Sewing Machines & Pedals for Progress

Since 1992,Pedals for Progress has collected used bikes and sent them overseas to the working poor in developing countries. This established a successful network of recipient projects in over 15 countries on five continents. It also proved something as simple as a used bike from America can improve a life in,say,Nicaragua or Fiji. P4P bikes make people self-sufficient,far more mobile,and by degree,more affluent.

In 2000,P4P sent its first sewing machine and discovered that these machines are in demand in the same places where our bicycles have changed so many lives for the better. Plenty of unwanted portable sewing machines exist in people’s homes. And like the bicycles, they’re often headed for a landfill. By collecting these sewing machines, P4P can piggyback them onto the bike shipments destined for recipient projects.

In 2007 P4P is looking to expand our sewing machine collection into its own arm called "Treadles for Progress" Tredles will ship sewing machines to qualified nonprofit partners in order to set up small cooperative clothing businesses around the world.

Please donate your used sewing machine (in working condition) at any Pedals for Progress bicycle collection. We ask for a $20 with each sewing machine to aid in the storage and shipment of the machines.