BikeTown Africa builds bikes in Stellenbosch
25 November 2008

Bicycling’s BikeTown Africa ended the South African leg of this initiative in Stellenbosch on Tuesday. Launched in 2006 the project started as a partnership between Bicycling Magazine, Rodale Press, Bristol Myers Squibb and Kona Bicycle Company. 1000 bicycles have been pledged for donation to health care workers across Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa, between October and December 2008.

The final handover for South Africa this year took place in at Van Der Stel Sport Club in Stellenbosch yesterday.  Approximately 150 bicycles were assembled and handed over to Stellenbosch Hospice and their dedicated team of highly qualified nursing sisters and trained caregivers who on a daily basis provide home based care for over 400 patients suffering mainly from Cancer, HIV/AIDS and TB.

Smaller beneficiaries - Stellenbosch Health and HIV/AIDS Network; Stellenbosch Municipal community  development workers; Be Part – Paarl; Franco - Franschhoek Community Development Network and @ Heart an Aids organization involved in HIV/AIDS related work - also received bicycles thanks to this initiative. Recipients were elated when traffic officials escorted them through the streets of Stellenbosch and Kayamandi on their new bicycles.

Executive Mayor, Alderman PM Swartz received the bicycles on behalf of the community of Stellenbosch, praising the unsung heroes of this community and encouraging them to put their bicycles to good use.

Editor of Bicycling magazine, Tim Brink comments, “Bicycling’s Biketown Africa has been an enormous feat for Bicycling. The impact our project has had on health care workers and the communities within which they operate is immeasurable.  We are planning to expand this project in 2009 with the objective being the upliftment of our communities.”

The main focus for the project has been to donate bicycles to health care workers in Africa, particularly those involved in HIV/AIDS related work, helping them to be more productive and save as many lives as possible. The bicycles are to increase the reach of health care workers doing HIV/AIDS related work and enable them to assist more ailing community members who may have been more difficult to reach in the past.