FORMER Forester reporter Luke Sellers has just returned from a two week trip to Kenya with the cricket development and HIV/AIDS awareness charity Cricket Without Boundaries.

During an inspiring and emotional fortnight Luke – who is a level three coach and ECB tutor – teamed-up with six other volunteers to visit 16 schools and orphanages, coach more than 3,000 children and train 56 new coaches.

Here, Luke, who is originally from Aylburton, recalls his experiences.

"Within hours of arriving in Kenya we were already hard at work at an orphanage in Nakuru, the country's fourth largest city and our base for the first week.

Coaching around 100 children under the age of eight in a cramped and uneven yard, the joyous, fun-filled session set the tone for an incredible trip that took me from inner-city slums to the remote rural area of Laikipia.

Cricket Without Boundaries believes in cricket development as a tool, not only to bring joy to thousands of children but as a valuable weapon in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic that grips much of central Africa.

Before going on the trip I was dubious as to the impact that a sport often associated with posh blokes in white clothing could have against a disease that threatens the lives of millions of people, but what I saw really did convince me of the power of sport to change lives.

In Kenya an estimated 1.5 million people live with HIV/AIDS and 1.2 million children have been orphaned by it. During the trip I came face-to-face with the shocking effects of the epidemic, coaching children who are HIV Positive and speaking to a teacher in Nakuru who had recently lost two pupils to the disease.

As heartbreaking as this was, we also saw huge cause for optimism – from the seas of smiling children chanting the HIV/AIDS messages at the end of our coaching sessions, to the stories we heard first hand from teachers.

One told me how girls and boys playing cricket together – something CWB insists on – has empowered women and lowered teenage pregnancy. And many others told me that when the HIV/AIDS messages of Abstain, Be Faithful, Protect Yourself and Test are incorporated into cricket coaching the children remember them far better than in the classroom.

On our last full day in Africa we experienced something that really did underline the power the sport has to make a difference. At a festival for local schools in the remote area of Laikipia, CWB arranged for three voluntary HIV/AIDS testing tents to be put up alongside the pitches. The result was remarkable, with around 100 people – mainly schoolchildren – getting tested, compared to an average of around two or three on a normal day, something that local nurses put down to reducing the stigma around testing.

The two weeks I spent in Kenya was one of the most powerful, moving and inspiring experiences I have ever had."

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