The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) has joined with the United Nations Children Educational Fund (UNICEF) in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and it is the third local sporting body to do so.

The GCB has joined the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) in partnering with UNICEF and the Ministries of Health, Education and Human Services respectively in the fight to eradicate the deadly disease.

At a simple ceremony held in the boardroom of UNICEF yesterday, Johannes Wedenig, UNICEF area representative for Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, told those gathered including president of the GCB, Chetram Singh, along with the three county cricket board presidents Alvin Johnson, Essequibo and Malcolm Peters (Berbice) and Harold Dhanraj, Demerara, how delighted he was that the GCB saw it fit to join hands with UNICEF in this fight.

“Bowling out HIV/AIDS, Coaching for a better lifestyle” began at Cricket World Cup 2007 and I am pleased to see that it has not remained there, but has been moving on rapidly. We, at UNICEF, will be plugging over G$10m into this project over a three-month period. We know it will be a success story in this the pilot stage of this project and would love to see other sporting organizations coming on board in this fight.”

Singh highlighted how pleased he was to be a part of this historical partnership between the two bodies and gave his assurance that the financial support given by UNICEF would go a long way in a fight that is already in progress by the GCB and its area boards.

“This partnership started about 18 months ago and we at the GCB had undertaken to continue this fight. Now with the input of UNICEF, the fight can go a long way. In our projects, we are not only teaching cricket and its ethnic values, but also HIV/AIDS awareness for we know how important it is to keep up the fight against the disease,” Singh stated.

Essequibo Cricket, Dem-erara Cricket and Berbice Cricket Boards will be receiving G$3.5m, G$3.2m and G$2.6m respectively in terms of gear and kind towards this project, to which the respective presidents were required to sign an agreement.