“Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Albert Einstein
When starting the “Bicycles” project in 2013-2014, Negba had capitalized on the potential of cycling, globally recognized among young people at risk, for the individual and collective development of its teenagers. The objectives then fixed were very precise:
- Take action to improve the health and the body and mind balance of the teens.
- Give teens the opportunity to make efforts and succeed in facing physical challenges and prepare them to overcome other challenges.
- Make known and loved the country in general and the Negev and Beer-Sheva in particular.
- Develop and encourage teens to discover nature.
- Create an identity by developing the feeling of belonging to a group.
- Strengthen personal relationships between the teens and develop a spirit of collective responsibility and mutual help.
Today, this activity is provided once or twice a week to all Negba children. Nearly 5 years after its launch, and thanks to a structured program of group cycling, we can say that most of the children and teens have improved their physical condition, increased their self-confidence, strengthened their group membership, discovered a taste for nature and the great outdoor spaces of their city.
It is essential for us to remember here that this project was born thanks to the generosity of our regretted friends Sylviane and Gérard Levy za”l. When Claude Meyer za”l had told them about this activity intended then for the teenagers of Negba, Sylviane and Gérard had immediately agreed to finance the purchase of the bicycles, and to offer them on the occasion of the birthdays of their grandchildren and family marriages. In fact, their daughter Patricia and her husband also took part in the project and offered a good number of bicycles. It is therefore very important for Negba to continue and develop this project, which is so close to our heart.
Thus, as part of the regular and mandatory maintenance, the 26 bicycles, large and small, will be this summer all revised, repaired and prepared for the new school year to come.
