You dread having to walk alone for such a distance at night. Images seem to lurk in the drizzle and the drifting fog, which appears to swim and flow across the shrouded, twisted dark path. The crooked recesses of your mind are playing havoc with your fight or flight impulses. Is this simple overreaction or real danger? Your pulse quickens. You increase your gait and your stride quicken. You know how hard it is to survive. If only you could travel more quickly. If only your parents were alive to give you comfort and support. You constantly give a precautionary glance over you shoulder just in case it is not your imagination but you do not have the luxury of making a mistake, as if you were playing a game.

Life has been a struggle. It hasn’t been easy for so many people, and there are times you think, why oh why do people have to live like this? When will it end? How much can one person take? You happen to live where unemployment is as high as 90 % in geographical pockets but mostly the average is around 40 to 50 %. Everyone is in need. Because of this need, people steal. The former communist concept was if you didn’t steal you were not providing for your family. So the danger is real, especially for one walking alone late at night.

 Is it possible someone somewhere wants to help me? Where does one turn for hope and help? If everyone needs help what are the chances someone will help me? Why I do not know anyone outside my village let alone my country.

It would take an organization like His Work in Progress. It would take someone who either by accident or Divine intervention saw the trial that you were bore everyday. It took someone to witness the kitchen doors being closed and just a few people received soup and bread. There were 600 more people. Wait a minute; Medjugorje was just a short ride away. Don’t many pilgrims go there why can’t the word go forth?

His Work in Progress has seen the need. However we are a small, efficient organization of volunteers. Just as if you were alone and saw the need you would have to ask for help.

There are many places in need around the world and around the corner from our own homes. So why Bosnia, why bicycles, why even bother?

Before the automobile became the standard and bicycling became a sport. Bicycling was the standard of transportation that you did not have to feed or give it gas or have a place to store it or take to the veterinarian or the mechanic. Good basic transportation and inexpensive in upkeep.

We have given hundreds of bicycles in the region of Medjugorje in Bosnia. In the states one can buy a bicycle from $100. TO $10,000.00 dollars. Once used they are either forgotten, broken neglected, unappreciated and wait to be loved once again like a house pet.

Parents spend their hard earned money and do not want to throw out the bicycles in the trash. Imagine all that hard work only to be thrown out like yesterdays newspaper.

His Work in Progress started their pilot project Bikes for Bosnia and now that pilot has given birth to a new program called Pedals Around the World. The concept is for anyone that has a relationship with a bicycle shop or club to join us in this effort. It is very simple. It is the simplicity that makes the program work.

Imagine shops in every major city and state and country taking in bicycles, restoring them and making a child eyes shine as they take ownership of a bicycle they otherwise would never have had the opportunity to own.

HWIP wants you to help us. HWIP has a simple solution. HWIP is in need of bikes, thousands of bikes and tire repair kits. The orphans without family or a job could use a source of transportation. There are refugee families living in tin huts. Small leaky one room huts without bathrooms They only exist. 

Unfortunately for them this has been their life for years. The areas life style is not progressing. Some people have jobs but don’t get paid for six to nine months. They dare not quit because someday they may get paid. They are without any hope. Some exist on $200 a month. My interpreter told me it cost his $400 just to feed his family of four. Even he is uncomfortable in this situation hearing the plea for food.

Well there is the five year plan and the plan of the day. Teach a man to fish only after you fed him. Our transportation program is just another avenue to provide employment opportunities or to get to school quickly before going to work.

We are trying to make life a little easier while giving them hope.

Won't you help us help them?

To date we have shipped bicycles to Bosnia, Croatia, Haiti, Venezuela, parts of Pennsylvania and we’re not through.

Please consider a cash donation and your old bike if it is in good condition. This means a safe and operable bike without need of repair.

We will be glad to accept new bikes. Imagine the look on the child's face when receive a new bike? So much we take for granted in our lives here is the United States.

 Stop for just one moment and reflect how comfortable you are right now reading this message.

 You are not living in conditions that we mentioned earlier.

Would you seek out camping for the weekend as an everyday lifestyle? I think when the weather changes we would want to revert back to our homes and a nice warm shower. Oh and yes bathroom facilities that are private and work, not the hole in the ground as in the camps.

So won’t you help get them out of the camps?

Thank you for taking the time to read this story and reflect. His Work in Progress will be traveling back to Medjugorje in this spring. Tell us your thoughts we would love to hear from you.

 

Peace,

Walter J. Miller Founder &  Executive Director

His Work in Progress

Notes:

If you would like to start a Pedals Around the World Program in your neighborhood contact us at wjmiller @hwip.org or call 215-741-4947 it is much more practical if you are local to our location should you decide to donate your bicycle. Know that you can be a catalyst for your area to partner with a bike shop and this way we can work much more efficiently as a separate project center in your local area.

We have another program “Home for Christmas” that you can look up on our web site www.hwip.org we think you will be touched when you read this story.

For those of you who read this and live near the HWIP Headquarters near Washington Crossing Pennsylvania in a town called Yardley. Stop in, our friends and supporters at Endurance Sports this is where they refurbish the bicycles that we send overseas.