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PLAYING TO WIN! THE MAASAI COMMUNITY DETERMINED TO END FGM

Sixteen months after our first visit to the home of the impressive Maasai Cricket Warriors (MCW), Cricket Without Boundaries (CWB) and 28 Too Many were back to Laikipia North; this time joined by two coaches from the Lancashire County Cricket Club Foundations who were eager to learn how the tripartite teams use cricket to educate and campaign on important community issues has worked.

On 19th June a team of seven volunteers from London joined five other volunteers in Kenya and headed North to Laikipia County the rural home of the Maasai. Once again we had a diverse team most of whom were qualified cricket coaches, but among them was a teacher, midwife, social worker, a pro cricket player and a lawyer who all shared their specialised knowledge in making the project a success. This being our second trip up to Laikipia North there was much anticipation to note any progress and/or challenges to our novel project of using cricket coaching to tackle the harmful practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). We were encouraged by the fact that the 2014 DHS report showed a drop in the practice from 28% to 21% in Kenya, but were cautious to note that the practice was still at 78% among the Maasai community.