FORMER Launceston College schoolteacher, Bill Glen, will travel to western Uganda next month to volunteer for the charity Cricket Without Boundaries.

Bill, who worked at the college from April 1976 to August 2013, and is the secretary and juniors co-ordinator at Launceston Cricket Club, is keen to give something back in his 40th year of coaching the sport.

Cricket Without Boundaries works in five sub-Saharan African countries to deliver cricket development alongside health and social messages. They work on the principle that sport — particularly cricket — is inclusive and accessible for all.

Project work is delivered in two-week blocks by volunteers. These projects are vital for generating interest and excitement in cricket when delivering in new areas, and for sustaining and building on that interest in areas where the cricket is already established. A typical project will include schools and community coaching, coach education, and festival days where cricket skills can be tested and messages reinforced.

Ambassadors then work to maintain momentum between projects, supporting communities in continuing cricket as well as the critical health and social messages.

Health issues tackled by the charity include HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and FGM (female genital mutilation/cutting), which includes procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15. The procedure has no benefit for women or girls.

While he’s out there, Bill along with the nine other volunteers will spend the fortnight in the city of Kabale as well as towns Fort Portal and Kasese, where they’ll teach cricket and important health messages to between 4,000 and 7,000 schoolchildren.

Bill admits that it’s something he’s been interested in for a long time.

He said: “I’ve been following it for quite a while. I’ve got a couple of friends who’ve volunteered for them and I spoke to them about the possibility of doing it. I then had to fill in an application form and have a phone call with the charity about why I’d be suitable for it and thankfully they accepted me, which I think was down to my experience as a coach and the fact that I was a teacher. It’s great that I can get involved and give something back.”

To go on the trip, Bill has had to pay for his own flights, innoculations and visa as well as having to raise £1,000 for the charity.

He said: “I’ve been able to exceed my target already thanks to some great donations from local people while Launceston Cricket Club have also been extremely supportive. However, it’d be great to raise as much as possible for Cricket Without Boundaries, so I’ll be continuing with it until I come back.”

Bill will leave Heathrow Airport on Saturday, March 17, and arrive in the capital Kampala before making his way over to the west of the country where he’ll stay until he arrives back in London exactly a fortnight later.

He said: “Most of the ten-person team who are going are from the South East of the country and it’s led by two women who’ve been out there before. She’ll then talk to the cricket ambassador out there who’ll organise it for us.

“It’s going to be a real challenge coaching and teaching that many children but it should be extremely rewarding. As well as the cricket side of things we’ll be visiting AIDS hospices and orphanages so it’ll be pretty full on. We only get one day off when we’re out there which is the middle Sunday.

“We have to go to Coventry in a couple of weeks for a training weekend where we’ll find out more.”

After being retired for a few years, Bill admits that certain parts of it won’t be easy.

He added: “I’ve been to South Africa and northern Africa before but I’ve never been to central Africa. The temperature in March over there will be around 28 degrees, which isn’t too bad, but the main concerns are going to be mosquitoes. I don’t know what the food and accommodation is going to be like as we’ll find out about that in Coventry. Getting up early in the mornings will take a bit of getting used to, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

To find out more about what Cricket Without Boundaries do, visit www.cricketwithoutboundaries.com, while if you would like to support Bill in any way, email him at [email protected] or visit his Virgin Money Giving page at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/billglencwb