Founder of the Rise Up Foundation, Ivan Jones, has started a “cycling for discipline” programme in Lavender Hill to not only teach children positive skills and experiences but also discipline.
Jones, who facilitates various programmes within the community, started the cycling club in January.
“I could see children in our communities do not have discipline,” says Jones.
He started the programme with only five children but it has since grown to 24 children.
“Currently, we have 24 bicycles, however, there are over 70 to 80 children who really want to cycle. We have in total 250 children involved in various programmes at the Rise Up Foundation.”
The foundation was established seven years ago. It operates from a shipping container at Lavender Hill High School.
“We started the foundation after four children were shot dead in a drive-by gang shooting after walking home from school.
“The Rise Up Foundation was created so that there could be a safe space for children to play games or play sport.”
The programmes facilitated at the foundation include literacy classes hosted by Jones’s wife, Bronwyn. She is a former teacher at Lavender Hill High School.
“She launched a reading programme for kids and she also assists with academic work. We also do feeding schemes and a hardcover book drive.”
The cycling club is the latest programme where children, accompanied by Jones, ride their bikes from Lavender Hill to Hout Bay or the waterfront as well as nature reserves.
“These children are exposed to violence and because of gang violence, the children can’t move around.
“The current group of children in the cycling club are from the age of 12 and up and I am teaching them first of all safety and then training them to cycle.”
Jones purchased 18 bicycles out of his own pocket and a further six bikes were donated towards the cycling programme.
“In 2021, colleagues gave me cycling gear as a gift and at the time I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.
“But this year, I decided to start cycling and to teach the children.”
Jones adds that violence and negativity in any community are silent killers.
“Children gravitate towards what they see and what they are shown.
“So if we show them something completely different, away from violence and gang violence, then they can choose something different and something positive.”
