Category Archives: bicycles

bicycles, Business, Peace Corps, Sewing Partners

Progress Report for End of Fiscal Year 2017

On 30 September 2017 we closed the books for fiscal year 2017. (The P4P fiscal year runs from October 1st through September 30th.)

In 2017 we collected 12% more bikes and 55% more sewing machines than in 2016.

Fiscal 2018 starts with a bang: on 23 September 2017 the Vermont Green Mountain Returned Peace Corps Volunteers collected 253 bikes and an astounding 168 sewing machines, all of which is en route to New Jersey. Because it is not yet in our warehouse it cannot be counted as 2017 production, so it will give us a great start to 2018.

Bicycles
Fiscal Year 2016
2016 Total Bikes Shipped 2,760
2016 Bikes Collected 3,130
9/30/2016 Bikes in Inventory 590
Fiscal Year 2017
2017 Total Bikes Shipped 3,644
2017 Bikes Collected 3,531
9/30/2017 Bikes in Inventory 477

Sewing Machines
Fiscal Year 2016
2016 Total Sewing Machines Shipped 285
2016 Sewing Machines Collected 327
9/30/2016 Sewing Machines in Inventory 67
Fiscal Year 2017
2017 Total Sewing Machines Shipped 533
2017 Sewing Machines Collected 511
9/30/2017 Sewing Machines in Inventory 45
bicycles, Ghana

Warren Hills Loads a Container for Ghana


On Saturday, September 23rd, we packed the first container of the 2017 fall season: 536 bikes and 25 sewing machines are on their way to Ghana. The packing crew was from the Computer Science Club of the Warren Hills Regional High School in Washington, New Jersey.


They and their faculty advisor, Daryl Detrick, are no strangers to P4P. Along with the Chess Club, they have run 8 collections and packed 4 containers. Thanks for all you’ve done for P4P over the years.

bicycles, Collectors

End of the 2017 Collection Season


Our 27th calendar year collecting bicycles came to a close today on Veterans Day, November 11th, 2017. On a below-freezing morning, the Bunnvale Assembly of God together with the North Hunterdon Rotary Club collected 106 bicycles and 8 sewing machines — a great result in any weather. We would like to thank all of the participants, and especially Jim Murray, who was instrumental in making this collection happen.

There is a strange dynamic for end-of-season collections in the fall: Once we get to November, people are really thinking about getting their car into the garage, and sometimes unused bikes are in the way, so we have a better chance of collecting a lot of bikes. On the other hand we also have a greater chance of bad weather. Cold weather was obviously not a problem for today’s collection.

I would like to personally thank all of the collectors who have helped make 2017 a record-breaking year, with 12% growth in the collection of bikes and an amazing 55% growth for sewing machines. And to all of you springtime collectors, the time is now to book your spring 2018 collection to get the date you want. Get in touch with Lori at 908-638-4811 or lori@p4p.org.

We have been preoccupied with an incredible fall collection season. However, our new end-of-the-year newsletter is almost ready and we will be getting it to you very soon!

bicycles, Sewing Partners

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 2017 Recycling Awards Application

In August, 2017, Pedals for Progress applied for a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Recycling Award. Here is the NJDEP Packet announcing the application and specifying the requirements for applying.

As specified in the application packet, we submitted these three parts:

1. Application Form (1 page)

2. Program Narrative (4 pages)

3. Supporting Documentation (14 pages)

The awards will be announced in September. Wish us luck.

bicycles, Guatemala

P4P Bike 150,000: the Whole Story

The Summer 2017 InGear newsletter has some reflections and a partial report on bike number 150,000; the report was partial because at publication time we had collected, packed, and shipped the bike, but it was not yet at its final destination. Here’s the whole story.

Collected

On April 1, 2017, the Long Island Returned Peace Corps Volunteers collected P4P bike number 150,000.

Shipped

On April 22nd, volunteers from the Warren Hills High School Chess Club helped us load 575 bicycles into a 40-foot container bound for Chimaltenango, Guatemala. This was our 18th shipment to FIDESMA, for a total of 9,460 bicycles.

Arrived

Our partners at FIDESMA report that bike 150,000 arrived in San Andrés Itzapa, Guatemala, at midday, June 6th.

Delivered

The owner of P4P bike number 150,000 is Noelia Chiquitá, a 17-year-old in her third year of high school. Noelia lives in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.

She plans to use her bike every afternoon to buy supplies for the family store. She also helps her mother in the store in the afternoon.

The bike will also help her stay in shape and stay healthy.

Report from FIDESMA

Here is the note we got from our FIDESMA partners about the container with the bike:

Good day David,

Greetings. We hope you are well. Here is the report on container number 18, which arrived on June 6, 2017.

Thanks for thinking of us when you were ready to ship bike number 150,000. On behalf of our team and our community leaders, many thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
Margarita Cate
Arnulfo Catu
Isabel Luna
Pedro Catu
Roxana Cate
Paty Luna
Sebastian Quina
Jose David Catu
and all of us here at FIDESMA

Here is the FIDESMA inventory report from Guatemala container number 18. P4P keeps track only of adult versus kids’ bikes. FIDESMA categorizes bikes in more detail than we do! And we sometimes forget that plywood, which we use in the containers to separate rows of bikes, can also be useful to our partners.
Bicycles
Mountain bikes 179
BMX bikes 253
Road bikes 31
Touring bikes 58
Tricycles 1
Tandem bikes 1
Choppers 1
Total 524
 
Accessories and Parts
Water bottles 7
Baskets 10
Pumps 2
Bike bags 2
Helmets 6
Plywood sheets 8

We translate the FIDESMA reports from the Spanish. In case you’re wondering, the Spanish word for chopper is ‘chopper’.

Albania, bicycles, Collectors, Sewing Partners, Tanzania

Big Weekend in June 2017

You knew the weekend of June 24, 2017, was going to be action packed when you saw the P4P trailers and parking lot. The Triton 40-foot container had been delivered for our 11th shipment to Albania. The Avis rental truck was ready for the final collection of the spring season. And Dave’s Mini and a couple of volunteer vehicles were parked out front.




Sewing Machines to Tanzania

We had collected enough sewing machines for a shipment of two pallets to Tanzania. Our tinkerers Simon Rosenstein and Dennis Smyth had worked tirelessly over the last few months getting the machines into good working order. Several dozen machines were boxed and ready to pack. We had just made the final arrangements with our partner in Tanzania, the She Can Foundation. The Summer 2017 InStitch newsletter has this post about a recent trip around Tanzania by She Can founder Sophia Mwakagenda, a Member of the Parliament of Tanzania.

On Friday, we prepared the two pallets. We stacked the boxed machines on a pallet, leaving room for a couple of sets of the heavy treadle stands. We nestled the treadle stands inside the walls of boxed sewing machines, put a cardboard roof over the treadles, and added another layer of boxed machines. We added some cardboard padding, roped it up, then shrink-wrapped the whole thing into a neat 4-foot cube. We shipped a total of 68 machines in the two pallets.

Bon voyage, sewing machines. See you in Tanzania!

Eleventh Container to Albania

Also on Friday, we pre-loaded 53 adult bikes, 25 kids’ bikes, and some sewing machines into the container bound for Albania. The pre-load lets us take care of any special packing before the big push on Saturday. This time we used the pre-load to pack very carefully a handful of spectacular bikes, including that famous carbon-fiber Specialized Roubaix. In the photos you can see that it has its own personal cardboard stall. These bikes will go to people who love cycling and are willing to pay a high price for a special bike. Our partner in Albania, PASS/Ecovolis, will be extremely happy to get some high-end bikes they can sell to help support their programs.

On Saturday, the real loading crew took over and did the hard work. They started at 7am to try to avoid the heat of the day, when the interior of the container attains advanced sauna status. Some sections of the container get three rows of bikes stacked on top of each other: two rows of adult bikes and one row of kids’ bikes. To pack the top row, you climb into a sweltering 3-foot niche with the broiling roof of the container blistering your flesh. Then you contort yourself into the most awkward position you can think of and take ridiculously heavy kids’ bikes from the person passing them up. Then you push them into position, using hands, feet, and any other body part that proves useful. The idea is always to get as many bikes as possible into the container—the shipping cost is fixed, so every bike adds to the bottom line.

When the container is almost full, we close one of the two container doors and jam in the last few dozen bikes, jig-saw like. Our partners are well aware of our packing methods, so they open the container doors gingerly, hoping not to be crushed by an avalance of bicycles.

The final count for the Albania container: 426 adult bikes, 100 kids’ bikes, 25 pairs of pedals, 9 saddles, 12 baskets, 25 helmets, 9 sets of training wheels, 2 bike racks, 4 wheels, 8 tires, and a few other miscellaneous bike parts and accessories, plus 15 sewing machines. That’s a full container!

Our Albania partner, PASS/Ecovolis, is one of our most active partners. They have a bike shop and a bike sharing program in Tirana, the capital of Albania. They also have projects in reforestation, childhood literacy and nutrition, and low-income housing.

As for sewing machines, Ened Mato, head of Ecovolis, tells us that they now have extra importance. Partly thanks to Ecovolis efforts in political persuasion, Tirana merchants now must charge a small fee for plastic shopping bags. Yet another PASS group, Trasta o Nona, manufactures fabric shopping bags, using Sewing Peace machines. The PASS shopping bags should sell much better with the new fee on plastic bags.


Flemington Collection

While the crew was loading the Albania container, Gary was running the final collection of the spring 2017 season. The Presbyterian Church of Flemington and the Flemington Rotary Club collected 42 bikes and 19 sewing machines.

Summer Break

So that was our big weekend: we shipped 68 sewing machines to Tanzania on Friday, finished loading 526 bikes and 15 sewing machines for Albania on Saturday, and also on Saturday collected 42 bikes and 19 sewing machines in Flemington. Well done all around.

The shipments to Tanzania and Albania emptied the trailers of most bikes and sewing machines, but there are a few left as a start on our next shipments, which we will make later in the year.

Our collections resume in September. Get in touch if you’d like to host one. Have a great summer.

bicycles, Ghana, InGear - The Newsletter of P4P

The Vendor

Summer 2017 InGear

Kwame is a young man around 22 years old and a student at Cape Coast Polytechnic in Ghana. Kwame is into the business of selling Phone Cards at wholesale prices. He does this when he has no lectures to attend. Considering the tough nature of this business, he sells them by either hiring a car or walking. This mode of selling makes the work somehow cumbersome and tedious.

Fortunately for Kwame, he came into contact with WEBike and he purchased one of the bikes at an affordable price. He uses the bicycle for his phone-card business and sometimes to go to lectures as well because he is a non-resident student. The use of the bicycle has made his business very efficient and his customer base has increased. This is how he is able to buy more books and other personal needs. Kwame also loves to use the bicycle because of the exercise he gets riding between the campus and town.

bicycles, Ghana, InGear - The Newsletter of P4P

The Farmer

Summer 2017 InGear

One of the most prominent occupations that the world could ever think of is farming. Unfortunately in our part of the world here in Africa, especially Ghana, most young people prefer white collar jobs to farming.

This is not in the case of Mr. Seidu, a 40-year-old peasant farmer in Western Ghana. He is married to his wife Abiba and they have three children ranging from 6 to 13 years old. He grows peanuts and corn to cater for his family. Considering where he is staying he has to wake up very early in the morning and set out for the farm. It takes him about one and half hours to walk to the farm; so before he gets there, he is already tired. Fortunately Mr. Seidu managed to purchase a bicycle from WEBike. The bicycle helps him to get to the farm on time with less effort. He ties his machete, hoe, and a gallon of water to his bike, and within 30 minutes he is at his farm. Now he is able to work longer when he goes to the farm and he goes almost every day. Aside from the economic benefit, he is also healthier, due to the exercise he gets riding the bicycle.

bicycles, InGear - The Newsletter of P4P, Nicaragua

Nicaragua Success Story, 2017

Summer 2017 InGear

Alexander Mora was born in Tola, Nicaragua, eight miles west of the town of Rivas, home of our P4P partner EcoBici.

Alexander has been interested in bikes since he was 10. From a very young age he learned bike repair from Guadalupe, the former lead mechanic at the Ensembladora de Bicicletas, the EcoBici bike shop. Guadalupe taught Alexander everything about repair and maintenance of bicycles: lubrication, wheel alignment, cable replacement, …

When Alexander got his first 20-inch bike he became even more interested in bike repair.

When he was 23 an Atlas bicycle came into the shop from a Señor Miguel Ríos. Señor Rios used to deliver newspapers in Rivas on his Atlas. Señor Ríos passed away but his son gave the Atlas to Alexander. Alexander still has this bike.

After he got the Atlas, Alexander would ride it from Rivas to Tola. From Tola he would ride another five miles to the village of Gasper García to repair taxi trikes. Overall, Alexander maintains about 100 of these bike taxis.

After work he would ride a few more miles to the Pacific coast for fish and whatever else he could find. To survive he would carry a machete, a liter container of water, and a pump and patches for tire-repair.

In 2011, Alexander met Joaquino Bando and they met Carlos Santana at EcoBici. They began to assemble beach cruiser bikes.

Alexander seemed different from other workers. He worked closely with Carlos. Then when head mechanic Don Lorenzo retired, Alexander joined the EcoBici permanent staff, earning a fixed salary. He works on new and used bikes, and has become one of the best bike mechanics in the country.

Alexander now restores badly damaged used bikes, making them almost like new. Besides the Atlas, he has restored a classic 24-inch bike that he uses to run errands for EcoBici: making bank deposits or doing anything else we need him to do. Alexander has great skill as a bike mechanic and has been an excellent addition to the staff at EcoBici.