I’m off to Africa! I’m travelling as a volunteer for the charity Cricket without Boundaries (quite similar to the charity I founded/chair in the UK – Belvoir Castle Cricket Trust). I’m not sure that Uganda’s children are ready for my very limited cricketing skills – but I hope I can help.

The last time I was in Africa was nearly 20 years ago. I travelled with the Manchester United team as a sports photographer. I photographed the players in Soweto and meeting with Nelson Mandela. Looking through the photos I took – it’s quite a coincidence that Ryan & Nelson are in the headlines this week.

I am looking forward to going back – and this time helping (as well as recording with my camera).

Cricket without Boundaries (CWB) started in 2005, when the three founders went from Egypt to South Africa coaching cricket as they travelled. CWB has become one of the world’s leading cricket development and AIDS awareness charity – and now works with the ThinkWise project (which includes the likes of the ICC, UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI). It is dedicated to helping education and development in local communities around the world through the spread and growth of cricket. The charity works to spread cricket through coaching children and teaching adults how to coach and link the sport to HIV/AIDS awareness incorporating these messages into coaching sessions.

We are a group of 10 – with 6 of the volunteers coming from Belvoir Castle Cricket Trust. They include our Trust Director, Darren Bicknell (ex-Nottinghamshire and Surrey), some parents whose children have benefitted from BCCT’s work in the Vale and a couple of our volunteer coaches. It’s very special that the work that we started in the rural Vale of Belvoir will be extended to the villages and schools of Uganda.

You can follow our progress over the next 3 weeks on the CWB Uganda 2012 blog. I will be writing a diary and uploading pictures daily (starting from our arrival on Monday).

If you want to help the work that CWB is doing, please contribute to the project’s Just Giving page.