The Santos Love Cricket programme was announced as the winner of the SP Sports Award community sports initiative category this year during the 2023 SP Awards night in Port Moresby last week.
The programme is managed by Cricket PNG after it was launched in 2022. Initially rolled out in three provinces: NCD, Central, and Gulf, the programme was designed to help children develop personal skills and promote positive behaviours through the sports of Cricket.
In receiving the award, Margaret Sibona, Game Development Manager of Cricket PNG, attributed the milestone achievement to Santos through OSF in collaboration with Cricket PNG for initiating the programme, which has widely drawn interest and participation from the three provinces that the programme has worked in.
“We truly deserve the Award because the curriculums being taught in the programme target how the community can address violence and particularly how children can deal with the three main forms of violence: mental, verbal, and physical. We are glad our curriculums are in alignment with the SP Sports Award theme for this year: Make A Difference. Stop the Violence,” Sibona said proudly.
According to Sibona, the Santos Love Cricket programme has reached many schoolchildren in the three provinces who do not know how to play the sport, and from the initial visits, many children and parents were impressed by the different components of the programme, resulting in a good number of them registering their interest in participate.
Santos funded OSF’s Chief Operating Officer, David O’Farrell thanked Cricket PNG for the great partnership developed with the Foundation.
“We value this partnership and the Love Cricket programme as it reaches out to children to develop valuable life skills using sports as a medium.”
Meanwhile, OSF and Cricket PNG have just signed off the second phase of the Love Cricket programme which will be implemented in Gulf Province in the second half of 2023.
Background
Since its inception in 2022, the Santos Love Cricket programme has been conducted in three provinces: Central, NCD, and Gulf. Twelve (12) schools participated in these three provinces.
A total of 1307 students were involved, of whom 634 were male and 673 were female.
OSF invested PGK100,000 towards this programme, with some investment provided some years earlier to support the procurement of cricket equipment that was later distributed as part of the Love Cricket programme.
The cricket programme comprises six (6) modules offering the fundamentals of cricket involving catching, striking, throwing, and engaging in modified games.
Pictured: Santos Love Cricket programme’s Quanaki facilitating a batting session at Sikalu Primary School in Gulf Province.
