MONMOUTH Cricket Club youth coach Liam Stubbs will be heading to eastern Africa in March to help educate local communities through the sport.

Stubbs, a driving force in the border club’s thriving youth set-up, is visiting Uganda with Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB), a UK cricket development and AIDS awareness charity.

Stubbs, who works at Monmouth Comprehensive School, will be using cricket as a vehicle for positive social change in some of Uganda’s poorest communities.

The trip starts on 12th March and will bring together a team of volunteer coaches from various parts of the country.

Stubbs, who turns 46 years old on 24th January, has been collecting donations of old cricket kit and equipment from the Monmouth area and is now hoping people will pledge money towards his fund-raising target of £975.

He has raised funds by holding a quiz night at the Queen’s Head, a match at the club between a CWB XI and Monmouth as well as a parent and child game which featured several mums.  

His work colleagues Emily Blease and Eleanor Jennings have also completed a sponsored parachute jump to raise funds.  

“The placement will help us support local coaches and ambassadors to help children in Uganda make positive health decisions and grow the game of cricket,” said Stubbs, who has been coaching Monmouth under 9s since 2013.  

“Crucially, CWB also uses cricket as a tool in the fight against AIDS. CWB’s training sessions have, at their heart, discussion about the disease in terms of prevention, treatment and equality of treatment.

“It’s estimated that 100,000 people in Uganda currently have HIV and there are also 100,000 AIDS orphans in the country.  

“Helping diagnose HIV and help with treatment can, in some cases, give people a normal life-span despite them suffering with AIDS.”

Since the three CWB trustees set off on an African cricket adventure in 2005, CWB has coached more than 180,000 children, promoting key health messages and inclusiveness in seven African countries.

Stubbs, who hails from Middlesbrough, has also coached at Osbaston Church in Wales School and Monmouth Comprehensive School since 2013.  

He is currently taking his level two coaching course and guided Monmouth under 9s to their most successful campaign last summer with five wins from 10 matches. 

Stubbs said: “The junior shirts are coming out with me on the trip, so there will be a dozen Ugandan children running around with ’Monmouth Youth Cricket’ on their backs later in the year.”

He added: “I want to thank all those who have already handed me unwanted cricket kit and equipment and made other donations towards my trip. I will be working as a volunteer and I am still hoping to raise another couple of hundred pounds before I head out to Uganda.”

Donations will be used towards helping people with HIV and AIDS, provide more information about prevention to remote communities as well as bringing cricket to thousands of children across Uganda.

To support Stubbs’ Ugandan trip in March, visit the website: justgiving.com/Liam-Stubbs1/