There are many positives which can be gained from this nation’s youth being involved in mentorship programmes and other forms of positive interaction. This was the message delivered to five of West Indies’ young cricketers learnt recently, when visiting the Nightengale Children’s Home just prior to the start of the 3rd test match versus New Zealand.

Barbadians Kemar Roach, Jason Holder, Kirk Edwards and Kraigg Brathwaite, along with Leon Johnson from Guyana, visited the Black Rock institution to interact with the kids and learn more about the programmes, with a view to seeing how they, particularly the four local boys, could get more involved with the young residents and assist in their development.

Organized by Digicel Barbados, the cricketers were taken on a tour of the facility by Child Care Officer, Julia Davis, where they were introduced to residents and staff present, including those at the Violet Gittens Centre for Special Needs.

Marketing Executive with Digicel (Barbados) Limited, Randy Howard, stated that the visit is part of Digicel’s ongoing commitment to bringing its regional cricketing stars closer to the local youth, in an effort to positively influence the lives of the latter.

“For the last few years we have engaged the West Indies players in a number of programmes where they can positively impact the lives of our youth. Over the last two years we gave local under-13 and under-15 cricketers the opportunity to participate in training sessions with several of the regional stars while on tour, but on this occasion we thought we would extend this interaction to a wider audience. I know this experience opened the eyes of the players to areas where they could look to make a greater impact and it is our intention to work with the Nightengale home to develop programmes where the players can hopefully get involved in the future.”