WICB, UNICEF launch Fair Play

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and UNICEF re-established its partnership in Kingston, Jamaica recently when they launched the training of trainers’ workshop on Wednesday 2nd December 2015 for child protection in youth cricket programmes.

The programme is under the Fair Play Initiative and is part of an MOU signed by the WICB and UNICEF Jamaica.

The programme seeks to make Physical Education specialists and coaches around the region more aware of what is required of our cricket coaches and wider cricket communities on the subject of child protection and abuse, in fifteen (15) countries across the region.

Project Officer KJ Singh, in reiterating the WICB’s position said “…in the 2015-2017 strategic plan to strengthen youth development cricket in the WICB member territories, the revamp of the region’s schools’ cricket and coaching education programmes are two areas high on the agenda.

The plan between the 2015-2017 periods is focused on restoring and increasing the contact time of cricket in our primary and secondary school systems, and we are cognizant that this will in turn demand an increased number of qualified coaches who can effectively administer the game in a fun, safe and abuse-free environment.”

In Jamaica, the partnering agencies involved with the rollout of the initiative’s parish based workshops are the Child Development Agency (CDA), the Social Development Commission (SDC) and the Jamaica Cricket Association.

The training, aimed at just under 400 participants in Jamaica will start in February 2016. The participants will come from primary and prep schools across the 14 parishes.

The countries being impacted from the Fair Play Initiative regionally include Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Montserrat, US Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands.

To date, 627 physical education officers and school volunteers across the 15 countries mentioned above have been trained as part of the Fair Play child protection initiative, through workshops and material (Fair Play Manual, Fair Play Brochure and Fair Play Training Video) on child protection geared toward cricket coaches.

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