Cycling towards sustainability
On Saturday 19 February, the City of Windhoek, GIZ, Ebikes4Africa, Namibia Road Safety Forum, Physically Active Youth and the Namibia Cycling Federation collaborated for the handover of 50 bicycles to students from tertiary institutions.The aim of the event was to encourage cycling in Windhoek under the city’s sustainability programme which plans on educating students on what it takes to be a cyclist on the streets of Windhoek.
A technical advisor for GIZ, Verusckha Araes, said the students from tertiary institutions UNAM, NUST and IUM underwent a three-month training course in which they were taught by the Physically Active Youth (PAY) trainers how to ride a bicycle and to apply road-safety rules when cycling.
“This programme is to help students make use of bicycles for commuting purposes and this will not be the last project; the City with its stakeholders plans many more cycling training programmes.”
“The Cycling for Sustainability event was successful,” said Tuisira Kaviikairiua, former marketing officer of Ebikes4Africa, as more than 30 students were awarded certificates for passing the training programme.
She further said to take part in the programme you should be a registered student residing in Katutura.
Students were very excited to receive their bicycles. Eliakim, a Unam student, said, “as students we are experiencing financial issues and this will save us a lot of money; we can go to university on our bicycles.”
Through the funding of GIZ, 47 bicycles were donated. Horst Heimstädt, CEO of Namibia Road Safety Forum, said: “Cycling is the future and it’s healthy. We would like to see more bicycles on the road. If you look at our congestion happening on the road already, we’ve got a problem. So, the more bicycles we can get on the road and the more we can get used to bicycles, the better for all of us in Windhoek.”
The programme is set to continue and students are urged to join.