The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and UNICEF staged their training of trainers workshop with 24 of the targeted 28 trainees drawn from all 14 parishes across the island.

Robert Dabney, Jr conducted the all-day training session at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston recently. The child protection in youth cricket was done under the Fair Play Initiative as a part of the MOU signed between WICB and UNICEF.

The trainers will be responsible for training over 398 coaches and physical education teachers in 200 prep and primary schools in Jamaica in 2016. Many of the trainees hail from the Child Development Agency (CDA).

During the opening ceremony Courtney Francis, CEO of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), who represented president Billy Heaven, welcomed the programme and said that it will have long-term effects for the country and the sport of cricket.

Mrs Lone Hvass of UNICEF Jamaica said that she was happy for the partnership with WICB to deliver a most-needed programme for the safety and well being of our children.

Mrs Audrey Budhi, director of programmes of the CDA, said that she was happy for the training of the trainers who will become the standard-bearers for taking the message across the island. She said that using sport, and specifically cricket, as the vehicle to carry the message is commendable. She commended the WICB and UNICEF for spearheading the initiative.

The training session covered a basic understanding of children’s rights, examples of child abuse in various forms such as sexual, mental, physical, verbal-including, racial and internet based (cyber) bullying. It also dealt with how to conduct the training sessions while paying attention to the different learning styles. There were also group activities and extensive discussions on various topics relating to the subject matter.

During the presentation Dabney said that the WICB was committed to ensuring that every child can participate in the game without being abused. Each trainee was given a ‘Fair Play’ coaching manual.

Michael Coward, who summed up the response of the trainees, said “We are absolutely delighted to be a part of this training session because it is important for us to garner the information so that we can reach the coaches in all the different levels at the high school, the primary school and the preparatory schools. It is important because sports is important in Jamaica and where there are sports there are always children and as such were are delighted to be a part of such a wonderful training session.”

He also said that he learnt a lot in the session and was looking forward to taking the knowledge to the coaches in his parish.

Khushyial J Singh, the senior project officer at the WICB, and Phillip Service, the organisation’s local cricket development officer, were the main organisers of the seminar.

Singh said “Today is a very, very special day for us as we partner with UNICEF Jamaica to start our plans for the roll-out of the Fair Play Initiative here in the 14 parishes across Jamaica. We had the training of trainers today which marks our beginning of the roll-out. It was very successful. It would be remiss of me not to thank the CDA who are the workhorses here in Jamaica when it comes to child protection.”

Going forward, anyone who wishes to be trained to coach children will have to first graduate from the child protection in cricket programme, have a valid police certificate and a first-aid certificate. The trainees will begin training the coaches across the island in February of next year.