends Missions has created employment for many young people and I am one of them. Now I find life a lot easier. I urge P4P donors to continue to fund this project in Tanzania through The Norbert and Friends Missions. For every P4P container, at least 400 people get support from a bicycle or sewing machine. In the youth group, most are girls who would have trouble finding safe and legal work without a sewing machine.

Benedeth

My name is Benadeth Hamisi. I am very grateful to the P4P project of The Norbert and Friends Missions for enabling me to get a sewing machine. Now I can support myself and earn my own income. Thank God. Because I work, I have avoided groups that can get me in trouble. God bless and protect you. I feel a cry of JOY.

Jackson

Hello my friends. My name is Jackson Nestory. You see me here laughing because since I got this bike I can be at my brick-masonry job and take part in various social activities fearlessly. The bike has become a great tool for me because I when I’m not using the bike I can rent it to someone who wants to pay me money. Life has been great for me. Thanks to P4P and The Norbert Friends Missions for your help.

Joseph

My name is Joseph Shija. I own a small business. As a businessman I see success because I arrive at work on time and I am not tired of traveling around many places. I enjoy my work and my community. I thank the servants of God for giving me this bike and for God’s blessing. The P4P project in Tanzania has become the voice of the voiceless. Thank you The Norbert and Friends Missions.

Suzana

Hello. I’m called Susana. I’m a family mom. Do you know why I have a smile??? It is because P4P has changed my life. May I tell you something wonderful that has happened to me: I was unemployed, but after I got a sewing machine from The Norbert and Friends Missions I am self-employed and can take care of my family using my own income. The P4P project through The Norbert and Friends Missions has changed the lives of hundreds of people.

Wilson

My name is Wilson Metusera. I thank God for being given this bike. When I was told that I was offered a free bike I was very surprised and couldn’t believe it. I’ve been getting up early to attend school for long walks. By God’s grace a P4P project was launched here in Nzega and I got cycling support. Now I can attend school, my attendance has improved, and my performance has improved. I am so happy for P4P in the USA and The Norbert and Friends Missions for showing compassion to the poor like us.

Sewing Partners, South Africa

New Partner in South Africa, 2019

Fall 2019 Newsletter

Sewing Peace is proud to announce a new partnership with More Care International, based in Pretoria, South Africa, and operating in Winterveldt, a village 53 kilometers from Pretoria. We’ve agreed to help with their mission: “to establish effective social structures for the undertaking of income-generating projects for the vulnerable and marginalized in the community”.

On November 13, 2019, we shipped 71 sewing machines to start our collaboration.

The last time Pedals for Progress shipped to South Africa was August 2001. We shipped 8 containers of bikes there between 1998 and 2001. Until now, we’ve never shipped any sewing machines there.

Sewing Partners, Uganda

New record for time in customs: Uganda, 2018 – 2019

By David Schweidenback
Fall 2019 Newsletter

A successful development project has several requirements. We respond to all requests yet are able to fulfill only a small portion of them. Our best answer is that we work where the world allows us to work.

  1. Our first necessity is a seaport. Shipping by water is cost-effective. Countries without seaports, especially countries deep in the interior of a continent, are much more expensive to get to. The cost of the overland shipping is double that of ocean-going freight.
  2. Our second necessity is a reasonable government at the destination. The shipping only arrives at the front door. It is the government of the destination country that opens the door to let you in. There are many countries that do not accept any used goods.
  3. Third and most important is a partner. We seek financial partnerships with the distributors of our bicycles and sewing machines. You equitably distribute a product in an economy by selling it. Just because you sell something doesn’t mean you have to charge a high price; it’s just that you need a mechanism to make the transaction work.
  4. Fourth and also critical is the funding. We beg for donations for the first load to get a program started. After that we use our original funding scheme, our revolving fund system: our partners share the costs of running their program. Through the process of distributing bicycles and sewing machines, our partners earn enough money to pay for the shipping of the next container and pay their ongoing business expenses, with some profit left over for the tertiary programs they run. All of our overseas partners have multiple other programs to help their societies; it’s not all bikes. But the bikes produce a constant stream of income to help pay for those other programs.

And then there was David Balaba, the mayor of Iganga, Uganda. Great guy. He didn’t have the first necessity, a seaport. His shipment went from New York through the Panama Canal past Singapore to Sri Lanka, was then shipped overland to Mombasa, Kenya. The cost to bring that shipment overland from Mombasa to Kampala was exactly double the cost of the entire ocean voyage.

David, the mayor of Iganga, did not have a reasonable government. Gaining entry to Uganda has always been difficult and costly. More on this later.

What the mayor did have was number three and number four. He had a solid plan for helping his community in northeastern Uganda. Plus he was able to secure funding from the Live your Mission Foundation. Two out of four — what could go wrong?

On March 21, 2018, Sewing Peace loaded 69 sewing machines and sent them to Mayor David. They sailed away down the Atlantic, across the Caribbean, then across the Pacific into the Indian Ocean and made it to Mombasa on May 23, 2018. At some point during the next month they were probably transferred to the destination, Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

Remember that second necessity up at the top. Mayor David had all of his paperwork in order. He is tax-exempt and is the mayor of a fairly good size town. All the i’s were dotted in the t’s were crossed. Ahh, number 2!

The government finally released the cargo in mid-September 2019, over 15 months after it arrived in the country.

Sewing Partners, Uganda

Field Report from Mityana, Uganda

By Mathew Yawe
Fall 2019 Newsletter

Mityana Open Troop Foundation is a community organization with a vocational skills training centre, recruiting and training disadvantaged youths. After a two-year program in vocational skills, graduates are awarded certificates along with a start-up sewing machine.

Sewing Peace U.S.A. has done a great job in supporting our organization, having shipped us more than 200 sewing machines starting in 2017.

Here are two of our success stories.


Sarah Nakiganda

Sarah Nakiganda is 20-year-old project graduate of 2017 who was donated a Singer sewing machine.

She is a school drop-out of primary 4. Because she was not thriving in formal school, she was brought to our training centre to learn income-producing skills.

At our training centre she performed very well in practical hands-on work. Since she graduated in 2017, she has managed to rent a small room in the town of Mityana, where she earns money making and repairing dresses of all sorts.

She earns between $5 and $7 U.S. per day. With her earnings, she has managed to pay for her younger two sisters’ education, including their school fees and scholastic materials.

Joan Namiyingo

Joan Namiyingo is a 30-year-old single mother. She graduated from our centre in 2017, received a Singer machine, and now supports herself and her child.

Sewing Partners, Togo

Success Story from Togo

Fall 2019 Newsletter

Mrs. Afi Brigitte Ametowoyona

Mrs. Afi Brigitte Ametowoyona lives in Vogan village, Togo, and is the married mother of five children. Before she joined a DRVR sewing apprenticeship workshop she rented a sewing machine for U.S. $10 a month. But at the end of her apprenticeship she got a Sewing Peace machine at no charge as part of the program. She can now save money to feed her family and pay school fees for her children.

Albania, Sewing Partners

Delivering a Sewing Machine in Albania

By Ambra Leka, PASS/EcoVolis
Fall 2019 Newsletter

One family, unlike any other family we’ve visited, made us realize that despite the difficulties in their lives, they still have great heart, welcoming smiles, and a lot of love to give. On a cold autumn night in 2019 we visited a social house in the north city of Tropojë. We knocked and the lady of the house opened the door with a full blown smile, her eyes glowing, and welcomed us openly. But her husband — why didn’t he listen to what we were saying?
The couple were born without the ability to speak or hear. After some time as friends, they fell in love and started living together, desperate as any couple to raise a family and become parents.

What can we say? We only had one sewing machine to donate. It seemed symbolic to us, but to their family it seemed like we were donating a treasure. We went inside, put the sewing machine on the table, and met their little girl, who greeted us with her sweet voice and an angel face. It was so nice to see a family where mom and dad couldn’t even talk or hear, but their daughter somehow could understand and communicate with them. And why was she so small?

We explained how they could use the sewing machine. The lady with a longing and patience watched us as were trying to explain how she could use it. We didn’t know how to feel, what to say or how to act. Her husband left us for a moment and went into the next room. He returned with another sewing machine that the lady had used before it was broken. He had been working on it but had never been able to fix it, much less buy a new one.

It’s hard to describe what I experienced: my happiness and the happiness that the family felt in those moments. They thanked us immensely for the sewing machine while I as a 20 year old girl and young activist want to thank you for the opportunity, the confidence, the cooperation and what I experienced when I knocked on their door, just with a sewing machine that was not mine. THANK YOU.

EcoVolis video (43 seconds) of the delivery of the sewing machine

Collectors, Sewing Partners, Togo

Robert Musil’s Sewing Machine: from New York to Togo

By Dave Schweidenback
Fall 2019 Newsletter

Robert Musil

Robert Musil, 23 years old, left Krizanow, Moravia (now the Czech Republic), in October 1910. His sister Fanny Vogel had previously emigrated to the U.S. and she and her German husband sponsored Robert’s trip. He traveled north to Bremen in Germany and embarked for the U.S.

He arrived at Ellis Island November 17, 1910, looking for a new life and greater opportunity. Like most immigrants he was not looking for a handout but rather to become a creative part of his new country. He was ready to work. Robert was a tailor, made a living his whole life sewing. He is an American success story of how immigrants enrich America. In 1912, Robert married another Czech, Bozina Ourednik. They had two daughters, born in 1914 and 1917.

Bozina Ourednik

Robert was an entrepreneur who supported his family through hard work and great skill. He bought himself a new 1912 Singer manual sewing machine and went to work. In New Rochelle, New York, he worked out of the front parlor of his home where he had a large triple mirror so his clients could see themselves in the custom-made dresses and suits he made. He basically had only a half-dozen wealthy customers, for whom he made evening gowns, suits, and coats.

Robert passed away in 1960. His sewing machine stood idle, finally ending up in his granddaughter’s garage, a family heirloom but what to do with it? The 1912 Singer was waiting for a new life somewhere, ready to go back to work. All these years later his granddaughter, Betsy Richards, still had the sewing machine packed away in her garage. After learning of the mission of Sewing Peace, Betsy decided the best thing to do with it was to donate it so someone else could make a living with that high-quality machine made in the U.S.

Robert Musil’s 1912 Singer Treadle Machine

In comes Anne Fitzgerald, sewing machine collector extraordinaire. Betsey found Anne because the P4P/SP collection was announced in the local newspaper. On October 5th, 2019, Anne brought the sewing machine to the P4P/SP collection at the Asbury United Methodist Church in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. The collection was sponsored by the Croton Lay Interfaith Council.

Robert Musil

Gary, our V.P. and collection coordinator, went to that collection and brought that sewing machine back to the warehouse. Then Dennis our tinkerer did some minor maintenance on the machine. It is now working beautifully!

Robert Musil’s sewing machine shipped to DRVR, our partner in Togo, West Africa, on October 26, 2019. Previously, DRVR had received only one shipment of sewing machines. But with the generous support of the Clif Bar Family Foundation, DRVR is now a bicycle program as well as a sewing program. We hope to be able to trail along to the final destination of Robert’s machine and bring you the conclusion of the story in our 2020 spring newsletter. [Here is that story.]

Sewing Partners, Uganda

Sewing Machines in Uganda, August 2019

Dear David,

Hope you are fine. Today, 20 August 2019, we have received 73 sewing machines which are so nice and attractive.

Among them we see overlocking machines and Baby Lock machines, 2 sergers, and a hook for embroidery machines.

The machines have been wrapped in a very unique way from the U.S.A.

I once again extend our sincere thanks to you, the Dewan Foundation, the volunteers involved in refurbishing the sewing machines, and to all those who kindly donated such nice machines to us.

Pass on our warm regards and thanks please.

Yours,
Mathew Yawe
Executive Director, Mityana Open Troop Foundation