This project brings together two South Africa partners, one from health promotion (Ezintsha) and one from cricket (Northerns Cricket Union), with UK-based organisation Cricket Without Boundaries acting as the bridge between the two.
Ezintsha (Wits RHI)
Ezintsha is a group of South African academics and health professionals who work with partners around the world. Ezintsha applies new technology to health-related problems and works to extend access to effective drugs so that quality health care and medicine is available to everyone. Ezintsha is a newly formed sub-division of Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute, which is part of the University of the Witwatersrand, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Key to achieving their outcomes are collaboration and capacity building, and this project is a reflection of that.
Ezintsha are providing the capacity building expertise to train community cricket coaches in how to raise awareness of HIV Self-Screening, as well as providing access to HIV Self-Screening kits at two cricket festivals linked to the project.
Northerns Cricket Union
Northerns Cricket Operations is the custodian of all cricket programs in Tshwane. Their aim is to develop high quality, sustainable programs which will allow opportunities for everyone to enter, develop and grow to the best of his/her potential, in all spheres of the game.
Northerns Cricket Union’s community cricket programme includes the development of hubs of activity in all parts of Tshwane, including those with limited cricket facilities. The coaches who will be working on this programme are all involved in cricket in Hammanskraal and Mamelodi. Northerns’ infrastructure and mobilization capacity are the frameworks on which the project operates, while the HIV education component aligns to their whole-player approach, which aims to develop and grow player in all spheres of the game, including health and life skills.
Cricket Without Boundaries
Cricket Without Boundaries has 3 goals:
- Empower communities
- Coach children and train adults
- Link the game to messages and action on health and social issues
They work in partnership with local delivery partners: cricket associations, foundations and sport for development organisations, so their work fits alongside and supports existing sports structures, growing the game and ensuring sustainability.
In this project, Cricket Without Boundaries will be developing cricket coaching materials based on information and materials provided by Ezintsha, facilitating workshops involving coaches from Northerns Cricket Union and community educators from Ezintsha, and providing advice, mentoring and support for coaches and the partner organisations when developing and implementing the coaching and festivals following the workshops.
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