Walsh Foundation, UK Gov't team up...Bodies helping juveniles in correctional institutions under 'Cricket For Change' programme

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

The soon-to-be officially launched Courtney Walsh Foun-dation is currently partnering with the British High Commission, the Ministry of Security and the Department of Corrections to help juveniles in some of the island's correctional centres.

The foundation, which has three pillars of existence, is currently conducting a three-month cricket clinic as a way of empowering inmates at the Rio Cobre Juvenile Correction Centre in St Catherine and according to the foundation's director of programmes, Brian Breese, they are delighted with the response thus far.

"One of the aims of the foundation is to use cricket to help young people and eventually adults, who have committed an offence and need help with their rehabilitation," said Breese, whose organisation on Tuesday night received $7 million towards the venture from the United Kingdom government, via the Department For International Development (DFID).

"Another is to help those who are living under depressed conditions in volatile communties, and third, to work with the disabled - the blind, those in wheelchairs, the physically, hearing and learning impaired (those with an IQ less than 70)," he added.

Pilot programme

The Rio Cobre programme, according to Breese, is being used to pilot the Walsh Foundation, which will be launched on Friday, November 20. It is being conducted by Robert Samuels and Mikey Thompson of the United Kingdom-based 'Cricket for Change' of which the Walsh Foundation, in the main, is modelling its activities.

Thompson is on a three-month secondment from the UK-based institution.

"After working with the juveniles we plan to work with inmates at the St Catherine District Prison and Tower Street Correctional Center, before turning our attention to children in communities in Kingston and Montego Bay," Breese said.