Work-to-earn Programmes: Tourism
These programmes are aimed at adults, youth and those Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs), who earn bicycles in a range of ways.
People use bicycles to explore places and to share experiences with others, building economic opportunities for tourism micro businesses.
15 new bicycles for Khayelitsha tourism micro enterprise
On Thursday 7 March 2019, 15 bicycles were distributed to Ride2Empower, a tourism enterprise in Khayelitsha. The bicycles for Ride2Empower were funded by Woolworths South Africa.
Qhubeka is a global charity that runs bicycle-based programmes in South Africa. Khayelitsha falls within Qhubeka’s Western Cape SHIFT project. “A SHIFT is a Qhubeka bicycle project that aims to distribute 5 000 bicycles per year into a specific geographic area for five years,” explained Qhubeka Founder, Anthony Fitzhenry. “The objective is to help to shift the entire community forward. We believe that bicycles are a simple tool that can help to address South Africa’s pressing socioeconomic issues – such as persistent and widespread poverty and unemployment – by helping people to get where they need to go and thereby access opportunities, whether that’s schools, clinics or jobs.”
Siyabonga Mbaba, MD at Ride2Empower is enthusiastic about the benefits of bicycles. “We use bicycles to connect tourists and investors with entrepreneurs,” he said. “Cycling around Khayelitsha makes tourism fun and it allows our guest to engage with the community more than someone driving, and it’s eco-friendly.”
Fitzhenry said that Qhubeka is thankful for the support of the organisations who have made the distribution of the 15 bicycles into Khayelitsha possible. “Everyone who supports us is supporting the idea that bicycles change lives. Together, we can change more lives with bicycles by helping people to travel faster and further, and to carry more.”
The Khayelitsha programmes are implemented by Qhubeka’s collaboration partner, Bike4all. Before receiving their bicycles, every beneficiary also underwent safety training byBike4all.
