03 Nov 2013

Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB), a non-profit making organisation, is on a mission to sensitise youth on HIV and AIDS pandemic issues through the use of cricket.

In an interview, coordinator of the programme and a volunteer from Canada, Paul Juckett explained that through cricket, a sport which is not that physical, they train and educate mainly primary school students on issues of health with particular focus on HIV and AIDS.

Juckett noted that often people made choices that they ended up regretting because of lack of information and knowledge on issues. 

He said it was for such reasons that they often did research on issues affecting people and arranged programmes that would enlighten people on such issues.

He said they were targeting young children to sensitise them so that when they grow up, they already have the understanding of factors that lead to the HIV and AIDS disease.

The coordinator highlighted that they had trained 800 students from five primary schools in the seven days they had been in Francistown and its surroundings.

He added that as a way of enhancing and equipping teachers with cricket coaching skills, they had also trained 26 teacher coaches who will continue with the training programme even after they have left. 

Juckett further mentioned that they usually came twice in a year, with the first visit being to introduce the programme and provide training as well as giving the necessary equipment that will help coaches to train the students. 

On their follow up visit, he said they would be making round ups of the schools they have trained to get feedback on their needs and challenges and make reports to the funding trusts.

In addition, he pointed out that because their main focus was to spread awareness messages on issues of HIV and AIDS, they were always looking forward to researching on factors that lead to the spread of the pandemic. 

This year, they were focusing on encouraging people to go for testing and due to the success rate, they were now planning on pursuing another high rated factor being alcohol and drug abuse since it has been often regardedas another factor that lead to the spread of the virus. Ends