Pedal for Peace 2008

what up brotha!!!!

I just wanted to share with you that I just received a huge weight off my shoulders for the bike ride. My front rack has been more than a pain in the butt trying to get it to fit my bike. I was contemplating just going with back panniers I was so freakin frustrated with it. I spent many late nights trying to get it to work. But the custodian from my school just made some insane mods to it and it is now stronger than ever and mounted beutifully! He is in support of my ride and was happy to help. Now after school today I’m gonna load up both racks for the first time and test her out! yeah!!!

Should we invest in a really good hand pump?

thanks for the list!!!
Peter d

Have pride in the past and faith in the future!

Your donation to FINCA through Pedal For Peace will enable new microentrepreneurs throughout Nicaragua to take advantage of their first microcredit loan.

Your donation’s impact:

• $50 can provide a first loan to a new FINCA Village Banker.
• $250 can provide one year’s worth of working capital to a new FINCA Village Banker.
• $1,000 provides start-up capital for 20 poor women to start their own businesses.
• $5,000 can sponsor a Village Bank in a region where FINCA currently operates.
• $60,000 can enable FINCA to enter a new region in a country where we currently operate.

See the impact of your contributions on FINCA’s Donation Calculator.

How your gift grows:

On average each dollar donated to FINCA International results in 3 loans being made with it in the first year. You see, each program participant usually repays his or her loan within four months. Moreover, each loan provides start up capital that will support a family that averages five people.
So each dollar given by generous donors like you touches the lives of hundreds of people in subsequent years.

Help share in this life-empower impact microcredit has throughout Nicaragua by donating today!

It’s been almost three weeks since the last post–and a lot has happened since then! But be prepared for posts on a much more frequent basis as we are t-minus 2 months until lift-off to California!

This website has been written, bit by bit, and is really starting to take shape (it sure is interesting learning all about html formatting and the like!).

I spoke with the Marketing Communications Manager at FINCA International earlier today and I’m really excited about Pedal for Peace (P4P) being a part of their forthcoming “Friends asking Friends” fund raising campaign! That means that the “Donation” button and more information about the allocation of donations will be up and coming very soon–I’m thinking less than two weeks!

Now that we’ve got an official channel for donations being set up, P4P can now get to connecting with our networks! We’re in the process of solidifying our partnership with Wheaton College (MA), World Learning and the SIT Graduate Institute and tapping into their resources to address Pete and mine’s personal expenses and further promote fund raising for new microcredit banks!

After we’ve got the specifics of those partnerships established, P4P will begin the promotion of our project through the marketing services of Linda Patch and Associates. Their marketing services will engage in traditional marketing practices and web 2.0 marketing strategies-viral marketing, blogging, podcasts, etc. This is going to start getting really exciting! Isn’t it great to have a mother who specializes in marketing?! She’s also a bike-nut, so check out her blog and her new tri-bike for Ironman Florida!

As for Pete and myself, we’re doing great and are now doing our countdown in DAYS!!! Oh man, I remember when Pete and I first started the countdown–the phone call from Nicaragua to the U.S. just to yell T-minus 12 months!! It’s hard to believe that we’re down to a mere 51 days!

Pete just got back from 10 days in Ireland with his brother where they were celebrating Jay’s graduation from college last year. 24 hours of sleepless travel and Pete was ready for 6am classes today at work!

As for myself, the deadline for the thesis is bearing down hard–I wish I could just focus on that and not worry about the 7-10 page paper I have due tomorrow for Urban Anthropology that I haven’t started… but hey, graduation is only 25 days away!

Well, that’s a lot for today, check in soon for more updates about the progress of the preparations for P4P!

Well, here’s the first post of what’s to be an amazing journey being carried out in the name of creating global interconnections to empower individuals, families and the community of Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua through the microcredit program of the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) Nicaragua.

On June 14th, Peter Driscoll and myself (Ryan Patch) will be flying out to San Diego with our bicycles in the belly of the plane to begin our quest of riding our bicycles across the country to spread global awareness about the life situation of individuals living in Nueva Guinea.

In February 2007, I left for six months in Nicaragua, a journey which during the process of would transform me at a fundamental level and open my eyes to the extent, severity, and meaning of poverty on the individual level. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 80% of the population there lives on less than 2 U.S. dollars per day. And two dollars not in their terms, but in our terms: if you were given 730 dollars for one year, that is the equivalent income of over 4 million people in Nicaragua.

Living amongst differing communities in Nicaragua helped me appreciate what these statistics cannot convey. This understanding is what Pete and I hope to bring to thousands of people over the course of our journey.

I spent 3 months living and working in Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua with microcredit. I won a Project for Peace grant sponsored by my university, Wheaton College in Massachusetts. I used these funds in the formation of microcredit village banks, and by the end of my time there I had started two banks, and funded them with the $5,000 from my Peace grant.

The benefit these loans provided for the new clients is best explained through their own words:

“We’re all ready and excited for this loan. This loan is going to permit us to buy more, sell more, and grow more. This truly is an aid that is going to help all of us.”
- Norma Estela Pavon Gonzalez

This summer, I am teaming up again with the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), one of the world’s largest non-profit microcredit financers, the same organization I partnered with for my Peace grant. This bicycle journey across the United States is to bring the stories and realties of Nueva Guinea from coast to coast of the United States and helping people who hear this story find a way to affect positive change.

This bicycle journey is raising funds for FINCA, monies which will be distributed directly to the people of Nueva Guinea. This journey will raise global awareness while helping individuals in the United States share in the alleviation of poverty through the empowerment of new microentrepreneurs in Nueva Guinea.

Please join Peter and I, learn about microcredit, it’s life-empowering impact, and help help individuals in Nueva Guinea get their foot on the first rung of the development ladder through your donation to finance their loan.

We look forward to working with you and thanks so much for your time.