Due to a $15,433 grant provided by Positive Legacy in 2016 to the Oracabessa Foundation in Saint Mary, Jamaica, the Two Wheels One Love program (TWOL) has completed one more cycle successfully! The 36-week program has seen a total of 200 students from five primary schools being exposed to life skill principles that embody love and forgiveness and taught to safely ride a bike at the Eden Park BMX Track in Jacks River. The program saw a total of 77 non-riders across five primary schools (Free Hill Primary, Boscobel Primary, Oracabessa Primary, Jacks River Primary and Albion Mountain Primary) learning to ride. The program also helped to develop more robust parent-child relationships, the willingness to accept when they are wrong, the ability to express regret and to say that they are sorry. The TWOL students are now more aware of how their actions impact others and are also able to put themselves in another student’s ‘shoes’ instead of immediately judging and condemning another student or turning to violence to solve disputes.

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While many activities bring together youth from various parts of the community, they tend to dissolve into rivalry. The TWOL program creates a “safe haven” where program organizers use the growing interest in BMX biking as a portal to much broader lessons for area youth. Imagine bringing 200 children from 5 schools together to learn and grow side by side, when otherwise they would be seen as rivals?

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The principals of the various schools have also seen how the TWOL program has positively impacted their respective schools.

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Mr. Martin Murphy of the Free Hill Primary and Infant School said the following:
“The TWOL program has had a very positive outcome on our school family. The attendance level of the students in the program has increased, the TWOL students work better with other students, seem less hostile to each other and are more willing to walk away from open confrontations. This program has proven that all the students of the Free Hill Primary School can be better versions of themselves.”

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Mrs. Densa Trail of the Boscobel Primary School commented on the TWOL program:
“The TWOL program has given many students not only the chance to learn to ride but also the opportunity be brave, kind and understanding to others. The spinoff of this is that is that the school is a more positive and welcoming place for students to thrive and to learn in.”

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Based on testimonials from students, principals and observations from the coaches of the program, the students of the TWOL program have accomplished the goal of all riders learning to comfortably negotiate the Eden Park track and learn a better way of dealing with conflict through the life skills taught. Positive Legacy is a proud sponsor of Two Wheels One Love!
For more information on TWOL and the Oracabessa Foundation, visit their website at: http://www.oracabessafoundation.org/