From a Rockville Student to a Student in Bohol

King Farm

This year Bikes for the World reconditioned and donated 33 bikes to the TERRIFIC citizens of Rockville on May 18, 2014.

New helmets, donated by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, and BfW bicycles were awarded to 33 children ages 5-12 who participated in the Rockville Recreation and Parks Department’s “Terrific Bikes” program.

 

Kommy, 2014 Terrific bike earner

Bikes for the World collects unwanted bikes in the community and fixes them up at our King Farm warehouse. Some of these bikes are then given back to the community through the city's earn-a-bike program.  The majority of our bikes are donated to a dozen partner programs around the globe.

 

Children earned the bikes by completing at least six responsible acts, such as perfect school attendance for one month or volunteering at a charitable organization for an hour. Many did much more, including one 9-year-old who earned a bike for his younger brother so he could learn to ride.

Gabrielle, 2013 Terrific bike earner AND donor

Every year we find stories such as these where a young bike earner turns around and gives that bike to someone else. The last two years, in fact, several students brought us their old bikes that they had outgrown to donate to our program.

In 2013 we told you about Gabrielle, who earned a bike even though she had just received a new one for her birthday. She wanted to help another young person find the joys of riding a bike. This year we have an update on that bike Gabrielle donated.

Crea Ocdenaria

Crea Ocdenaria is a Junior at Pagnitoan National High School in Maribojoc, Bohol Philippines. Thanks to Gabrielle's efforts, Crea is now one of about 50 new bike beneficiaries in our latest school project in the Philippines.

Crea lives in the Barangay of Dipatlong which is about 3 kilometers from school. That's almost a four mile round trip walking everyday. Crea was chosen for the bike program based on her family's distance from school as well, as their financial situation. Her father, Edwin, is a laborer and earns about $100 a month for their family. Crea's mom, Marita is a housewife. Crea has three siblings, one brother and two sisters.

 

Pagnitoan HS beneficiaries practice riding skills

The bike Gabielle donated, a blue and silver Power Climber, is now helping Crea get to and from school faster, allowing her more time to study and help her mother with the house and her siblings. Crea is an honor student with a 90.6 average.

Many students are in danger of dropping out of school because of their lengthy commutes. Bicycles are helping entire families by keeping kids in school and getting them home faster to help with errands or family chores.

Pagnitoan National High School is the second school to take part in the Bikes for Education program established by Bikes for the Philippines and supported by Bikes for the World. Our newest beneficiaries just received their bikes after about a six month delay. The devastation last fall caused by the earthquake damaged much of Maribojoc, including the school (you can still see the rubble of a school building behind the bike beneficiaries in the photo above).

 

Bringing Communities Together Across the Globe

Bikes for the World celebrated Bike to Work day this year in the warehouse, which given the day's forecast was not a bad idea! We did support the Rockville Town Center pit stop this year and saw a surprising number of die hard cyclists riding to work Friday morning.

Meanwhile, the staff from CEB was convening on our Arlington warehouse for a day filled with a number of important tasks, including a loading for Kenya and prepping the warehouse for the massive influx of bikes arriving this week from DICK'S Sporting Goods.

Nairobi bike beneficiaries. Courtesy Bina Bilenky

The container we loaded will be heading to Wheels of Africa next week, set to arrive in July. Wheels of Africa works with the cycling tour group Tour d'Afrique to donate bikes to select groups in areas the cycling tour touches. It's a way for their riders to give back to the communities they visit.

Bina Bilenky of Philadelphia, just completed the tour which ended in South Africa this month. Earlier in the ride they traveled through Kenya where she met Wheels of Africa and witnessed the bike donation ceremony in Nairobi. She sent us this photo of our bike beneficiaries.

B4H Wisconsin. Courtesy Jerry Tyler

What made this shipment even more unique than the others is the impressive number of bikes about to arrive in Kenya in July...over 850 bikes! This is possible because we teamed up with another group in Wisconsin also looking to ship bikes to Kenya.

Bicycles for Humanity (B4H) Oregon, Wisconsin recently approached us seeking assistance in making its first overseas shipment. The folks at B4H-Oregon, WI wanted to support the health care activities of a small program in rural Kenya, but wasn't exactly sure how to ship the container of bikes most efficiently.

Conversations led to a four-party agreement between BfW, B4H-Wisconsin, Wheels of Africa, and the community health program in Wagasu, Western Kenya. Together we would get a small number of bikes to that rural community as well as a good number of high-quality bikes and spare parts to the Wheels of Africa program.

Courtesy Jerry Tyler

"Bikes for the World envisions a national movement to collect surplus US bikes and distribute them to partner programs around the world. In turn, these programs repair and distribute these bikes to individuals, together transforming their lives and their communities through enhanced mobility and productivity. 

"This vision encompasses not just the Washington DC metropolitan area-Bikes for the World's home region. It extends to our long-time friends in Chicago, St. Louis, and now Oregon, Wisconsin."  Director, Bikes for the World Keith Oberg on the continuing expansion of BfW.

BfW partnered with St. Louis Bicycle Works last year to help them pack, ship, and place bikes overseas with our established international partners.  BfW did the same with this new group in Wisconsin, B4H-Wisconsin.

CEB prepping warehouse for DICK'S bikes deliveries

With the partnership with national retailer DICK'S Sporting Goods, BfW anticipates receiving about 5,000 bikes in the next couple weeks. Most of these bikes will be stored in our Arlington warehouse until they are shipped out over the next couple months to most of our current international partners.

Several containers will also be delivered to US partners, Working Bikes in Chicago and St. Louis Bicycle Works. Together we hope to donate 20,000 bikes globally in 2014.

Donated Bikes 'Loaned' in Costa Rica

Bikes for the World loaded a container heading to Costa Rica this past weekend. Bikes for the World supports Fundación Integral Campesina (FINCA Costa Rica), a micro-credit program founded in 1984 which currently serves thousands of low-income women (and some men) in rural areas of this Central American country.     

The FINCA Costa Rica financial model consists of self-selected community groups, typically ranging in number from 10 to 30 or more members, who pool their savings and receive technical assistance from FINCA staff in managing the funds and making investments in individual member household and other micro-businesses.  The community groups often receive limited matching support through FINCA’s fundraising, including international grant and loans as well as small grants through local partnerships with urban Rotary clubs in the country’s more affluent Central Valley. 

Bikes for the World support dates to 2005 and represents a significant and surprising departure from FINCA Costa Rica’s traditional business model—managing money—in large part because the availability of bicycles at affordable prices responds to a community need and has proven popular with the community groups. Over the last nine years, BfW has donated more than 18,000 bikes to FINCA.

A typical arrangement is to bring a container holding approximately 500 Bikes for the World-donated bikes into a district, invite representatives of the participating local groups, and unload and allocate the bikes among the groups presented.  Each allotment of bikes is valued and converted into a loan.  The groups bring the bikes and any available parts back to their respective communities, where they re-assemble and recondition the bikes as necessary. They then sell them  to association members and to members of the community at large.  FINCA Costa Rica is repaid and any net profit is then reinvested in the community enterprise and invested in members’ individual businesses.

Examples of beneficiaries. Superación Femenina is one of the first Bikes for the World beneficiaries to take advantage of this unique micro-finance opportunity. Another is Marco Vinicio, an individual beneficiary whose bicycle helped increase sales in his business in San José. 

Further examples, and photos are contained in a Washington Post article from July 2011.   The reporter and a photographer (seen right, in Costa Rica) visited several Bikes for the World community collection events in the Washington DC region, and interviewed the donors of selected bikes.  The team then followed the selected bikes to Costa Rica, where the bikes got into the hands of adults going to work, and children using them to attend school.  

FINCA Costa Rica is one of our most effective overseas partners.  Over the years, it has developed an impressive resume, receiving support from international, public national, and private agencies including the Inter-American Development Bank and my former USG agency, the Inter-American Foundation.

Contributed by Keith Oberg, Executive Director, Bikes for the World

Service Above Self

Bikes for the World 'fines' Richard Foot this month in recognition of our featured volunteer series. Fellow Rotarians will recognize and understand this 'fining' immediately. Dick, pay up.

Dick Foot is a member of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek (RCCC). During Club meetings the President will 'fine' a member as a way of recognizing them for their accomplishments or to share what's going on in their life. President of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek, Fred Genau, this is your ticket to fine Dick Foot, BfW volunteer of the month of April.

This year in their annual Bikes for the World bike drive, the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek collected 149 bikes that will be donated globally over the next few months.

This isn't even a personal best. Over the years the Club has collected over 1300 bikes for Bikes for the World. And although we are naming Dick Foot as our volunteer of the month, there are a lot of people behind the success of this collection.

Zoltan Nagy, also a member of the same Rotary Club, ran very successful bike drives annually in Frederick. During his tenure as collection manager, RCCC collected 201, 254, and 240 bikes. Fred, fine Zoltan too.

This year the Club moved the collection across town to Triangle Motors. And despite major traffic delays on Route 15, the bike collection had a successful turn out, come hell or high water. A water main break forced a busy Rt. 15 into one lane having some donors racing the clock to make it on time.

The success of this year's collection included a lot of planning and even more outreach. Dick did a tremendous job reaching out to the community and gaining support from a number of businesses and individuals. Almost too many to mention.

Shane Sellers, seen above, delivered a few truck loads of bikes to the collection that he collected over the year at Frederick Community College. Bike shops, Wheelbase, The Bicycle Escape, and 3-Points Cycle kicked in their support and encouragement.

The Frederick News Post and Gazette helped advertise the collection. Zoltan even did a radio interview about Bikes for the World. Several donors credit these news outlets to alerting them about the collection AND introducing them to Bikes for the World.

The Rotaract Club of Hood College and the Interact Club of Thomas Johnson High school all kicked in to help promote the collection and volunteer this past weekend.

RCCC Rotarian Jean-Louis LePage has also been a tremendous help to Dick throughout the year to help make this collection a success. Jean-Louis stored bikes at his downtown sign business and will continue to collect bikes over the next year as well.

So you see it's almost unfair to name just one man for this month's featured volunteer. But in his sophomore effort, Dick doubled the number of bikes collected from last year. His outreach before the collection was unprecedented. And his gratitude and thanks to everyone involved was expressed time and time again.

Congratulations Rotary Club of Carroll Creek, for a job well done, yet again. Keep up the great work!

Promoting Local Business

Rita Putebil Courtesy Jason Finch

Continuing our series on Village Bicycle Project (VBP) today we focus on the advanced mechanic class. Last year we introduced you to Rita Putebil, an 18 year old student who participated in the advanced class in Laabissi.

During training she asked questions and volunteered for every demonstration. She impressed the training team so much they stayed an extra day to show her further skills like pulling cranks and adjusting hub assemblies. VBP gifted her a set of tools and she is now maintaining the bikes in Laabissi.

Newly trained mechanics in Biama

Just last month VBP returned to the field traveling to three villages in the Brong-Ahafo Region. With the support of Re~Cycle VBP carried with them 260 bikes and 800 tools that would be distributed among participants in their workshops.

During the one-day workshops new bike owners learn every day maintenance and simple skills like how to fix a flat. People who have taken this class in the past are invited back for a more advanced mechanics class when the team returns. Some participants received their bikes over four years ago.

Local supply shop

Many local bike parts and supplies are very expensive, some hard to come by. Tubes and tires made for the American market are often of a higher quality rubber that they are preferred even used over the new tubes available in Africa.

This is why your donated parts, tubes, and tires are so important to Bikes for the World. We pass those on, packing them under cranks and between frames when we ship a container to Africa. VBP then ferries them across Ghana and into the local markets where your donated bikes end up.

New bike owners are taught only the basic upkeep of a bike in the one-day workshop. VBP trainers then pass along the local mechanic's contact information and encourage bike owners to visit them for the more extensive repairs. Promoting local business and mechanics is a high priority in the program.

Biama mechanic Maxwell

In fact during the recent visit to Biama, VBP trainers sought out the known local mechanic to invite him to the classes. They found Maxwell who was eager to participate.

Maxwell helped the trainers in class and then received further training that will help him in his business. He learned how to extract cranks, break chains, and adjust hub assemblies, just like Rita from last year. VBP also gifted him with a set of tools and promoted his business throughout the classes.

Biama, by the way, is known as 'the place where nobody will go'. Village Bicycle Project went, they taught, they conquered the complex workings of the bicycle and passed that knowledge on to keep your old bike rolling and in good shape. In case you were wondering, the 'rust' color in the photo above in not actual rust, it's Ghanaian dirt.

2 Wheels, 1 Bike

260 BIKES
800 TOOLS
360 PARTICIPANTS
13 ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS
3 VILLAGES
2 WEEKS
1 INCREDIBLY COOL PROGRAM

Bikes for the World has been working with the long established Village Bicycle Project (VBP) in Ghana, and now Sierra Leone, since we began shipping bikes in 2005.  Since then, we have donated 13,101 bikes to the project. One of our containers shipped late last year just arrived in Accra, Ghana and another is on the way right now. Since 2005 we have donated 28 containers to VBP-Ghana and another 3 to VBP-Sierra Leone.

Once bikes come into VBP's central warehouse location in Accra they are offloaded and reloaded onto trucks that will deliver them to remote villages throughout Ghana. VBP does more than just deliver used bikes, they offer beginner and advanced workshops to new and old bike owners in rural Africa.

This past February they loaded 260 bikes to be delivered among three villages in Ghana's Brong-Ahafo Region, about a day's drive from the warehouse in Accra. Bodaa, Biama, and Asiri all received bikes and training through VBP during this trip.

In Bodaa, 60 people participated in the one-day workshop offered by VBP. Because of their enrollment in the program, participants were able to purchase a bicycle at a significantly discounted price.

In Biama, 40 bikes went to a mix of farmers, teachers, and students. VBP trainers turned each one of these new owners into a mini-repairer, showing them basic bike maintenance and simple repair, like how to remove and replace a front tire and repair a puncture to the tube.

Evelyn Amoah

In the more populated area of Asiri, VBP distributed 160 bikes to new owners. These owners received their bikes along with this one day training class. They were also taught how to ride a bike if they didn't already know. Many young girls do not know how to ride, making this aspect of the workshop essential.VBP knows the importance of empowering a woman with a bike, like new owner Evelyn Amoah who will use her new bike to help transport goods to market from the family farm.

VBP also offers a more in depth advanced mechanics class as part of this rural outreach. Each student learns the more complex skills involved in bike mechanics from a VBP trainer. They are then able to purchase discounted bike tools that will enable them to help maintain the bikes in the community. Some participants in the advanced mechanic class in Bodaa actually received their bikes through the VBP one-day four years ago. Check back tomorrow for more on the mechanics trained in this project...

Top Shops

This month Bikes for the World would like to recognize our many shop partners who help give our donors a convenient location to drop off a bicycle year round...even when our community led collections are dormant.

In 2013 13% of our bike donations (about 2,000 bikes) came in through our local drop off points at our bike shop partners. We also worked with some of the same partners during our regular collection schedule to bring in another 500 bikes.

Race Pace Bicycles

Bikes for the World partners with 14 local shops in MD, VA, and DC all of whom collect bikes year round, issue receipts on our behalf, and store bikes until we can schedule a pick up. Some shops, like Race Pace Bicycles in Maryland and Spokes Etc. in Virginia collect at ALL of their locations and even transport the donated bikes to one shop so we can make one stop and collect about 60 bikes at a time. This makes scheduling our pick ups more efficient and helps us collect more bikes weekly.

Jan and Helen at Bikenetic

Many bike shops, especially in the DC area, are very cramped for space. Those who have warehouse space often have it off site from their actual bike shop, meaning any donations they take for us would need to be transported to another location and stored.

Some shops also save tires and parts for us, which can build up quickly, and as you can imagine mountain bike tires can really take up space. Our shop partners typically store these items for us for several months at a time. Donations to Bikes for the World require a significant commitment to space sharing by our shop partners, for which we are very grateful.

Many of the bikes coming to BfW through bike shops would otherwise end up in the local landfill or recycling bin. Once bike owners find out how much it would cost to repair an old bicycle some turn their attention to the sales floor. When they learn that their old bike could be helping someone live a better life it's often easier to part with their beloved bicycle.

The Mahleys donated two NEW bikes

In other cases, donors are drawn to the shops because they already know they want to donate a bike to Bikes for the World. It's not unusual to find a generous donor, especially around Christmastime, who will buy a brand new bike only to turn around and immediately donate it to BfW.

Last year the Mahleys brought two new Treks from Spokes Etc. that will be shipped out later this year. A mechanic from Race Pace bought and donated 10 new Kona bikes that were shipped to Kenya last year.

Dillard collection at Spokes Ashburn

Although our shop partners like to keep track of how many bikes they donate to us...Race Pace and City Bikes both donated over 500 bikes in the last three years and Spokes donated over 1,000...they are more than supportive of our community driven collections as well.

Some of our partners, like Pedal Pushers in Severna Park, host dedicated bike collections at their shops. All of our partners will help advertise another collection and sometimes give up their supply of bikes to help seed a local collection, like the Eagle project coming up at REI in Fairfax.

For a full list of our partnering shops and this month's BfW All-Stars visit our website.

Ride Locally, Shop Locally, Donate Locally

Courtesy West Springfield Rotary

This year the annual bike collection with the West Springfield Rotary and Irving Middle School will take place on April 5th from 10am-2pm. Again the location will be at Irving Middle School in Springfield VA.

Last year the Rotary collected almost 100 bikes at this collection. About a dozen of them were turned around and donated locally through the non-profit group Kristi's Christmas who serves underprivileged students in Fairfax County.

This local donation of used bikes is made possible by the collective efforts of many groups involved. The West Springfield Rotary coordinated the entire process and The Bike Lane of Springfield really made it possible.

As you can imagine, bikes donated to Bikes for the World are not always in rideable condition when we receive them. Regardless, any bike donated would need to be looked over by a trained mechanic before it's donated to another youth.

The Bike Lane essentially donates their mechanics to this cause. All the bikes donated to Kristi's Christmas through the West Springfield Rotary and Bikes for the World are looked over by The Bike Lane before they are donated. The Rotary club donates the cost of any parts needed to get the bikes up and running again.

This effort will be repeating again in 2014. This year, Bikes for the World has agreed to donate bikes we currently have on hand to give The Bike Lane a jump on fixing them up before they get overly busy this spring.

Interstate Van Lines, located in Springfield, has agreed to join the cause by donating temporary storage of the bikes until they are distributed by Kristi's Christmas in May.

Irving Middle School students and the West Springfield Rotary will also be collecting bikes on our behalf on April 5, 2014.

 

Last year Kristi's Christmas donated 13 bikes to area Fairfax County students in need. The non-profit works with Fairfax teachers and principals to identify families for this program. Jose (above) is one of the beneficiaries. The Williams Family also received one bike that will be shared among three brothers:

"My boys were so excited to see a bike in the house. They have all come up with a schedule on who will learn to ride it first. We are all so very thankful."

Read more about the program or better yet, donate a bike to support the West Springfield Rotary April 5th.You can also contact Philip Dondes for more information on how to donate a bike. 703.200.4426

Featured Volunteer: Mechanics For a Day...Or Two

Burgundy students

This month Bikes for the World recognizes Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria Virginia.

Bikes for the World has worked with over 70 schools since 2005. Every year we work with a couple dozen schools who host bike collections with us. About a dozen more come out to our warehouse to help us load bikes that will be shipped overseas.

Burgundy is one of the very few schools who has worked with us on collections AND loadings, giving their students the whole picture of what we do at Bikes for the World.

Keith loading up bikes

Over the years Burgundy has consistently done a bike collection with us every fall. In 2013 they made a goal to collect 50 bikes during their collection. They usually collect around 35 annually.

They stunned Director Keith Oberg, who showed up in his van (that holds about 35 bikes) when the school exceeded their goal and collected almost double their normal amount. Good thing Keith brought the trailer! They managed to load all 60 bikes collected that day by throwing some on top of the van.

Burgundy at 2013 collection

"This is an out-of-the-box recycling initiative that also helps foster among our students an appreciation for cultural and social values, sharing an interesting perspective about diverse needs and cultures," said Doug Fishman, Sustainability Coordinator at Burgundy and Bikes for the World collection manager.

"So many of us who volunteer at the collection take for granted our own access to transportation, or even the fact that we're able to collect so many bicycles. We're giving a second life to old bikes, simultaneously improving lives for people in need."

Burgundy at 2014 loading

Not too many students join us for both a collection and loading. It's a big commitment from a school to provide both of these community service projects for their students, especially when one of them is at our warehouse.

There's actually a pretty good chance some of the bikes they collected last November ended up
in the container we loaded with them in January. We can't always promise where a bike is going to end up except when we are carrying it onto the truck! So these guys know those bikes are heading to Panama.

"Bikes for the World looks forward to working with Burgundy every year. The kids are really into it; they like the mechanics of it as well as what's behind it. The students found these bikes for us and now they see where they are going. That's pretty cool," said Yvette Hess, Bikes for the World Outreach Coordinator.

"Participating in this program allows children to connect personally to a cause. We hope they see volunteering is fun. But we love showing them the difference they are making for kids just like them miles (and oceans) away."

MLK WEEK of Service

Bikes for the World honored Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a series of community service events across the area. Taking advantage of our warmer warehouse in Arlington, this year we loaded in Virginia rather than our normal location at King Farm in Rockville.

This loading event took place on Saturday January 18th and Monday January 20th. We loaded over 400 bikes along with tons of parts, mostly from DC's Capital Bikeshare program. The container is heading to Panama's Goodwill program where trained mechanics will refurbish the donated bikes and sell them in the storefront. Money from the program supports the bike project as well as the program training disabled individuals in areas such as welding and metal working.

Swing Phi Swing Social Fellowship

Joining us on this two day event were volunteers from NOVA's Meetup Group, the students at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, and members of the Swing Phi Swing Social Fellowship.

A variety of activities marked this MLK Day opportunity. Volunteers focused on organizing the warehouse, sorting parts, processing bikes, taking in bikes, and loading the container for Panama.

CHO bike donation

The Community for Helping Others (CHO) in Fairfax arrived mid-day Saturday with a truck full of donated bikes. CHO joins forces with BfW partner shop Bikes@Vienna to collect bikes every winter to donate to local charities.

Dan Larkins, Director of CHO, collects and fixes bikes every year for beneficiaries in Fairfax that are hand picked by the county as in need of assistance. Larkins hand delivered the surplus to BfW this past weekend. And we have to mention the expert parking job by his driver as he squeezed their truck around our trailer to get to the dock.

Greg Houston Senior VP External Affairs Meridian

On Monday BfW participated in the Meridian International Center's first annual "Warm up DC" Event. Meridian hosted a series of simultaneous events to maximize the outpouring of volunteerism for the benefit of Martha's Table in DC with donated food and clothing for the disadvantaged.

Bikes for the World also benefited, not only from an unseasonably warm day, but from the donation of over 30 bikes from two locations. We were aided in this effort with labor from volunteers from George Washington University, DC Bike Party, Kasper's Cargos, and Burgundy Farm students who were hard at work processing donated bikes at our warehouse.

BfW would like to express special gratitude to Malina Keutel of Meridian for all of her hard work and outreach in support of this successful event.

Endorphin Fitness, Richmond VA

Boots, of Kasper's Cargos, has been working with BfW for several months helping us transport bikes to our warehouses. In fact, just last week, he delivered some of the bikes collected January 11th in Richmond at Endorphin Fitness.

Despite a cold, rainy collection day, Endorphin Fitness collected about 100 bikes for BfW, kicking off the 2014 season in style. This was a first time collection effort for Endorphin Fitness.

Some of the bikes coming from Richmond were included on the Panama trailer loaded during our MLK Day service event. The remaining bikes from Endorphin Fitness and the ones from Meridian will be loaded in February and donated to our Costa Rica partner, FINCA.

Collaborated with John Burg, BfW Board of Directors and Program Committee Chairman

Bikes Create Lifelong Skills at Goodwill

Goodwill Panama is a long time Bikes for the World supported project. To date we have donated over 16,000 bikes to this project alone.

Goodwill Panama trains and employs bike mechanics to reassemble and repair the bikes shipped from Bikes for the World. Many of these bikes are then sold in the Goodwill storefront and on occasion in fundraising activities in tourist areas in Panama City.

The money generated through these sales are used to help Goodwill Panama pay operational costs to run the program. Goodwill Panama provides work training and job opportunities to people with disabilities. The bike program in part supports the metal working shop, wheelchair repair, and of course bike mechanics.

Angel Anel Sanchez

My name is Angel Anel Sanchez. I am 15 years old and live in Nueva Libia, District of San Miguelito, Panama City, Panama. I live here with my mother, stepfather, a sister, and three brothers. 

I am currently not attending school, but hope to enter school next year. This past summer I started at Goodwill Panama. I had some knowledge on how to repair bicycles but at Goodwill I learned even more specific skills.

I got a bicycle from Bikes for the World and repaired it myself. I use the bike for transportation and to practice riding skills with my neighborhood friends. My stepfather has a welding workshop and I hope to learn welding skills next so that I can help in the workshop and bring more income into our home.

Joel Cordoba

My name is Joel Cordoba and I am 17 years old. I live in Los Andes #2, District of San Miguelito, Panama City, Panama. I live with my mother, grandmother, and two younger brothers.

I am currently in high school and hope to graduate in a couple years. I started at Goodwill Panama when I was 14. The first thing I learned there was how to repair bicycles. I used to work on my own, but it is now missing a chain ring. As soon as I find a replacement I will be able to ride again.

Goodwill Panama taught me about the tools and different parts of the bike. They then showed me how to repair bikes. I like passing on those skills to the younger people who have come to the Goodwill. I have also learned welding, wheelchair repair, and roof ventilator assembly while at Goodwill. Once I graduate high school I hope to enter INADEH (Human Development National Institute) where I will learn to be a professional chef.

¿Qué es una meta?

Courtesy Adelante

Bikes for the World is set to send a container of bikes to Fundacion Adelante in Honduras later this year. This shipment will be made possible in part thanks to the support of our newest corporate partner, Gildan Activewear , whose Branded Apparel division headquarters are based out of South Carolina.

Adelante works with the poorest individuals, mostly women, in rural Honduras to help improve the quality of life for them and their families. Adelante provides short term loans to help establish and sustain small businesses such as food stands and tortillas sales.

Adelante's model is very similar to the program Bikes for the World supports in Costa Rica under FINCA. Adelante is a micro-finance provider lending an average loan of between $25-50 which is paid back in full with interest.

Children in Atlantida Courtesy Adelante

The loans are largely meant to help move women out of poverty by empowering them to help themselves. Honduras is labeled as the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Many struggling rural Hondurans have many children, may be single mothers, have limited education, and are living hand to mouth. These are the potential clients Adelante reaches out to.

Adelante's main focus, in addition to immediately improving the quality of life for this population, is also to instill long term change within the community. Reaching children remains their main goal and they know the way to do that is through moms.

Marlena Courtesy Adelante

¿Qué es una meta? Every business venture needs a clear defined vision. Adelante works with potential borrowers to set up their own business models, stressing one major goal, una meta, from the start. Often, several people will band together to take out one loan, each needing to trust the other.

Adelante then instills the following values in the budding entrepreneurs: Unity, Discipline, Work, and Courage. All parties signing for the loan are jointly responsible for paying back the loan on time. The group meets regularly to report their progress.

Meet Marlena. Marlena is a single mother living in La Masica. She joined with several other women in the area to take out a loan with Adelante. Marlena's goal was to make and sell tortillas with corn she intended to buy with the money from the loan.

Marlena was able to buy a small portion of corn to start her business through this loan. She sells tortillas right out of her home, but as you can see, she uses a bike to get the corn home from the market.

Bikes are a valuable resource in rural Honduras where a majority of people walk to get to work and school. Bikes for the World works with a local group called Art for Humanity to bring small quantities of bikes into the country. What we learned from this effort is: it's often hard to get much needed resources into the country.

So when one of the marketing directors at Gildan,  a leading supplier of quality branded basic family apparel, including T-shirts, fleece, sports shirts, socks and underwear, approached us about bikes for Honduras we were all ears. Turns out Gildan is the largest private employer in Honduras. And Gildan had una meta, one goal, to establish major charitable partnerships with organizations whose mission is in line with Gildan's community involvement objectives. 

Turns out Gildan is also a socially responsible, environmentally conscious company. Just last year they recycled 87% of their waste company-wide. They also give back to their communities where they operate by funding a number of initiatives and promoting employee volunteering. They have provided scholarships and assisted in various school renovations in countries such as Haiti, Barbados, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. And now they will be helping to provide bikes to families and workers in Honduras.

Courtesy Adelante

The vision: together Bikes for the World and Gildan could collect, store, and ship several hundred bikes to Adelante in Honduras by the end of the year. With Gildan's help and resources, Bikes for the World is now expanding south to make this initiative a go.

Keith Whitaker, that market director we just told you about, is leading the effort by first holding a collection at Gildan's Branded Apparel Division headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. He is also talking with other groups in the community, hoping to organize several more bike collections in the coming months. 

Bikes collected in North and  South Carolina will be combined for this one goal, providing affordable transportation to rural Hondurans while supporting the micro-finance program currently in place. Once we have enough bikes in Carolina, Gildan will assist in loading them onto a returning container, typically heading back to Honduras empty. The bike shipment will be sent directly to the Caribbean coast, where Gildan is based and the efforts of Adelante are most greatly felt.

Donate your bikes in South Carolina October 21-25. Check our website for details.