Rainmaker announces support for young riders and future entrepreneurs in South Africa
Rainmaker Solutions is delighted to announce its support for the Team Bäckstedt HotChillee Development Rider Programme in South Africa.
Team Bäckstedt HotChillee aims to foster young cycling talent in South Africa and Europe, and create a pathway into the pro peloton through a combination of coaching, mentoring, performance testing and racing, with the support of Velokhaya Cycling Academy, Cape Town Giants and others.
As well as providing funding through its charitable Buffalo Foundation, Rainmaker will support Team Bäckstedt HotChillee through the Rainmaker Academy, providing IT support and skills training, equipping riders for the future workplace by teaching them to code and developing programming skills.
Buffalo Foundation also supports the KWANO Cycling Academy, which uses cycling as a catalyst to uplift and transform the lives of disadvantaged children and communities in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, with equipment and funding to pay for after-school teachers.
To mark the occasion, young riders from KWANO were invited to attend the Team Bäckstedt HotChillee Young Rider Summit in Cape Town, to share experiences and hear motivational stories from pro riders, including Team Dimension Data’s Nic Dlamini, and of course Magnus Bäckstedt himself. And there was no better way to accomplish this than on bikes up Chapman’s Peak.
During the summit, Wattbike donated two of its Wattbike Pro bikes, currently used by the UCI World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland, and a number of leading sports teams around the world, to the KWANO Academy to help the young riders with their training. It is hoped that many of the KWANO riders will progress to join Team Bäckstedt HotChillee in the future.
Jan Joubert, CEO of Rainmaker Solutions, said:
“Cycling provides an opportunity to make a positive difference to the children’s lives. The attributes they learn from sport — the importance of hard work, being part of a team, integrity, discipline and accountability — are the same attributes that we look for in business. By giving them additional job skills that will be so important in the future, whether they become pro cyclists or future entrepreneurs, everyone wins.”
Richard Baker, Managing Director at Wattbike, added:
“Having the opportunity to support the children at KWANO, alongside our existing support for Team Bäckstedt HotChillee, and to be part of the journey of these young men and women is something we are very proud to be involved with.”
To date, Rainmaker’s Buffalo Foundation has raised over £100,000 for projects that support underprivileged children around the world.
For more information, or to make an online donation, visit Buffalo Foundation.
