School kids benefit from bike donation
PUPILS at Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School in Khayelitsha have been given 100 new bicycles by non-profit company Qhubeka Bikes as part of a donation.
Another 15 bicycles were distributed to Ride2Empower, a tourism enterprise in Khayelitsha.
Fifty of the bikes were funded by Breitling through its fundraising efforts at the Coronation Double Century bicycle race in Swellendam.
Breitling funded 400 bicycles in total, the remainder of which will be distributed over the next few months.
Qhubeka’s donors and fundraisers paid for 50 of the bicycles, which were distributed on Thursday.
The bicycles for tourism initiative Ride2Empower were funded by Woolworths South Africa.
Qhubeka is a global charity that runs bicycle programmes in South African, and Khayelitsha falls within Qhubeka’s Western Cape SHIFT project.
“SHIFT is a Qhubeka bicycle project that aims to distribute 5 000 bicycles per year into a specific geographic area for five years,” said Qhubeka founder Anthony Fitzhenry.
“The objective is to help shift the entire community forward.
“We believe that bicycles are a simple tool that can help to address South Africa’s pressing socio-economic issues such as persistent, widespread poverty and unemployment by helping people to get where they need to go and access opportunities, whether that’s schools, clinics or jobs,” he said.
Ride2Empower managaing director Siyabonga Mbaba said: “We use bicycles to connect tourists and investors with entrepreneurs.
“Cycling around Khayelitsha makes tourism fun and it allows our guests to engage with the community more than someone driving, and it’s eco-friendly.”
Breitling chief executive Georges Kern said: “We have so much respect for the work Qhubeka does.”
Kern was part of the Breitling team that took part in the Coronation Double Century race to raise funds for Qhubeka.
“Qhubeka distributes bicycles to people, whose lives are changed in meaningful ways. A bicycle can take someone to school or work or a clinic – these donations can be, literally, a matter of life or death, and we’re thrilled to be able to use our mission to support Qhubeka’s vision,” he said.