On Monday, 21 January 2019, Minister Anroux Marais visited the Kwano Cycling Academy at Murray High School in the Bitou Municipality.
Launched by Rainmaker Solutions – a UK-based business and digital transformation specialist – through its charitable foundation, the Buffalo Foundation, the Kwano Cycling Academy assists vulnerable youth from Kwanokuthula by using cycling as a catalyst to uplift youngsters and communities.
The Buffalo Foundation was set up by Rainmaker CEO, Jan Joubert, together with trustees: Tim Hanley, Rainmaker COO and Sven Thiele, Founder of Hotchillee. Their goal is to make a lasting difference to children and young adults living in poverty. Their focus is on sport, education and the creation of future entrepreneurs.
Their key objectives are to help young people denied the opportunities to become the best they can be, live a normal, healthy and happy life; to reach their full potential; to be self-sufficient and in turn give back to their own communities.
The Buffalo Foundation offers sport academies and uses them as the vehicle to incentivise young people and instil core values, confidence and team participation.
Through their global fundraising efforts, they are able to offer young people access to the resources and environments needed to excel and actively nurture talent by identifying which career paths participants aspire to. Opportunities are provided to help achieve this by working with local communities. Together with local partners, they aim to create powerful sustainable change as they believe that collaboratively we will build a world of opportunity for those who need it most.
Minister Anroux Marais said, It was both heart-warming and motivating to witness first-hand the incredible work and effort put into empowering opportunities. Many children in Kwanokuthula live in poverty, learning is oftentimes a challenge and the risk of being drawn into social ills is ever present. The Kwano Cycling Academy offers them an alternative and a sense of purpose. The strategic vision powered by the Buffalo Foundation, led by the passionate Jan Joubert and partners, contributes to the Western Cape Government’s objective of creating an enabling environment for more young people to succeed. Considering our adverse national fiscal environment, we look forward to engaging with private organisations such as Rainmaker Solutions and Hotchillee to amplify opportunities in expanding a collaborative service delivery footprint in the Western Cape. In this way we will further enhance education through sport.
Source: Western Cape Government Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport