Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Cyclists with hearts of gold
THEIR aim is to make a difference in the lives of children living in poverty through a charity cycling event.
Members from local non-profit, Uhambo Journey for Education, are cycling from Cape Town to East London to raise funds to send orphaned and vulnerable children to high school.
Their journey will start on Friday and finish on April 16.
The cyclists will have a backup vehicle to look after their daily needs and will have support along the way from NGOs including the Oasis Community Project from Ladysmith. They will also be welcomed by four schools from Komani on the day of their arrival.
Lorne Farquharson, a member of Uhambo, said: “Our mission is to take orphaned and vulnerable children from Nyanga and give them an opportunity to access quality education, away from the crippling poverty, violence and abuse they are exposed to on a daily basis in their community.
“We would like to raise enough money to pay for these children to pursue an education at one of the well-established and resourced boarding schools located in Komani. These children will have all their needs taken care of, they will be housed in the school’s boarding facilities and attend the respective schools reaping all the benefits of a first-class education.
“We passionately believe that a vulnerable and impoverished child can escape their circumstances through having access to quality education. Education will change their lives and is the foundation for our future leaders.”
Uhambo was established last year by Farquharson and his friends Warren Wilkinson and Patrick Andries. The trio came together with a vision to create an opportunity to provide access to quality basic education for underprivileged children from townships and impoverished areas.
“In 2019, we started a fundraising campaign in partnership with a local NGO in Nyanga to raise funds to provide scholarships for kids from Nyanga to attend well-resourced schools in Komani. We held our inaugural tour in April 2019.
“The three of us cycled from Cape Town to Komani. We covered 1050km over seven days. We raised some funding but not enough to send a child to school.
“In 2020 we established a NPC called Uhambo Journey for Education which embraces our vision for access to quality basic education and to host the annual Uhambo Cycle Tour between Cape Town to East London.
“These children are very close to our heart. We all have children of our own and are extremely blessed and privileged.
“It breaks our hearts to see a world and in particular South Africa with such disparities in environments where there are children who are either not in school or drop out due to their impoverished conditions,” he said.