Johannesburg - A Soweto woman has launched a cycling club in the Meadowlands area for young girls and boys.
Olebogeng Moemisi, 41, said this was an initiative to keep children off the streets and occupied with something which would be beneficial to them.
Moemisi explained that she formed the cycling club - known as Fearless Fairies Cycling Club - with the help of Linda Dhlamini (28) as a means to attract young people, but with the purpose of creating a "safe haven" to give them a platform to talk about the struggles and issues they face at home, as well as provide them with a daily meal.
"Many of the youth play soccer in the township but we also find that many of them are just sitting on the corners of the roads or at spaza shops. We started this club to give young people a platform to talk about what could be bothering them. This is to try and reduce the amount of stress our kids carry. They eventually grow up and become youth labelled with the bad behaviour tag if it is not dealt with at an early age," she said.
Moemisi added that many of the youth involved in the club were from broken families and would sometimes prefer living on the streets than at home, because at times they often went to bed hungry, which sometimes forces them to steal and become criminals.
"Children - some from the age of six years - were exposed to painful sights in their homes, which often scars them for the rest of their lives if it’s not dealt with. Mothers are beaten up in front of the kids, or at times uncles will be touching them in the wrong places. These are some of the challenges we are faced with as communities, and have concluded that most of the tim gender-based violence (GBV) begins at home, and our children grow up thinking this is normal," she said.
Dhlamini said that the club had been operating for the past six months with a total of 32 members. He said one of the biggest needs was for bicycles, because they only had eight bicycles which they rotated among themselves.
"When the young people join the club, we give them a sense of belonging so they can feel welcomed and safe. I'm obligated to plan the routes for our youth to cycle. Most mornings we ride up a hiking trail close by, or around the city during the day."
Moemisi was also known for her drive towards fighting GBV and being the co-founder of the Sister's Keeper movement, which supported victims of GBV, working alongside Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko.
She said at the age of five she was a victim of rape, and has subsequently been loud about how she has been dealing with this throughout her life to help other young girls and boys speak out about the abuse they face.
"We have come to a realisation that we can cry all we want, we can attend to all the cases of GBV and femicide, we can play victim all we want, but this pandemic is not going to end unless we, as people, act on this.
“Many women hate other women. We are nurturers, but keep fighting each other in front of our kids.
“Men know how much we hate each other."
IOL