Today, 40 learners at Selelekela Secondary School in Orlando, Soweto, received brand new Qhubeka Bicycles. The bicycles were funded by Dimension Data, title sponsor of Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka (Africa’s first UCI registered World Tour cycling team).
The company is a long-term supporter of Qhubeka and used the 2016 Tour de France event as an opportunity to raise funds for bicycles by asking its employees to support its #ChainofSupport campaign.
Dimension Data employees around the globe were encouraged to share words of support for Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka on Twitter. For every 200 tweets shared with the hashtag #ChainofSupport, the company donated one bicycle to a Qhubeka programme.
The City of Johannesburg came on board and agreed to match the number of bicycles raised. A total of 58 bicycles (approximately R165 000) were funded. Of these, 40 were distributed today, and the remainder will be distributed to more Selelekela Secondary School in the near future, once they have been signed up to the SHIFT Urban Scholars Bicycle programme.
The programme provides bicycles to learners to help them travel more safely and quickly. The partnership between Qhubeka, the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and corporate partners has funded over 700 bicycles for learners in Soweto and Alexandra to date.
“We are very excited to once again partner with the City of Johannesburg and Qhubeka to mobilise schoolchildren in the community of Orlando with bicycles,” says Lubabalo Dyantyi, Executive, Public Sector at Dimension Data Middle East and Africa. “We are honoured to be able to contribute towards improving the schooling experience of students at Selelekela Secondary School, through the efforts of our employees, who by sharing #ChainofSupport messages on social media during the 2016 Tour de France, helped us to raise funds for this life-changing initiative.”
“We are thankful to our partners, Dimension Data and City of Joburg, for helping us to connect more learners with bicycles,” says Qhubeka Executive Director, Sarah Phaweni. “We are particularly grateful to all the Dimension Data employees around the world who shared #ChainofSupport messages during the 2016 Tour de France, which helped to fund the bicycles that were distributed here today. Dimension Data and Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka have been powerful partners in sharing our message that bicycles can change lives, and helping the learners here today who have received their new bicycles to experience that first-hand.”