LAUNCESTON Cricket Club’s Bill Glen has recently returned from a fortnight in western Uganda volunteering for the charity, Cricket Without Boundaries.

Bill, 66, travelled to the towns of Kasese and Fort Portal and the city of Kabale, where he and nine other volunteers spent their time coaching cricket as well as getting all-important health and social messages across to children from local schools.

They also visited orphanages, the Ugandan Cricket Association headquarters in the capital Kampala, which allowed them to take in a Uganda Girls Under 15 match, and on their day off, they visited the Queen Elizabeth National Park in the South West of the country.

Bill admitted that the trip was totally worthwhile.

He said: “It was a wonderful opportunity and I’m so glad that I took it on. It was really demanding because we were coaching for two weeks with only one day off but it was hugely rewarding because we coached so many enthusiastic young children.

“We visited three centres in Western Uganda, close to the Rwenzori Mountains and the Democratic Republic of Congo border, coaching at four schools a day for about two hours each and in total between two and 3,000 children.

“We played lots of different cricket games to help put over and reinforce the vital health messages on HIV and AIDS prevention.

“The message was ‘ABCT’ which stands for Abstain, Be faithful, Condom use and Testing.

“Children had the opportunity to be tested for their HIV status. Of the 260 children at all three centres, only three were found to be positive. As well as that, we also held festival competitions where the primary schools played very energetic and competitive games against each other.”

One of the tougher experiences Bill had to deal with was visiting orphanages in Kasese and Fort Portal.

He said: “We visited an orphanage in Kasese where the children’s parents had died from HIV and AIDS. They lived in poor conditions but they were cared for, they went to school and they were safe.

“While we were in Fort Portal we visited an orphanage for children with special needs. There, they are taught skills such as dressmaking and sewing so they could find employment when they’re older.”

Bill found the climate conditions fine with temperatures being manageable and admits that he’d consider doing something similar again in the future.

He said: “I would recommend it to anyone whether you’re a cricketer or not, I’ll definitely think about doing it again. It’s a huge commitment but also extremely worthwhile and I’ve learnt things which I hope to take back to the Junior cricketers at Launceston Cricket Club this summer.

“I met lots of lovely people including a Bermudan and an Aussie, and I was hugely impressed by the dedication of everyone involved volunteering to improve the lives of Ugandan children.”

Bill raised over £2,000 for Cricket Without Boundaries, and thanked everyone who donated so generously to his appeal before he left for Uganda.

To find out more about what the charity do, visit www.cricketwithoutboundaries.com/