www.eco-bike.org

Narrative Report - Spring 2011 - Name of the Donor: Pedal for Progress (P4P) Implementer organization: Programi i Alternativave Sociale Stimuluese (PASS) Description of the achievements During 2010, PASS has received one container with used bikes and bike materials from Pedal for Progress (in July 2010). The purpose for this collaboration was related with our two aims: • Creation of job opportunities for Roma Families through bike service. • Establishment of the first public bike service in Tirana. The container contained 463 used bikes, 242 bundles bicycle parts and 30 used sewing machines. During these months in figures what PASS has achieved is as follows: • The bicycles which are sold are in total 150 bikes, with an average prize of 8000 leke (80 USD). • 100 bikes are donated to Roma Children in social activities developed under the project • Have been adopted 70 bicycles, for Public Bike Service, with branding and other promotional materials. • 50 bicycles are frequently use for bike tours. • There are 30 bicycles that are designated for the bike messenger. In Tirana there are open four First Bike Services, which in figures is translated in the creation of 8 jobs employed for the youth and a number of 15- 20 bikes per station. Also part of the project was the creation of bike services, which in results 4 youth are employed and maintain the entire bike problems. But what we need is more materials for bicycles parts. What is positive and what we have achieved through the use of bikes is that now is creating a community and a Movement Bicycle in Tirana. Improvements has been done in the infrastructure and many activities are organized in raising the awareness for using the bikes. Relatet with the used sewing machines, this branch market is very develop and all the manifuctures have the last technologic sewing machines. Anyway, we are contacting sawing factories and SCO-s which work with woman in poor communities.

The Container arrives 9/21/2010

Local advertising for the newly arrived bicycles.

Container #1 shipped on 6/19/2010 check back soon for more details

Programi i Alternativave Sociale Stimuluese
Tirana, Albania


PASS, located in the Albanian capital city Tirana, was established in 2002 with the goal of encouraging community action and raising public awareness of local social and environmental issues. Some of their activities include operating the Welcoming Center for Families in Need, involving local residents in resolving community problems through their Volunteer Action Movement, supporting the AKSES Program and Civil to foster the education and employment of rural youth, and facilitate youth community engagement through the Civil Youth Project.

Albania is a small country, approximately the size of Maryland, on the Adriatic coast of the Balkan Peninsula. After the Second World War it was isolated from the rest of the world by a xenophobic, Stalinist government. For decades Albanians, mostly Muslim, experienced purges, economic hardship and underdevelopment, political and civil repression, and the total ban on religious observance.

Its long isolation contributed to Albania’s status as one of the poorest nations in Europe. In 2008 its per capita income was less than $4000 a year and the official unemployment rate was over 12%. Remittances from Albanian workers abroad make up almost 10% of the country’s economy; with the recent crises with the global financial system and with the Euro, these remittances have fallen dramatically.
PASS works with the most marginalized populations of Albania, primarily rural dwellers and ethnic minorities. These are the people who suffered most under the Communist regime, were mostly ignored by the liberalization of the past two decades, and the recent decline in remittances. The rate of unemployment and lack of education among this population is very high.

With help from Pedals for Progress, PASS plans to establish a Tirana Community Bicycle program. Not only will this provide jobs for workers maintaining and managing the community bicycles, but the bikes themselves will help reduce the social and economic isolation of suburban and rural communities by providing dedicated transportation from the margins of Tirana to the center. An additional effect of the program will be to raise awareness among citizens of the bicycle as a fun, healthy, and environmentally sound method of transportation.