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July 1, 2022
Israel – Premier Tech (IPT), Israel’s first Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour cycling team, has launched a worldwide fundraising campaign to build a bike center in Rwanda in support of youth development. For the Tour de France, which kicked off today, it revealed a special edition kit to celebrate and encourage donations for the ‘Field of Dreams’ complex.
The Field of Dreams center will be built on 16 acres of land in the Bugesera district and feature a pump track, 1.2 km racetrack and a future cycling academy to train bike mechanics, coaches and guides with the hope of empowering the next generation in cycling. The completed complex will offer 120,000 students, aged 6 to 18, the opportunity to take up the sport, thrive and develop their skills, which could lead to a successful career in the sport. The team hopes to raise $317,500 for its construction.
As the organization notes, in Rwanda bicycles are a way of life. “They are a means of subsistence, and often, the key to subsistence – a means of traveling to school or earning a livelihood. In Bugasera, only a few of the school’s 1,400 students can afford a bicycle.”
The proposed bike center is also backed by Bugesera’s Mayor, Richard Mutabazi, who expressed how the district would benefit from an increase in cycling infrastructure. “This unprecedented initiative promises to have a huge effect on the new generation of Bugesera and possibly all of Rwanda, well beyond cycling. We envision the infrastructure being built for this ‘Field of Dreams’ will drive economic and social progress,” he said.
“As I’ve often expressed, Israel – Premier Tech is more than a cycling team. We follow the ancient Jewish imperative of “Tikkun Olam”, roughly translated as ‘improving our world’. As such, we look at this project as organic to our mission,” said IPT owner Sylvan Adams who founded the team in 2014.
The Field of Dreams is the next step in IPT’s Racing for Change project, which launched last year after members of the Israel Start-Up Nation team participated in the largest race in Africa, the Tour du Rwanda. The first phase of the project involved the team adopting the country’s only women’s cycling team and implementing a social riding program for kids in the district. Young people in the village of Bugasera were supplied with kits, scholarships and professional training to enable them to experience cycling and its benefits.
The impact of the first phase was felt immediately as the women’s team progressed quickly under the supervision of IPT coaches and staff. The introduction of professional equipment and training directly contributed to 16-year-old Aline Uwera’s success, as she became the first female Rwandan cyclist to finish on the podium of the African championships.
“We are hoping to engage the entire global cycling community to donate and help us build this necessary cycling infrastructure in Africa. What better way to unveil this ambitious campaign than at the most important event on our cycling calendar, the Tour de France where we can unite all cycling fans to get behind the wonderful Rwandan youth who deserve it so much.”
The team has committed to match every donation, and prizes will be given to all donors regardless of the size of the donation.
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