One of our 2015 Cycle Tour riders, Andrew Marks, came out early to tackle the Cape Rouleur ride which happened the week before the Cycle Tour. Raising awareness of the work of Beautiful Gate, Andrew wore his jersey with pride. Watch the video below to get a glimpse of this brutally hard but beautiful cycle race. 

After a week of fires in Cape Town in the week leading up to the 2015 Cape Town Cycle Tour, the race organisers took the difficult decision to shorten the length of the tour from 109km to 47km. While obviously a huge disappointment for many of our riders who had been training hard and raising support for Beautiful Gate, they did not let it deter them and we all continued to support the #showyoucaresolidarityride!

This year we had 63 riders on the Beautiful Gate Ride for Hope team. Nine riders were from Johannesburg, 1 from Kenya, 1 from the UK and the rest based in Cape Town. Three of our staff members formed part of the team: Sonwabile, Luyolo and newcomer Thabo. We even had two children riding in the main event and a couple of father-son teams. Beautiful Gate staff came out to support the team as they finished their race, and riders looked a lot fresher than they have on previous years.

On the Saturday before race day, 5 children from our after school programme and 6 children, whose parents support Beautiful Gate, took part in the Junior Tour, riding between 1.7km and 10km. Great fun was had by all and the children were excited to receive their medals.

While the final amounts are still making their way into our bank account, it looks like we will have exceeded the R200 0000 mark for this year's campaign! We would like to thank each rider that took part and would also like to extend our appreciation to our sponsors who provided cycling jerseys. post-race hospitality and parking. Thank you Tullow Oil, Deloitte, Reeds and Rennies Travel.

Have you had a chance to look at the photos on our Facebook page? If you're in one of the photo's, please tag yourself.

This article first appeared as part of our April 2015 newsletter. Read the full newsletter here.

One of the ongoing and most pervasive challenges for South Africa today is the issue of inequality. There is no easier place to view this inequality than in the townships surrounding the City of Cape Town. With two boys in a government school in an established suburb, it pains me daily to see the inequality facing children of the same age in Crossroads and Philippi. While education is not the only area of inequality in our country, it is certainly one of the drivers which if not addressed will ensure that inequality in our country will never be erased. Even as some people applaud an improving secondary school pass rate sadly, only 44% of children get to grade 12 in South African schools. The number of pupils who started grade one in 2002 was 1,261,827 - however, the number of pupils who eventually wrote grade 12 exams in 2013 only 562,112. A staggering 56% of learners lost before even writing matric. Of those that did get to sit down to those exams, only 78.2% passed. Sadly, this means that more than 60% of South African children are left with no qualification at all beyond the Grade 9 level. 

How do begin to address this? Read more about how Beautiful Gate's After School programme is improving educational outcomes and beginning to see results.