North-South Cooperation:

The enthusiasm of the young cricketers was wonderful

British Charity undertakes to vulgarize cricket  in Cameroon

- Ambassadors from the British Charity Organization- Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) are currently in Cameroon where they will for two weeks teach cricket and provide HIV/AIDS messages in schools. They will also donate cricket equipment to the Cameroon Cricket Federation, Fecacricket.

By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde

In what many have described as a wonderful instance of North-South cooperation, a team of volunteers from the British Charity Organization, Cricket without Boundaries-CWB are in Cameroon to help spread cricket awareness in the country.

                The team comprising five persons will during their two-week stay here (from 17th to 31st October 2015) work in synergy with the Cameroon cricket federation-Fecacricket to vulgarize cricket in primary and secondary schools in Yaounde in the Centre region and Buea in the South West region.

                Working within the framework of their fifth partnership with Fecacricket, the CWB volunteers will alongside some eight Cameroonian cricket coaches, visit some pilot schools where they would coach cricket to pupils and students and also teach head teachers how to coach cricket.

                Apart from just cricket, the visiting volunteers will also provide the students and teachers with messages on HIV/AIDS prevention this, by incorporating HIV/AIDS awareness messages in all the lessons and events organized.

                “We have projects in five countries in Africa including Cameroon where we coach cricket in schools and also provide health lessons with respect to HIV/AIDS,” said Tracy, a CWB volunteer, who added: “we are here to also see how our various messages have been advanced; we want to make sure our partnership with the Cameroon Cricket Federation is sustainable; we want to make sure when we live Cameroon our ambassadors here will continue teaching cricket and providing the HIV messages in schools.”

                After spending one week coaching cricket and dispensing HIV/AIDS lessons in schools in Yaounde, the British volunteers and their Cameroonian counterparts on Thursday 23 October 2015 were resource persons at a ‘joint schools cricket festival at the LyceeBilingued’Essos play ground here.  The festival brought together students and pupils from all the schools that they visited, to communion together and share experiences with their counterparts of other schools, as the cricket way of doing things demands.

                The festival was also occasion for the volunteers and coaches to appreciate the enthusiasm in the students and also decipher whether or not the messages on HIV/AIDS are well received.

                “After spending one week teaching cricket and giving lessons on HIV prevention to head teachers and pupils and students in different schools in Yaounde, it is only normal that we bring these young cricketers together to know themselves, play together, feast together and share awareness on cricket and HIV/AIDS.,” said the president of the Cameroon Cricket Federation, Victor AgborNso.

                Victor Agbor noted with discernible joy that apart fro teaching cricket, the British partners have also provided a big package of cricket equipment including wooden bats, balls, sheen and sex pads etc that would be used in continuing the development of cricket in schools in Cameroon.

                “With the equipment we have received from CWB we will be able to sustain our development of cricket here and also continue our Cricket-at-school initiative,” Victor said, noting how wonderful successive Fecacricket/CWB partnerships and projects have been and how widespread cricket has become in Cameroon, with over 40 schools and over 8.000 Cameroonians now playing the sport.

                After Yaounde last week, the CWB volunteers on Friday travelled to the South West region where they will continue coaching cricket and providing HIV/AIDS messages to students in selected schools from Monday 26th to Thursday 29th. The CWB team will crown their stay with a Joint Schools Cricket Jamboree at the Buea Town Green on Friday 31st October 2015.

                “We have a good working relationship with the Cameroon Cricket Federation and we have always had a good reception from the Cameroonian Public. Because of this we are encouraged to always come back and see how the various messages and lessons we provide have been advanced. You know sustainability is very important. We want this project to be sustainable in Cameroon,” concluded Lady Tracy.

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CWB/Fecacricket partnership is wonderful

-Victor AgborNso, President of Fecacricket

This cricket festival is the culmination of one week of training that Cricket Without Boundaries has provided in Cameroon. The volunteers have gone to over six schools in Yaounde where they trained both the teachers and the students on how to play cricket and also provide messages on HIV/AIDS awareness. Today it was only but normal that all these young cricketers are brought together, as the cricket way of doing things demands, so that they can know themselves, play cricket together, feast together and also share ideas on how to prevent HIV/AIDS. It is important to mention that Cricket Without Boundaries has also provided equipment that will permit us to sustain the game here when they would be gone. We have received wooden cricket bats, balls, protective materials like sheen pads, sex pads as well as helmets.

                These will help us in no small way to continue developing cricket here and also sustain the cricket-at-school initiative. I must also add that this 5th partnership with CWB is a coronation of the first four partnerships. Thanks to these partnerships, cricket is growing in crescendo here. The enthusiasm of the youths is also growing. I should say the balance sheet of our partnership with CWB is quite positive so far, and we can only be happy and proud about it