Central America
BNB has sent bicycles and technical assistance to Maya Pedal, an indigenous organization in Guatemala.
Maya Pedal (MP) manufactures and distributes pedal-powered machines that shell and grind grain, power rope-pumps for well water extraction, depulp coffee and spin fruit blenders. MP also now runs a bicycle shop to help support its work in building pedal-powered technologies. BNB will send another container of bikes and parts to Maya Pedal in 2004. BNB has sent over 17,000 bicycles to other projects in Central America, supporting programs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
News
Help Send Bikes to Guatemala
Dec 19 2009 - 10:00am
We had some trouble scheduling this with our shipping line, but this date is now confirmed!
AIR COMPRESSOR WANTED! We've received a request from Carlos Marroquin, lead engineer at Maya Pedal, for a donation of a small air compressor which would be used for spraying paint onto the production line bicimaquinas, as well as inflating tires in their bike shop. The donation would be tax deductible. Contact David Branigan at 617-522-0222 or david(at)bikesnotbombs.org.
On Saturday, December 19th, Bikes Not Bombs volunteers will load a 40' shipping container full of bicycle aid to send to Maya Pedal in San Andres de Itzapa, Guatemala. We'll start at 10:00 am (bagels and coffee provided) and work until we finish, which we expect to be around 4:00pm. We'll take a break around 1pm for a pizza lunch (provided) and a short talk about the project. Volunteers can come for any part of this time that works for you. Experience not required. We'll be moving, sorting, and loading bikes, wheels, and spare parts. You may wish to bring work gloves.
This loading happens RAIN or SHINE! (In the case of rain we use a tarp to cover the short distance between warehouse and truck.)
Maya Pedal will put some of these bikes back on the road for transportation, but their primary work is the production of bicimaquinas (pedal-powered machines). These bicycle-based machines are used mostly for agriculture and food production and are purchased by farmer's cooperatives and families in the Chimaltenango region of Guatemala where electricity is scarce and expensive. The grain grinder, blender, and water pump remain popular models, joined by a peanut and nut sheller, and a masa mill (which turns soaked corn into tortilla dough). Bikes Not Bombs is partnering with Working Bikes in Chicago to help Maya Pedal in business development.
For more info on Maya Pedal see http://mayapedal.org.
For a list of other pedal-powered technology,
see our Appropriate Technology links page.
Directions
This event does NOT happen at Bikes Not Bombs, but is just around the corner. We will be loading from a big parking lot at 179 Boylston St., Jamaica Plain, 2 blocks from the Stony Brook T stop on the Orange Line. Coming from the BNB HUB at 284 Amory Street, turn right on Amory. At the first traffic light turn right on Boylston Street (where the Stony Brook T stop is on your left) and then turn right into a large parking lot which is part of the Brewery Complex. You'll see our 40 ft. shipping container parked in this lot, just off the street.
Guatemala Shipment Postponed!
Nov 21 2009 - 10:00am
We've just received word today from our shipping line that they are unable to arrange a container for us to load tomorrow. Thus the November 21st loading for Guatemala is POSTPONED!
We will be rescheduling this shipment, likely for December 19th, and we'll post information here once we have it. We apologize to any of you who arranged your schedule around this volunteer event (especially since the shipping line postponed this same shipment twice).
AIR COMPRESSOR WANTED! We've received a request from Carlos Marroquin, lead engineer at Maya Pedal, for a donation of a small air compressor which would be used for spraying paint onto the production line bicimaquinas, as well as inflating tires in their bike shop. The donation would be tax deductible. Contact David Branigan at 617-522-0222 or david(at)bikesnotbombs.org.
Once the loading is rescheduled, Bikes Not Bombs volunteers will load a 40' shipping container full of bicycle aid to send to Maya Pedal in San Andres de Itzapa, Guatemala.
We'll start at 10:00 am (bagels and coffee provided) and work until we finish, which we expect to be around 4:00pm. We'll take a break around 1pm for a pizza lunch (provided) and a short talk about the project. Volunteers can come for any part of this time that works for you. Experience not required. We'll be moving, sorting, and loading bikes, wheels, and spare parts. You may wish to bring work gloves.
This loading happens RAIN or SHINE! (In the case of rain we use a tarp to cover the short distance between warehouse and truck.)
Maya Pedal will put some of these bikes back on the road for transportation, but their primary work is the production of bicimaquinas (pedal-powered machines). These bicycle-based machines are used mostly for agriculture and food production and are purchased by farmer's cooperatives and families in the Chimaltenango region of Guatemala where electricity is scarce and expensive. The grain grinder, blender, and water pump remain popular models, joined by a peanut and nut sheller, and a masa mill (which turns soaked corn into tortilla dough). Bikes Not Bombs is partnering with Working Bikes in Chicago to help Maya Pedal in business development.
For more info on Maya Pedal see http://mayapedal.org.
For a list of other pedal-powered technology,
see our Appropriate Technology links page.
Directions
This event does NOT happen at Bikes Not Bombs, but is just around the corner. We will be loading from a big parking lot at 179 Boylston St., Jamaica Plain, 2 blocks from the Stony Brook T stop on the Orange Line. Coming from the BNB HUB at 284 Amory Street, turn right on Amory. At the first traffic light turn right on Boylston Street (where the Stony Brook T stop is on your left) and then turn right into a large parking lot which is part of the Brewery Complex. You'll see our 40 ft. shipping container parked in this lot, just off the street.
Pedal-Power Water Pumps in Guatemala
Water Pumps
Maya Pedal has recently made and installed 24 bicycle powered rope pumps in the area of San Marcos in the town of Sipacapa as well as one wet cornmeal grinder for making tortilla masa. They are also making improvements on their mini rope pump. Maya Pedal received a Bikes Not Bombs shipment of over 500 donated bicycles in June 2009.If you are interested in pedal-powered technology, see our Appropriate Technology links page.
BNB Bike Shipment
On May 11th 2009, Bikes Not Bombs volunteers loaded a shipment full of bicycle aid bound for the Maya Pedal organization in Guatemala. Maya Pedal puts some bikes back on the road but uses most to build "bici-maquinas" - pedal-powered machines for shelling corn, grinding grain, pumping well-water, blending aloe shampoos, and more.It was a perfect turn-out and the day went well. We got 522 bikes inside that can. Plus, 60 more frames to weld into bici-maquinas, 50 boxes/bundles of parts, 70 pairs of wheels, 26 bundles of tires (109 kids bikes were 20" BMX and 77 were micros).
Eighteen of us also consumed lots of pizza, ate salad and drank Equal Exchange Coffee brewed by our friends at City Feed. Jon Allen, thanks for picking it up as you do every container loading.
Maya Pedal will be excited to receive this! Our friends in Chicago, Working Bikes, were also shipping to The Ability Bikes project in Koforidua Ghana today simultaneously.
It was a very tight packing. Some new packers were in the container, Nick, Alex, Sam, Charlie, and they learned packing skills and ....... other folks came for the first time, Liz invited her workplace colleague, Alex came for a second time from Cambridge School of Weston, Susan Redlich again a consistent source of support ... a lot of great vibes were present and thank you all once again, including you who I didn't mention!
Application Deadline: Guatemala Business Consultant
Sep 8 2009 - 12:00pm
International Business Consultant position for an exciting nonprofit appropriate technology center and bicycle retail store in Guatemala. Maya Pedal is the organization that makes and markets “bici-maquinas,” labor-saving, cost-effective pedal powered inventions, to individuals and cooperatives who are off the electrical grid and can’t afford diesel generators. Maya Pedal has amazing technology but lacks sound financial and organizational stewardship.
Job Description:
Bikes Not Bombs (BNB), Working Bikes Cooperative and Maya Pedal(MP) seek a Spanish-English bilingual person who has small business management and sales background, and experience with nonprofits. This job will require developing a marketing plan and a business plan for the organization, Maya Pedal, a nonprofit appropriate technology center in San Andres de Itzapa, Guatemala. To be an effective consultant in this job you’ll need to be able to work well with people and yet be straightforward in your assessment for restructuring the financial oversight and management of the organization. First order of the day will be to assess the current state of operations and develop a business plan and an annual budget. The second task of work will be to develop and implement a marketing strategy. Thirdly, you will make recommendations as to how the MP Board should be comprised and help to start new board development process. Finally, you will oversee a hiring process to find appropriate administrative personnel for Maya Pedal. Job duration is six months and is expected to begin in early to mid October. Lodging is supplied in beautiful San Andres de Itzapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala.
Job pay will include a round-trip air fare, a return transition stipend, international emergency medical insurance and a $550 stipend per month.
Experience working internationally with small businesses in Latin America is an important plus. This is a tremendous opportunity for someone who wants to gain hands-on working experience with Latin American indigenous nonprofits and marketing of appropriate technology.
Job tasks will include:
- Review and report on current fiscal solvency of Maya Pedal
- Review and establish an appropriate accounting system
- Assessment of current sales department and marketing strategy
- Some direct involvement in customer relations/sales
- Development of a business plan for Maya Pedal
- Assessment of functionality of Board of Directors and recommendations
- Creation of an annual budget and financial reporting system
- Help to develop a marketing plan
- Research possibilities of web based, on-line giving procedures
- Participation in management and shop staff meetings
- Work with internal committee to hire administrative personnel for Maya Pedal as recommended and agreed upon by Maya Pedal and international stake holders. This will include review of potential candidates and training personnel once hired.
Please send your resume and cover letter by September 8, 2009 to: hiring@bikesnotbombs.org
Interview with Ricardo Navarro of El Salvador
From 2000 to 2006 Bikes Not Bombs shipped donated bikes to the El Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology (CESTA). In 2001 BNB shipped a container of relief aid to CESTA following a massive earthquake. Here is an interview with CESTA's director, printed in Red Pepper, April 2007
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/
"From global climate change to pedal-powered garbage carts, thinking globally and acting locally comes readily to El Salvador's Ricardo Navarro." - interview by Nick Wright Ricardo Navarro moves in exalted circles. Sometimes. He recently found himself meeting then-World Bank president, James Wolfensohn, to demand that the bank scale back its investment for fossil fuel exploitation and mining. "The best birthday present President Wolfensohn could give to the world's poor would be to stop bank funding of fossil fuel and mining projects and invest in wind and solar," he said.
A more normal day, however, finds him working as director of the Salvadoran Centre for Appropriate Technology (CESTA). "Appropriate" is the key word. Navarro is an engineer, with an engineer's problem-solving attitude. The distinctive feature of his approach is that the problems he sets himself are conceived of in their full social and political context. And what is appropriate for a struggling country in the global South, like his native El Salvador, is not usually drawn from the model found in highly developed industrial countries like Britain.
To deal with the concrete day-to-day problems of working people in El Salvador is to face problems on a truly global scale. "Impoverished countries in the global South are suffering now while the rich nations cause the problems," says Navarro. "Carbon emissions and global warming are mainly responsible for the changes that take place in the Earth's climate. But the consequences of this are first experienced in the global South, borne by the poor who are least able to cope with its consequences." So-called "unusual" weather events cause massive destruction and death to the poor.
Ricardo Navarro links climate change to free trade. And it is here that his message most challenges the stand of the likes of James Wolfensohn and the World Bank. An unsentimental and hardheaded view of globalisation takes Navarro in exactly the opposition direction to the big international financial institutions and western leaders. The myth and reality of third world debt is turned on its head. The global South, the poor of the world, he says, are indebted to the North. Not surprising, he continues, given the centuries of super exploitation that fueled the industrial development of Britain and other countries of the North. But when the scale of climate change that comes inevitably with the consumption patterns of the North is factored in it is the countries of the North that owe an ecological debt to the South, Navarro argues. And he emphasizes the telling point made in the World Development Movement climate calendar that it was in 1830 that Britain began emitting more carbon dioxide than the current sustainable level. It is a matter of justice and equity, he says.
The analogy Navarro often deploys is of a train going over a cliff: "The poor are at the front already going over the edge, but the rich nations are at the back and must surely follow if climate change is not stopped." He goes further. He argues that the free trade-driven, profit-led consumption economy also isn't appropriate for the global
North. The work of CESTA centers on the promotion of sustainable technologies that make sense in a third world country where shortages are material and where human resources are underused. One project, Ecobici, teaches people how to make and use human-powered machines such as bicycle carts to collect rubbish, pedal-driven corn grinders, air compressors, and water pumps. Bicycle power is an enthusiasm of his, and the centre's workshops make wheelchairs for the impoverished victims of the civil conflicts that recently gripped El Salvador. Another CESTA initiative, Econciencia, is education-based working with academics, community and church activists, trade unionists and students to promote what Navarro calls "rational thought" about sustainability.
One of the most innovative aspects of CESTA's work centres on the perennial problem of waste – and here CESTA is developing strong links with communities and some enterprises to solve waste disposal and recycling problems.
El Salvador remains polluted with chemical and biological traces in areas where the civil conflict was sharpest. For example, napalm bombing disfigured the district of Guazapa. CESTA organised youth teams to revive the damaged environment and construct a memorial to the victims of the war. Thousands of trees have been turned into a "forest of reconciliation".
Navarro has served as president of Friends of the Earth International and won the prestigious Goldman prize, often described as the green equivalent of the Nobel prize. He sees political struggle as entirely consistent with his other work, and in the midst of a campaign to preserve a forested district that secures the water supply for the capital San Salvador he found himself on the receiving end of death threats. The plans of the developers were thwarted and Navarro was invited to run for election. He now sits on the capital's council, where the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front narrowly won the election.
[Ricardo Navarro was interviewed by Nick Wright on a speaking tour of Britain organised as part of the World Development Movement climate change campaign http://www.wdm.org.uk]
"From global climate change to pedal-powered garbage carts, thinking globally and acting locally comes readily to El Salvador's Ricardo Navarro." - interview by Nick Wright Ricardo Navarro moves in exalted circles. Sometimes. He recently found himself meeting then-World Bank president, James Wolfensohn, to demand that the bank scale back its investment for fossil fuel exploitation and mining. "The best birthday present President Wolfensohn could give to the world's poor would be to stop bank funding of fossil fuel and mining projects and invest in wind and solar," he said.
A more normal day, however, finds him working as director of the Salvadoran Centre for Appropriate Technology (CESTA). "Appropriate" is the key word. Navarro is an engineer, with an engineer's problem-solving attitude. The distinctive feature of his approach is that the problems he sets himself are conceived of in their full social and political context. And what is appropriate for a struggling country in the global South, like his native El Salvador, is not usually drawn from the model found in highly developed industrial countries like Britain.To deal with the concrete day-to-day problems of working people in El Salvador is to face problems on a truly global scale. "Impoverished countries in the global South are suffering now while the rich nations cause the problems," says Navarro. "Carbon emissions and global warming are mainly responsible for the changes that take place in the Earth's climate. But the consequences of this are first experienced in the global South, borne by the poor who are least able to cope with its consequences." So-called "unusual" weather events cause massive destruction and death to the poor.
Ricardo Navarro links climate change to free trade. And it is here that his message most challenges the stand of the likes of James Wolfensohn and the World Bank. An unsentimental and hardheaded view of globalisation takes Navarro in exactly the opposition direction to the big international financial institutions and western leaders. The myth and reality of third world debt is turned on its head. The global South, the poor of the world, he says, are indebted to the North. Not surprising, he continues, given the centuries of super exploitation that fueled the industrial development of Britain and other countries of the North. But when the scale of climate change that comes inevitably with the consumption patterns of the North is factored in it is the countries of the North that owe an ecological debt to the South, Navarro argues. And he emphasizes the telling point made in the World Development Movement climate calendar that it was in 1830 that Britain began emitting more carbon dioxide than the current sustainable level. It is a matter of justice and equity, he says.
The analogy Navarro often deploys is of a train going over a cliff: "The poor are at the front already going over the edge, but the rich nations are at the back and must surely follow if climate change is not stopped." He goes further. He argues that the free trade-driven, profit-led consumption economy also isn't appropriate for the global
North. The work of CESTA centers on the promotion of sustainable technologies that make sense in a third world country where shortages are material and where human resources are underused. One project, Ecobici, teaches people how to make and use human-powered machines such as bicycle carts to collect rubbish, pedal-driven corn grinders, air compressors, and water pumps. Bicycle power is an enthusiasm of his, and the centre's workshops make wheelchairs for the impoverished victims of the civil conflicts that recently gripped El Salvador. Another CESTA initiative, Econciencia, is education-based working with academics, community and church activists, trade unionists and students to promote what Navarro calls "rational thought" about sustainability.
One of the most innovative aspects of CESTA's work centres on the perennial problem of waste – and here CESTA is developing strong links with communities and some enterprises to solve waste disposal and recycling problems.
El Salvador remains polluted with chemical and biological traces in areas where the civil conflict was sharpest. For example, napalm bombing disfigured the district of Guazapa. CESTA organised youth teams to revive the damaged environment and construct a memorial to the victims of the war. Thousands of trees have been turned into a "forest of reconciliation".
Navarro has served as president of Friends of the Earth International and won the prestigious Goldman prize, often described as the green equivalent of the Nobel prize. He sees political struggle as entirely consistent with his other work, and in the midst of a campaign to preserve a forested district that secures the water supply for the capital San Salvador he found himself on the receiving end of death threats. The plans of the developers were thwarted and Navarro was invited to run for election. He now sits on the capital's council, where the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front narrowly won the election.
[Ricardo Navarro was interviewed by Nick Wright on a speaking tour of Britain organised as part of the World Development Movement climate change campaign http://www.wdm.org.uk]