Thousands of children in rural KwaZulu-Natal are about to experience the joy and freedom of cycling, especially in a region where walking to school can take up to two hours.
Nkandla, South Africa (02 June, 2023) — Cycling rides along the ebb and flow of life’s lessons. Pushing through the tough hills. The exhilarating freedom of perseverance. For many young children, it’s more than just a fun activity—it’s a craft of character too.
Merging the philosophy of biking with very practical perks, a special programme is expanding to a region of KwaZulu-Natal. Initially, hundreds of children got to learn and love riding a bike. Now, the programme is spreading beyond Nkandla’s Mnyakanya High School to impact more young people for the better.
The initial programme, a team-up between the University of Leeds and the Bambisanani organisation, was all-important for children and sparked back in 2016.
It was a combination of lessons: freedom, commitment to caring for the community bikes by learning how to maintain and fix them, and dire transport for children who live great distances from school thanks to the rental portion of the programme.
The programme’s success soared, and the next step was obvious—make the circle bigger!
Recently, the partners have teamed up with the provincial cycling federation KZN Cycling—who already have programmes in place across the province— to expand the task. Now, an agreement worth over half a million rand will establish a new cycling cub for communities in the region to spread the cycling love.
“For people in the deep rural areas of KZN, bikes, and the linked opportunities that bikes have, are life changing. If there were more organisations like the Bambisanani Partnership that got behind development programmes like this, whether here or elsewhere in the world, there would be more smiles on more faces every day.”—Alec Lenferna, Chief Executive Officer of KZN Cycling.
This means around 5000 people a year will get to train and have access to the bikes. Even more exciting for local budding cyclists, the Department of Sports, Arts & Culture’s support to KZN Cycling means talent can be scouted too.
“Our own cycling programmes in the deep rural areas have been a resounding success and it is a wonderful opportunity to be now collaborating with KZN Cycling to bring cycling to thousands more young people.”—David Geldart, Bambisanani Partnership founder.
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