A STEEP Cricket Club coach has combined the sport with a powerful message in Africa.
Jhon Cosgrove taught cricket to around 4,000 youngsters on a two week trip to Rwanda.
And the 35-year-old was also educating the children about AIDS and HIV and its prevention, with other volunteers from the Cricket Without Boundaries charity, a UK-based development and health organisation set up in 2005.
Jhon heard about the charity’s work on BBC’s Test Match Special and knew he had to get involved.
“It seemed right up my street, with the cricket, the travel, the adventure and the good work,” said Jhon, who coaches at Steep Cricket Club.
The AIDS and HIV advice is incorporated into cricket training sessions, and tournaments, with emphasis on the ABCT maxim – Abstain, Be Faithful, Condoms and Testing.
The information given out was tailored to the age of the children, who were aged from around nine to 18 and 19.
“It did seem to get the message across,” said Jhon. “We had children coming up to ask us things, and where they could get condoms. For the older ones it was about having safe sex.”
Jhon and his group went to five different places in Rwanda, with the children always enthusiastic to play cricket.
“They loved the cricket and they all wanted to play. It’s a great sport,” said Jhon. “We would turn up at a school and be told we would have about 50 children, then 200 would come out, and another 200 after the break.”
Keen to promote the work of Cricket Without Boundaries, Jhon hopes to volunteer with the charity again for another trip to Africa.
Visit www.cricketwithoutboundaries.com for more information