The cyclists taking part in the 20th annual CycAlive project safely finished their 750km relay ride from Johannesburg to Durban.
The project was born in a classroom in 1998 when the school decided to do something to identify with the new democratic South Africa. The Initiative is done with the endorsement of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and attempts to build bridges between young South Africans while raising funds for various educational projects and displaying the importance of road safety.
Participants from Moletsane High School and Pace Commercial Secondary School in Soweto, Torah Academy in Orchards, and Orange Farm schools, a project of Afrika Tikkun.
They were also joined by five Israeli schoolchildren brought out by Partnership2Gether, a programme built to join Israeli students with diasporic Jewish communities.
The cyclists arrived in Durban on Thursday, August 10, with a welcome by the Field Band from KwaZulu-Natal, civic dignitaries and community leaders. They were escorted by Metro police in a march, ending at the Jewish Centre. Thereafter, they were hosted by the Council of KwaZulu-Natal Jewry.
The relay ride was launched in Houghton with the CycAlive riders taking off from the Nelson Mandela Centre with a ceremonial send off by the previously disadvantaged Springs Field Band and the motorbike riders from Steelwings and Rolling Thunder, who escorted them out of Johannesburg.
At the launch, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein said, “We have all come together in a spirit of unity.”
The principal of Torah Academy Boys’ High, Rabbi Yossi Chaikin, said a prayer for the safety of the cyclists and expressed the hope for nation building of individual citizens, regardless of race, religion, culture or language.
Details: www.torahacademy.co.za
