Fall 2022

Dear Donors, Friends, and Supporters of Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace,

Our fall collection season started off with a bang with our first shipment of sewing machines to Somalia! We sent 72 sewing machines to Mogadishu, Somalia with the Hiran Youth Council, that were accompanied by other used goods being sent by the organization. With these machines, the Council will open a sewing school to teach young people of Mogadishu the vocation, giving them the necessary skills to develop their own small businesses. We are very excited to have this new partnership in an area of the world that desperately needs economic assistance.

With this new beginning, we would also like to report on the success of the Mityana Open Troop Foundation. Located in Mityana, Uganda, their operation has humble beginnings starting as a community-based organization led by a group of Boy Scouts in 1997, who had been affected by the overreaching socio-economic issues of the area exacerbated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. From there, the Mityana Open Troop Foundation has developed from a small training operation to a full-on economic enterprise that now has the capacity to import sewing machines from India to further fund their community outreach efforts. This is a textbook example of what Sewing Peace and Pedals for Progress wishes to achieve with our efforts. It is a success story of a small organization that grew to a commercial enterprise. We encourage you to read more about this story. It is in the latest issue of our InGear/InStitch newsletter.

These stories do not happen overnight. The success of our partners overseas relies on the work we do here in the United States. Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace is grassroots – we rely on the commitment of locals willing to donate their items rain or shine; the groups, Rotary clubs, and religious organizations that sponsor our events; and the generosity of our donors located in and far beyond the tree-state area of New Jersey. Pedals for Progress and Sewing Peace is a network of people that want to help families in developing countries by giving them a fair shot at life. I would like to ask for your continued support and to please donate today. Thank you!

Alan Schultz, President, P4P/SP