The Duchess of Rutland is to join Cricket Without Boundaries for its upcoming project in Rwanda.
Her Grace will play a full part in the trip; coaching children in schools and orphanages, training new coaches and delivering vital HIV/AIDS awareness messages.
Emma is volunteering as part of CWB's ongoing relationship with The Belvoir Trust – a cricket charity of which she is patron. The link between the two organisations saw a team from the Trust – including ex-First Class cricketer Darren Bicknell – visit Uganda with CWB in 2012.
The Duchess will link up with eight other volunteers for the first week of the 14 day project which runs from March 2-16. Her Grace will deliver coaching sessions in schools around the capital Kigali and visit the Rwanda Orphans Project, an orphanage that cares for more than 100 boys aged 5-18 who used to live on the streets. She will also take a tour of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre – a museum and memorial set up as a lasting reminder of the atrocities carried out during the Rwandan civil war of the early to mid 1990s. The Centre is built on a site where over 250,000 genocide victims are buried and was founded by brothers Dr James and Dr Stephen Smith who are originally from Newark, just 15miles from the Duchess' Belvoir Castle home.
CWB trustee Ed Williams said: "CWB are delighted that Emma is joining us in a project to Rwanda. Her interest in Cricket is well known through her patronage of the Belvoir Cricket Trust, and this visit will further strengthen the relationship we have forged with them. Emma will be undertaking the entire volunteer experience, coaching teachers, children and delivering the HIV / Aids awareness messages that are a vital part of the CWB method."