Cricket to promote education among Syrian refugees
A UK-based cricket development and HIV/AIDS and FGM awareness charity – Cricket Without Boundaries has taken an initiative to introduce cricket to young Syrian refugees in Jordan. Jordan has been a home to refugees of 60 nationalities most which are from Syria and Iraq.
The project is taking place in Jordan this week and is led by the charity along with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the global development program Right to Play.
Five UK-based volunteers from the charity organization flew out to Jordan last week to work with refugees and the local Jordanian community. Four more volunteers from Jordan and one from Kuwait have joined the CWB volunteers.
The charity organization has spent a decade working across five sub-Saharan African countries while coaching over 250,000 children and delivering health messages on HIV/AIDS and FGM. Over 3,000 coaches have been trained under its surveillance who continue to coach cricket and deliver health and social messages. Its major goal is to promote education for refugees while also expanding the network of the game itself.
Jules Farman, Equality and Inclusion Lead at CWB, said: “Cricket Without Boundaries allows children and young people to put forward their voices through play.”
“With so many refugees now living in Jordan, schools are struggling to cope with the numbers of children in need of an education. Our role will be to use play-based activity to promote and direct children and their families to the support available.
“The work we do at CWB allows children and young people to put forward their voices through play. Working with UNHCR and Right to Play, it will provide a narrative to the refugee crisis that will help build an understanding of the complexities that displaced people and refugees face to a new audience of our wider cricket family and beyond.
“Cricket can break down boundaries and deliver vital messages. We know from our work over the past 10 years in Africa that cricket will help refugees settle into their new homes, get the education they so desperately need and put smiles back on their faces,” he added.
