Cycling Whole Life Coaching for @Risk African Kids

Prochorus cycling project Term 3 report

This year has been one of growth, change, and new opportunities for the Tribe(Unashamedly Ethical) & Prochorus Community Development Cycling Project. Looking back over the past months, we can see how much our riders have matured both on the bike and in character — and how the partnership between Tribe, Prochorus, and Shofar Christian Church has continued to strengthen.

At the start of 2025, our cycling project pressed forward with the dual focus of rider development and mentoring. Each school term carried a theme rooted in both life lessons and biblical principles, with cycling serving as a powerful tool for teaching teamwork, discipline, and perseverance.

Term 1 & 2 focused on themes like teamwork and responsibility, laying a foundation for the riders to understand their role within the group and the importance of unity both on and off the bike.

These lessons helped prepare us for Term 3, where we turned our attention to the theme of Choices.

Term 3 Focus: Choices

Our mentoring sessions, with special emphasis on:

• Friendships – the importance of choosing friends wisely.
• Relationships – building healthy and respectful connections.
• Conflict management – learning to respond with maturity.

While we didn’t cover every topic we had planned, the sessions had a real impact. We’ve already noticed positive changes in many of our riders — they are becoming more thoughtful in their decisions, better at handling challenges, and more supportive toward one another.

Highlights

During the July holidays, one of our former beneficiaries from the program stepped in to lead holiday cycling sessions while our head coach Ayola, was away on a three-week bike technician course. This was a beautiful picture of how the project is raising leaders who give back. During term 3, mentoring continued with the Choices theme, helping riders see how their daily decisions shape their future — both in life and in cycling.

Some of our beneficiaries applied for the ACE trust (Endurocad) trials at Stellenbosch High School towards the end of term 2. One of our girl riders made it to the final selection camp, which took place on the weekend of 22- 24 August, and was successful in qualifying for the 2026 bursary. She will be our second successful applicant who can use this opportunity as a huge springboard to make her wildest dreams come true.

On 6 September, our riders competed in the last school league race of 2025, battling hundreds of other scholars for overall positions. Thanks to the hard training sessions, including long rides over weekends, the team showed remarkable improvement in their results from the previous year.

Shofar Church has also become more involved, and together we’ve begun planning regular weekend rides. This will open new opportunities for volunteers, especially those who cannot join during the weekday rides. There are opportunities to mentor and build meaningful connections with the young cyclists while also seeing firsthand the heart of Prochorus.

Looking Ahead

As we move toward the end of the year, we are encouraged by the growth we’ve seen in our riders and excited about the deepening partnership between the Unashamedly Ethical Tribe Program, Prochorus, and Shofar Church. We believe the groundwork laid this year — through themes like teamwork, responsibility, and choices — will continue to shape our riders both as athletes and as young men and women of character.

We are grateful for every volunteer, supporter, and partner who makes this project possible. Together, we are not just building cyclists but raising a new generation of leaders who know how to make wise choices and live with purpose.

Our Mountain Bike Cycling Project continues to grow as a powerful tool for character development and physical well-being. Building on the foundation of Accountability we laid during the first part of the year, Term 2 revolved around teamwork. These themes are taught through mentoring, cycling, and how we live our daily lives.

Teamwork in Action

This term, our learners explored key elements that helped us to dive deep into accountability and core values that make for effective teamwork. Teaching the team about responsibility involved: understanding individual effort and how it benefits a team. Equality sessions focused on valuing each team member's strengths, allowing unity in diversity. Communication and accountability lessons taught concepts of trusting and being trustworthy, and teaching the 6 Steps of how to apologise. In a nutshell, mentoring sessions connected these themes to their contexts at school, home, and friendships. This helped learners to internalize their importance beyond cycling and performance.

Cycling & Physical Fitness

Our cycling sessions brought teamwork to life through drills, group rides, and reflective conversations. In addition to weekly rides, our team participated in three events this term.

• Titan Schools MTB league event #2: 3 May, Kylemore: Strong participation across multiple age categories with notable effort and willingness to train more and grow for better performance in future events.
• Titan Schools MTB league event #3: 17 May, Stettyn Villliersdorp: A dusty day, a scenic and enriching experience where fun and team spirit were the focus through supporting team members in different categories.
• The Bicycle League District Finals: – 24 May, Devonbosch: A proud moment as our selected riders took part and came home with good overall positions and two podium positions. Our team also won the trophy for the best development team of the season for our district.

Impact, Growth and looking forward

We’ve seen remarkable improvements in our teamwork, their confidence, and peer support, while relationships were greatly enriched. Some learners emerged as encouragers while others grew in responsibility and team logistics. This term has reinforced the value of teamwork in Important spheres of life. The children are not only becoming stronger cyclists but also more connected, respectful, and confident individuals.