Paul Roos Gimnasium, Aitsa! and the BMT Shop want to change lives through cycling.
Aitsa! Aftercare (formerly Imbali Aftercare) is a non-profit organisation that provides a safe and stimulating after-school environment to children in the Dwars River Valley outside Stellenbosch.
Marleen Lourens of the organisation has a love for cycling, and that’s how the idea started to add cycling as one of the activities in their programme.
“Our dream is to give children exposure to things that could develop them further than academics and just keeping them off the street,” Lourens said about Aitsa!’s plans.
The cycling, like other activities atAitsa!, are offered on a rewards system.
Other activities offered by Aitsa! include lunch, chess, Maties Kinetika, dancing, art, reading, computer assisted learning (Reading Eggs, Cami Maths and Afrikaans) under the supervision of qualified teachers in the afternoons, as well as parent support.
Two criteria have to be met before a child can take part in the cycling:
V They have to be at aftercare every afternoon for a week.
V They must be well-behaved for a week.
Paul Roos Gimnasium’s cycling team has also embraced the project and started to help the children at the aftercare with their cycling on Fridays.
The BMT Shop offers free man hours to help the children repair their bicycles, but donations are still needed for the aftercare to be able to afford tubes.
“We experience a lot of flat tyres due to thorns around our pump track,” Lourens said and added that they would eventually like to buy better bicycles and helmets for the children.
Everything they started out with was donated, with some of the helmet’s being way too big for the children.
V To get involved or donate, contact Lourens on 0 082 337 9750 or visit Aitsa!’s website at www.aitsa.org.
