For much of the day, Reinel Oviedo sits in a Colombian prison at the foot the Andean Mountains, about 90 miles west of Bogotá. Thanks to a nonprofit group, Pedals for Progress (PFP), Oviedo and others like him are free to spend part of their day on two wheels away from the jail's intensely close confines.
The nonprofit group will once again pedal its way into Herndon later this month for its annual bike collection at the Friends Meeting House, July 20.
"The benefits have been many," Oviedo recently wrote in an e-mail to Keith O’Berg, the group’s mid-Atlantic representative. "Riding a bike has given me a feeling of liberty. My job has become almost a recreational activity and my physical condition has improved — the poundage put on by penitentiary food has been eliminated."
After serving six of a possible 24 years behind bars in Picaleña Prison in Colombia, Oviedo received work release privileges, O’Berg said. Shortly thereafter, Oviendo, a native of Granada, Colombia, received a bicycle that originated from a PFP bike collection.
Not until then did Oviedo realize and remember the "feeling of freedom afforded by riding a bicycle."
Thanks to Fundación Horizontes de Libertad, or the Horizons of Liberties Foundation (HLF), Oviedo and other prisoners and ex-cons are regaining what O’Berg calls a "sense of autonomy." Oviedo is one of the founding members of the nonprofit group. HLF owns Empresa de Mensajeria Comp & Mail, a local messenger service based in the small central Colombian town of Ibague and it works with PFP to get bicycles to men like Oviedo to travel from the jail to the their nearby headquarters. From there the prisoners and former prisoners deliver packages on their bikes to the other places of business.
O’BERG OF ARLINGTON lived in Colombia a quarter century ago as a Rotary fellow, and he insists that Oviedo’s story is the rule rather than the exception. His story is just one of the more than 66,000 similar stories to be found since PFP began bringing second-generation bicycles to Third World countries more than 12 years ago. "I was there during a honeymoon period of the 1970s between the Civil War of the 1950s and '60s and the drug wars of the '80s and '90s," O'Berg said. "It is a wonderful country, but it is so screwed up. It’s great to be able to help out in our own special way."
Throughout the United States, including Northern Virginia, used bikes are collecting dust and rust in backyards, basements and garages. Each year, according to PFP, Americans buy 14 million new bicycles while discarding 5 million used two-wheelers. While saving the nation’s already over-stocked landfills, PFP delivers much-needed transportation to developing countries, which O’Berg said, are in dire need of inexpensive and nonpolluting transportation alternatives. In turn, nonprofit partners in 13 countries from Panama to Pakistan and Eritrea to El Salvador use the bikes as a valuable resource for trade and employment opportunities. "We go where the need is greatest."
The Herndon Friends Meeting house is one of PFP's original collection sponsors in the Washington D.C.-metropolitian area, O'Berg said. This will be the eighth time PFP has landed in Herndon since 1996, which is one of more than 100 communities in the Mid-Atlantic region which have similar annual traditions. To date, area residents have donated more than 1,100 bicycles in the Herndon drives alone. In Herndon, the pick up, just as in years past, will be at the Friends Meeting house on Spring Street. Paul Murphy of Reston is organizing this year’s local drive. "We are hoping for more than 200 bikes," he said, noting that they received a record 190 bicycles at last year’s event. "It’s a real team effort and it gives me a lot of personal satisfaction to be a small part of all of this and to help contribute to this valuable effort."
In recent years, the group has tried to expand its reach adding the former Soviet Republic of Moldova to its rotation that includes countries in Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East.
The final destination for bikes collected in Herndon in July will ultimately end up in one of three countries: El Salvador, Sri Lanka or Jordan. El Salvador is PFP’s biggest partner having received more than 9,000 bikes over the years. Bikes in El Salvador are used to train a new generation of bike mechanics in the country, O’Berg said.
WHILE HIS ORGANIZATION has never worked with Sri Lanka before, the project O’Berg said, does have the blessing of the government and opposition warlords and rebels who are currently in a "very tentative truce." Sri Lanka’s shipment will help in community development efforts and would be "a real important input into the peace process there," O’Berg said.
PFP has never partnered with a country in the Middle East and O’Berg called Jordan "a long shot" for the next shipment, but O’Berg added that he hopes to work with that country in the near future. "We’ve never been in that volatile region," he said. "I think that will be very important when we finally do get there."
In countries that have collaborated with PFP. The program delivers bikes to partners involved in literacy campaigns, health education programs and social workers.
PFP works with a local group to establish a fully stocked bike shop. Adults, as well as children, then undergo some basic "bicycle maintenance 101." Depending on the country, many of the bikes are later sold or bartered to residents. In most countries, the newly reconditioned bikes are then resold for anywhere between $10 and $25. "This is our goal," O’Berg said. "This really helps to further the development of a community’s emerging economy. It really encourages development of small business."
Besides increased economic opportunities, bikes have had other unforeseen benefits, as well. "It gives these guys a chance at employment and just as important, it gives these young men a physical outlet," O’Berg explained.
Oviedo, the Colombian prisoner, backed up O’Berg’s claim. "Today I possess an athlete’s physique," wrote Oviedo, who is a divorced father of a 12-year-old girl, in his native tongue. "I’ve had to abandon my earlier cigarette vice. And physical activity during the day allows me to sleep all night without the nightmares of before."
IN THE GROUP’S most recent shipment, 430 bikes were delivered to Colombia; another 470 bikes are currently in Pakistani customs waiting for officials there to clear the country’s "bureaucratic red tape." The cost of shipments can reach upwards of $4,000. When possible, the overseas charity partner is asked to pick up the cost of any subsequent shipments. Currently, O'Berg said, nine of the 13 participating countries can pay for the second shipment. The participating African countries have a more difficult time coming up with the money, O'Berg said. "This aspect is important because it gets us on an equal basis and builds sustainability," O’Berg said. "When they can pay, we tend to be more selective in what we send over there."