Fiji
Amateur Cycling Association in Suva
1,012 Bikes Shipped
From
the Friends of Fiji newsletter -
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The film 'Castaway' with Tom Hanks provides many of us with a singular image of Fiji as a remote, blissful Eden. It's hard to imagine that there might be another version of the common idea of paradise. Anyone who's spent time working or living in Fiji knows that vision is more complex.
Fiji quietly entered the small constellation of Pedals for Progress project nations in 1993. The first shipment of 213 bicycles was sponsored by the Fiji Amateur Cycling Association in Suva. The program followed the established Pedals for Progress model; bicycles were repaired by the Association and some were circulated among young people interested in
cycling as a sport. Many of the bikes were utilized in employment programs while rebuilding them and the majority of the first shipment, many low-end road bikes and single speed cruisers, still provide basic transport for modest income people throughout the city. The program was successful, making it possible for people who couldn't afford a car or daily bus commutes to get to work, attend school or gather their family's necessities. Two more small shipments arrived in 1995 and 1997. In the mid-nineties, Percy Navolo, a fiercely competitive mountain bike champion and member of the Fiji Cycling Association, took the concept a step further. Working with at-risk youth from the small, struggling city of Nadi, Navolo developed a program using Pedals for Progress bikes and his skills as a mechanic to train kids in bike repair with the goal of transitioning them into better paying jobs as trained automotive technicians. Along the way, he employed several teenagers in a small enterprise that repairs Pedals for Progress bikes and rents them to tourists through several local hotels who partnered to provide material support and financing of the project. The teens help manage the businesses, service rental bikes and provide repairs, parts and accessories to local people also using Pedals for Progress bikes.
Some of the teens work with Navolo in his auto mechanic shop, learning valuable skills that have helped several of them land jobs in local garages. Navolo accomplished this while supporting his wife and three children, building a modest wooden house and training for and winning major mountain bike races around the world while earning less than $400 dollars per month.
The 2000 coup by rebel George Speight had a dramatic effect on the already struggling tourist industry in Fiji, forcing one of the program's key benefactors, Frank Harman of the Nadi Hotel to withdraw support. A contraction of 12 to 15 percent in economic growth, nearly vacant hotels, departing garment manufacturers and fleeing ethnic businessmen has exacerbated a 25 percent unemployment rate and put another quarter of the population on the brink, making the situation more worrisome. Reversing the slide at street level requires the dedicated efforts of visionary people like Percy Navolo to weather the crisis and hold on until tourism resumes at normal levels and political stability is reclaimed.
The assistance of the Friends of Fiji, making it possible to provide a full load of bikes to the program couldn't come at a better time.Despite a lack of funding that prevented Navolo from competing in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he has expanded his role within the Fiji Amateur Cycling Association and continued racing on a regional level. With the financial support of the Friends of Fiji, the Pedals for Progress partner program will gain a fresh infusion of better quality bikes which Navolo intends to use in an expanded training program for promising Fijian bike racers as well as his bike mechanic training program for Nadi's at-risk youth.
Bikes have become crucial as basic transport throughout Fiji as prices for public transit and basic necessities have increased substantially. Bikes from the shipment, scheduled for loading by October 26th and arrival in early December, will be provided to people in the greatest need of clean, reliable and inexpensive transportation. Sales of the bikes will provide some of the crucial funding for subsequent shipments to keep the project rolling as long as it is required to help the friendly, generous and most vulnerable people of Fiji move from poverty to progress.