After last year's successful CWB visit Grant returned
to Uganda as team leader in February 2014.
A photo and a few words from Grant when in Uganda: "The Team at Arua Girls Secondary, all going well, hard work but
oh so rewarding."
The dates of the trip were 23th February to 9th March 2014 and as a volunteer Grant had to raise a minimum of £1500
to cover the project costs.
Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) is a UK cricket development and AIDS awareness charity. It is run almost entirely by
the dedication and enthusiasm of its volunteers. Since its formation in 2005 CWB has become one of the world's leading
Cricket Development and AIDS awareness charities. It is dedicated to helping, educating and developing local
communities around the world through the spread and growth of cricket. It is about personal empowerment, both
for adults and for children.
Working primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa it has sent projects to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana
and Namibia. In the process CWB has coached tens of thousands of children in some of the poorest communities in the
world as well as training several thousand adults to become ICC qualified cricket coaches. CWB is committed to taking
the game of cricket to a new generation of coaches and children in Africa, as well as supporting existing cricket
development.
The charity has two main goals:
(i) To spread cricket through coaching children and teaching adults how to coach; and
(ii) Linking the sport to HIV/AIDS awareness and incorporating these messages into every day coaching sessions.
Working in partnership with the National Cricket Associations in each country, the relevant British High Commissions
and the ICC, CWB follows a simple, 3 stage sports development structure to try to ensure some form of sustained
development of the game: 1) Coach education; 2) Schools coaching, and 3) Tournament.
However, CWB is not just about sustainable cricket development. Of equal importance to the charity is the use of cricket
as a tool in the fight against the modern plague that is HIV/AIDS. In an area of the world where almost 25 million people
are living with HIV/AIDS and around 2.7 million adults and children are infected each year, we cannot ignore the
opportunity to combine sport with clear health messages for both coaches and youngsters.
CWB's training sessions involve discussion and practical demonstrations of simple cricket and non-cricket related drills
that deal with HIV/AIDS, both in terms of prevention and treatment. But it is not just about staying healthy, it is also
about ensuring equality of treatment for those with the disease. Stigma is a huge challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. That
is why CWB sessions are about inclusiveness for all people, whatever their status.
To read Grant's "Tales from Uganda" click here