2019 Pedal for Peace Bike-a-thon
Beneficiary groups and project descriptions
To donate to Pedal for Peace, click on the name of any group. Donations will be divided equally among the groups.
Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
Founded 30 years ago, CRLN builds partnerships among social movements and organized communities within and between the U.S. and Latin America. We work together through popular education, grassroots organizing, public policy advocacy, and direct action to dismantle U.S. militarism, neoliberal economic and immigration policy, and other forms of state and institutional violence. We are united by our liberating faiths and inspired by the power of people to organize and to find allies to work for sustainable economies, just relationships and human dignity. Because CRLN has dedicated restricted funds for travel scholarships and for the support of human rights defenders, Pedal for Peace donations will go for general operating support of our regular programming.
Contact person: Sharon Hunter-Smith, shunter-smith@crln.org
Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities
Cinquera, El Salvador, is a small community of around 3,000 people in the central part of the country. In 1992, Cinquera, which had been abandoned during the horrific civil war, was repopulated after the peace accord. Chicago-Cinquera Sister Cities has been working with a progressive community organization, the ARDM, for many years. This year, the ARDM has again designated Pedal for Peace donations for scholarships for five college students who are majoring in computer science, agricultural engineering and education. The donations will cover their enrollment fees, tuition, transportation, food and housing. During and upon completion of their studies, the students have made a commitment to live in and work on behalf of the Cinquera community and to support the scholarship program for future students.
Contact person: Jim Hoover, jimmyishere@hotmail.com
Chicago-Guatemala Partnership
Saq Ja’, Guatemala, is a rural Mayan community of around 50 families located in the western highlands. The community was destroyed in 1981-82 during the Guatemalan civil war, many survived in the wilderness for years and returned to resettle their lands after the Peace Accords in 1996. After much hard work, they succeeded in building a primary and middle school to educate children through 9th grade. The Chicago-Guatemala Partnership, which has accompanied the community since 1999, will again designate this year’s Pedal for Peace funds toward support for the middle school and scholarships for those going on to higher levels of schooling. In addition, money may be used to support a school trip to the ruins of an ancient Mayan city at Tikal to learn about their Mayan history and heritage.
Contact person: Mary Naftzger, maryandbob.n@sbcglobal.net
Concern America (C/A)
The Pedal for Peace Bike-a-thon will support C/A’s community-centered health and leadership program in rural Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in the isolated and war-torn Chocó region of Colombia, providing primary health care services to 20,000 people previously without access to such services. This innovative and successful model, known as Health Promoter Practitioners (HPPs), engages the most valuable resource in every village–the people themselves. With a depth of knowledge, skills, and ability to provide health care comparable to the work of nurse practitioners in the U.S, HPPs are able to meet 80% of the community’s health care needs. This year, the program will build its own HPP-run clinic training center and dormitories for course participants, a huge step! Funds received from Pedal for Peace will help equip the new program center.
Contact person: John Straw, jstraw@concernamerica.org
La Voz de los de Abajo
La Voz de los de Abajo has worked in solidarity with campesino and indigenous organizations in Honduras for nearly 15 years on community radio projects, human rights accompaniment and support for initiatives by small farmers and their organizations. Since the coup in June 2009, it has also organized multiple delegations from the U.S. to Honduras to provide human rights accompaniment to the organizations and communities resisting the coup. 2019 Pedal for Peace funds will be sent to the National Center for Rural Workers (CNTC), which provides legal and organizational accompaniment to thousands of campesinos struggling for land reform. In addition, funds will be used to support Garifuna health and educational initiatives.
Contact person: Vicki Cervantes, vickicervantes@yahoo.com
Autonomous Tenants Association
The Autonomous Tenants Union (ATU) engages in grassroots organizing alongside tenants, leveraging the power of tenant unions to halt evictions, keep rent affordable, and preserve our community through advocacy and education. We recognize that our struggle for housing justice is deeply connected to other struggles, which is why we collaborate with organizations around the city to mutually support one another in our growth. Currently ATU is part of the Lift the ban campaign that is trying to repeal the provision at the state level that prohibits rent control to be implemented in any municipality. ATU is collaborating on this coalition and, if achieved, it will open the door for more campaign organizing around passing a rent control ordinance in the city of Chicago, which will impact tenants across the city for years to come.
Contact person: Antonio Gutiérrez, gutierrez.atu@gmail.com
