1/16/08
an update from Carl Kurz, BNB's International Director

I wish to thank all the organizations and volunteers involved with the last container shipment to Maya Pedal. I have just spoken with Carlos Marroquin, the lead technician from Maya Pedal who gave a presentation here at Bikes Not Bombs in the Fall and also visited and presented at Working Bikes in Chicago. Carlos and all the staff at Maya Pedal want everyone to know how much they appreciate the support we have provided to their organization. The financial support provided by Working Bikes was something he especially wanted to mention, thanks to Lee Ravenscroft and all the rest of you at WB that work so hard to raise money and collect bikes to further mobility and development for the many people around the world that are consistently marginalized because of their lack of affordable mobility options and in the case of Guatemala, are kept underproductive because of the lack of access to the exemplary time-and-energy-saving machines that Maya Pedal provides at such low costs to its target population.

All the volunteers at Bikes Not Bombs also receive kudos for a record breaking year of collection and shipping of bikes in 2007 and now our first early shipment of 2008. A few details for you all, somehow in the never ending variables of New England weather, we were able to enjoy a 45 degree magnificent day and with 16 volunteers packed our load of 542 bikes and bike frames as well as many bundles of parts. We started at 10 AM took a break at 1PM and finished by 2:45PM. It was a fantastic day. In typical New England fashion, the Monday following the loading - which took place on Saturday 1/12/08- turned out to be the second major storm of the year for us with 8 inches of snow - driving snow and sleet conditions- that closed the metropolitan area schools and forced the trucking company to cancel its pick-up in the morning. As I mentioned I was going to give you the details, this is precisely why we try to never do a container in Jan and February. Our fenced in yard, where the semi-trailer was parked, is shared by gobs of businesses that come and go early on Monday morning while it is vacant during the weekend. The trucking company was to pick up between 7:30 and 8AM and haul it New Jersey to make the cut-off date for the ship which was set for the next day 1/15. Early in the day, Monday 1/14 the situation looked dire and to make matters much worse the area where it was parked was precisely where the snow removal truck pushes the snow to clear the yard! Luckily the storm did not turn out to be the all-day-event predicted, and the trucking company was able to come and haul the can around the noon hour. Crisis abated and its on its way to Guatemala! We were able to send lots of bikes for Maya Pedal to sell outright -after tune-ups - and we were also able to pack the upper part of the container with tons of useful steel frames with 1.37 inch bottom bracket shells, the kind MP cuts up for use in the Bici-maquina production.

I want to say that it is unique that our organizations could work in collaboration in this fashion with BNB supplying the bikes and packing efforts while WB supplied the financing for this shipment to Maya Pedal. In December of 2007 BNB also shipped to two projects that Bikes For the World (out of DC area) normally ships to - again a sharing of contacts, materials and will at a time when our recipient groups needed support. This is the kind of effort and collaboration that corporate America is nearly incapable of doing and it is a testimony to all our values and vision. I need to mention that Gwyndaff Jones, of the Design Lab at MIT, was also instrumental in proposing this Maya Pedal joint shipment. I thank you all once again and look forward to future collaborations when the situations merit our joint efforts and cooperation.

In this vein of cooperation, I also want to bring up the idea that BNB wishes to make contacts and form a list of organizations that ship to various Global South countries - those organizations that might have extra space in their containers for bikes along with their other material aid. We would be willing to pay the sq. footage associated with our bike portion of any joint shipment. We often receive requests for quantities of bikes for organizations that are far less than a full 450-500 bike container. Many times these organizations are also not contemplating setting up the infrastructure of small businesses and bike distribution centers that BNB has normally supported, yet it is very apparent that the bikes would have an enormous positive impact in the manner for which they are requested, i.e. in the preventative health field for various clinics' extension workers that need to travel distances to distribute life saving medicines, services or to disseminate critical information at the village level.... There are numerous examples where 25 to 50 bikes for a specific recipient organization could provide vast improvements in an organization's capacity to carry out their work. I wish to form a list of US based (maybe North American) material-aid organizations that would be willing to collaborate at this level and share that list among our bicycle shipping groups to enhance our effectiveness at reaching the people and organizations that have the social vision and the understanding of how the use of bicycles can best impact their communities. Obviously there are conditions that would have to be worked out in each situation amongst the recipient groups in the various countries where the joint aid shipments would be sent. I think that this idea might also create the potential for more collaboration amongst a variety of non-profit groups that have similar social justice and developmental vision. Please give me any feedback you might have to evaluate or move forward this idea.

In Solidarity,

Carl Kurz
International Development Programs Director
Bikes Not Bombs
carlbikesnotbombs.org
617-522-0222