As spring arrives, I’m sure there’s only one thing on the mind of the average British person…‘the cricket season is starting!’ Maybe not for you?! Either way, the cricket season is well and truly underway in Bujumbura. 

You may have heard of the Street Child Football World Cup, a global initiative which brings together street-connected children from nations around the world for a tournament on an international stage. Furthermore, it gives important visibility to this issue which impacts so many young people around the world.

Now, Street Child United, the charity which organises the tournament is about to launch the second Street Child Cricket World Cup, which will take place in India in September 2023. It’s timed to coincide with the media attention of the professional Cricket World Cup taking place all across India.

GLO Partner New Generation Burundi has always participated in the football world cups. Their teams of street-connected children reached the finals and semi-finals in previous tournaments. So now they plan to take a team to India, and will include girls in the mixed-gender team (previously, only boys have been to the football tournaments). 

One thing they lacked was any decent equipment to play with. Cricket is an unknown sport in Burundi, so folks haven’t grown up living and breathing it the way they have soccer! 

During one of our weekly Zoom prayer meetings, a GLO supporter heard about their needs, and generously gave his time, energy and money to connect with a professional cricketer from his church.

“This cricketer mentioned it to another professional he met at a game they were playing and put me in touch with a supplier who discounted the items.” He then passed them onto us to take to the team – and it’s wonderful to see the young boys and girls at New Generation having a great time honing their batting and bowling skills in preparation for this trip-of-a-lifetime! 

Continued below.

Teams from 16 countries will travel to Chennai to compete. As well as playing cricket themselves, they’ll get to meet some of the professionals. There will also be sessions focused on advocacy with influential people, as well as art sessions to enable the young people to express themselves and share their experiences. 

Sport is an important part of life at New Generation. When young people are living on the streets, it’s usually having a kickabout that gives the outreach team a chance to build relationships with them. Having played together, they usually have a time of encouragement, and then provide lunch. Through these regular outreaches, the team evaluate which street-connected children might best fit into the limited spaces they have on their rehabilitation programme.

We hope you’ll be cheering on Burundi come September!