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Pedals for Progress Displaces Poverty With Bikes
We love our bicycles at Holstee and encourage biking whenever possible as we think it helps alleviate stress, maintain good health, and contributes to a more conscious lifestyle... besides it being one of the most pure forms of fun+freedom!
But can a bicycle change the world?Yes, it can. Over 60,000 Nicaraguans have lifted themselves out of poverty due to the 20,000+ bicycles donated by Pedals for Progress and founder David Schweidenback over the last two decades, and we are thrilled to have recently learned about this amazing organization and the tremendous pro-socio-economic effect bikes can have on a developing nation.Every year, affluent Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages. Most of these end up in our already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, poor people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to get to jobs, markets, customers, and schools. Pedals for Progress has received, processed and donated over 125,000 bicycles, 1,000 used sewing machines and $10.8 million in new spare parts to partner charities in 32 developing world countries. Pedals for Progress isn't just donating used bicycles: It's also helping developing world economies by promoting self-sustaining bicycle repair businesses. www.p4p.org
New microloans on Kiva!
The Holstee Team is proud to declare the latest microloans on Kiva.org! This time we are able to support Lamin Tholley from Makeni, Sierra Leone, and the Fuente de Paz Group from El Seybo, Dominican Republic. Lamin Tholley: Here's a bit of background information of Lamin from his Kiva page: "Lamin is a trader dealing in used clothing at the main market in Makeni City. He is married to a trader and has two children in high school. He has eight years of business experience. He intends to increase his stock and to buy wholesale from Guinea and Freetown."We selected Lamin because he is recycling clothes and we were impressed by the intentness he is willing to grow his business. He is really hard working, so he'll finally be able to assure further education for his children and to fulfill his dream of purchasing a piece of land for his family. The Fuente de Paz Group: The Fuente de Paz Group - which means "Source of Peace" - is located in the rural areas surrounding El Seybo where running water and electricity are not available most of the time. The group consists of 11 female entrepreneurs, all of them selling clothes and jewelry.
"Batista is the coordinator of the group, and her story is not unlike others in her group, and of Esperanza's Haitian and Dominican clients overall, many of whom have recently emigrated to the Dominican Republic from Haiti. Batista is excited to be taking her seventh loan with Esperanza, after having successfully repaid her previous loans which were used to grow her business. She plans to use this loan to invest in her clothes selling business by purchasing skirts, blouses, and pants in the main market at Santo Domingo and then reselling them in her community. She will use the profits to relocate her business to an area where there is more traffic, and also to get her legal documents in order so that she can go to the university." We totally love to support the women of the Fuente de Paz Group with their dreams, and that through Kiva, we can enable them to go to university... because education plays an important role for a sustainable development and lifestyle.
