BCB Patron’s Fund social skills seminar starts on Saturday

…20+ youths to receive funds under Patron’s Educational Grant

The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) will, on Saturday November 6, be hosting the first of four social skills seminars for a combined 160 youths across the proverbial Ancient County. This first seminar would be held at the New Amsterdam Secondary School and would be declared open by the BCB Patron, the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, and BCB President Hilbert Foster.

Some 42 youths drawn from the New Amsterdam/Canje area would attend the seminar, which would be conducted by graduate students of the Social Work Programme of the University of Guyana Tain Campus, and by other qualified personnel.
Foster has said the seminars are the brainchild of the BCB Patron Vickram Bharrat, who said he wants the county to produce players of the highest calibre on and off the cricket field.
Among the topics that would be discussed are public speaking, table manners, basic mannerisms and etiquette, balancing sports and education, problem management/conflict resolution, leadership, team building, and mental health.
Participants of the first seminar would be drawn from the following cricket clubs: Edinburgh, Mt Sinai, Tucber Park, East Bank Blazers, Guymine, Rose Hall Canje and the Kendall’s Union.

Foster has disclosed that similar seminars would be held for youths in three other areas – West Berbice, on November 13 at the Fort Wellington Secondary School; Upper Corentyne, on November 20th at the Skeldon Community Centre; and for the Lower Corentyne, on November 27th at the Albion Community Centre.
These seminars would be followed by a one-day mini cricket academy in each of the sub-associations on the day immediately following the seminar. Those academies would be held at Rose Hall Canje, Cotton Tree, Skeldon, and Albion respectively, and would be conducted by a battery of cricket coaches, which includes Winston Smith, Leslie Soloman, Julian Moore, Balram Samaroo and Travis Hardcourt.
During the seminars, the BCB would be handing over educational grants to 5 students in each sub-association under the BCB Patron’s Fund. The BCB has, over the last four years, placed much emphasis on the promotion of education among its players, and hundreds of youths have benefited over from grants and donations of educational materials, school bags and cycles.