This year YCC welcomes Jonathan Sebanja as its overseas player. Jonathan is a fast bowler, and has already taken 18 wickets in just 8 league matches playing for the 1st XI.. He is here representing the Uganda Charity Trust Fund.
If you would like to help cover the costs of Jonathan’s trip or donate to the charity to enable other children to be given the same opportunity, please go to www.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Sebanja. To sponsor a child costs £35 per month and can easily be done through our JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/UCTF/ . If you’d like any further information, either about Jonathan or UCTF, please contact Linda Soames at linda@uctf.org.
Regards
Rob Bartlett
YCC Chairman
Jonathan's Story
Jonathan was just 7 when his father died. Being one of 7 children, his mother was unable to continue paying school fees and so at the age of 9, he was forced to drop out of school. He filled his time by going down to the local tennis club where he earned money as a ball boy. It was here that he met Jaz Karim who had been forced to leave Uganda during the Idi Amin years. Jaz came over to the UK as an exile and continued his education here. Some 26 years later, he returned to Uganda for the first time and was shocked to see how many children were not in school. He undertook to educate 2 boys himself, however, he met Jonathan and offered to pay for his education too. From there the charity grew and to date we have educated more than 600 children and well over 2000 children have benefitted from our holiday camps. The charity strongly believes that the opportunity to play sport is fundamental to a child’s development so as well as undertaking to educate a child from primary school through to tertiary education, all the children are given the opportunity to develop their sporting talents.
It very quickly became apparent that Jonathan was an exception sportsman and played tennis for Uganda’s U16 and U19 team as well as cricket as an U19. He had to make a decision as to which sport he was going to focus on and cricket became his chosen sport. He is currently Uganda’s opening bowler and scored the fastest century in Ugandan history off just 35 balls in a T20 match! When not playing for Uganda, he is coach and captain of the UCTF Charity Team (of which five players are currently representing Uganda U19) and coach to the UCTF Ladies Team too.
Jonathan has come over to the UK to play the season for YCC, hoping to learn and improve on his own game and his coaching skills, to take back to Uganda. He is an incredibly humble young man with a real sense of responsibility. As well as having a young daughter of his own, he has undertaken to support his late sister’s 2 children and has built a house for his mother, which is the family base and often home to 13 family members. Through being offered the scholarship, he has been able to change his own life and that of his family’s and he is appreciative and grateful to UCTF for having been offered that opportunity.
If you would like to help cover the costs of Jonathan’s trip or donate to the charity to enable other children to be given the same opportunity, please go towww.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Sebanja. To sponsor a child costs £35 per month and can easily be done through our JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/UCTF/. If you’d like any further information, either about Jonathan or UCTF, please contact Linda Soames at linda@uctf.org
