By Pass/Ecovolis
Spring 2020 Newsletter
P4P and PASS/Ecovolis support the community’s need to go on in the middle of a global crisis.
- Free bicycles for doctors, nurses, and hospital staff in Tirana, Albania.
- Brake adjustment and tire-inflating for anyone who still has to work or who has an immediate need to move.
- Free bicycle transport for food, for pharmacy needs, for other support, for lonely elders.
It was the 15th of March, Summer Fest in Albania, one of the most popular holidays welcoming the summer, when everything was suddenly canceled. The decorations of that holiday still line the empty streets of Tirana.
The final order of the Albanian government: everything shuts down, everybody stays home. The situation is critical. Two weeks ago the pandemic had exploded in Italy, only 25 miles away from Albania. Thousands of Albanians fly in and out of Italy every day for work, business, and to meet their families. Many Italians work in Albania. The probability that the virus has invaded Albania is very high. The invisible enemy was in the air and sacrifice from everybody had to start.
Quickly we began supporting doctors and nurses by offering them free bicycles. Seventy bicycles from P4P are in use by doctors and nurses in Albania.
There are no cars in the city, no buses, no public transportation. The police and the military are serving 24 hours a day, every day. Ecovolis donated 30 children’s bicycles for the children of the police and soldiers on the front lines of the war with the virus.
Ecovolis also donated 15 bicycles to support employees of the postal service.
We donated 10 sewing machines to the elderly in difficult economic situations so they can work from home. Our activists also distributed food to poor communities.
The bicycle has helped fight the virus in Albania. P4P helped a society to continue life in the middle of a global crisis.