Schoolchildren, health workers and CPF receive bicycles
ALEX - 98 bicycles were donated to school children, community health workers and the CPF on Thursday at the Kwa-Bhekilanga sports grounds.
Getting to school late and tired might be a thing of the past for 41 children from KwaBhekilanga Secondary School and East Bank High School after bicycles were donated to help them commute to school.
A total of 30 community health workers of the Alexandra Clinic and 27 local community policing forum (CPF) workers also received bicycles.
The bicycles will help them to commute more easily as they used to walk to their respective occupations on a daily basis.
This donation was the result of a collaboration between motoring company Volkswagen (VW), the City of Johannesburg and Qhubeka, a charity organisation that helps improve people’s lives through bicycle donations.
Sibahle Dlamini, who is in Grade 8 at East Bank High School, said she was happy with the donation.
“I’m happy because I used to walk to school. It will be easy for me to get to school now,” she said.
Kamogelo Khoza (13) who is in Grade 8 at KwaBhekilanga Secondary School said the bike will help him get to school on time.
“I used to walk a long distance to school and that contributed to my late-coming. Now teachers won’t complain anymore,” Kamogelo said.
Brand marketing manager of VW, Bridget Harpur said the company was enthusiastic about this campaign.
“Every bike handover is special, this is more exciting because we have incorporated adults as beneficiaries,” she said.
Alexandra CPF chairperson Vusi Gule said he appreciated the donation as this would make their job easier.
“We used to patrol on foot, but at least now we can cover more areas at night using these bicycles,” Gule said.
The executive director of Qhubeka, Tsatsi Phaweni said the idea came about because they wanted to improve access to education in the country.
“Initially we contributed computers to schools, but they got stolen and learners were not gaining anything, so we had to go back to the drawing board,” Phaweni explained.
“We then realised that bringing them into the school was also a priority we needed to look at, so we thought of bicycles.”
“Alex is very close to the City, so it was without a doubt that it would be the first urban township to receive the bikes,” Phaweni concluded.
A bike maintenance contractor has been placed close to both schools to fix the bicycles when needed.
The donation included a bicycle, tire pump, a helmet and a patch kit for all those flats that might occur.
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