A DOZEN Palestinian students will visit Pendle this weekend as one of the first visits since the borough twinned with the town of Beit Leed.

The students will work with 12 UK students on a project to improve links between the two areas.

They will work together for four days, learning about each other and their homes, as part of a scheme to build a website to help communications between students in the UK and Palestine.

After their time in Pendle, the students continue the project in London.

Richard MacSween, chair of the twinning group, said: “This is an ambitious project for us which is much bigger than anything we’ve done before.

“The fact that it’s happening is down to the generosity of local people who are voluntarily meeting the cost, as we receive no public funding.”

On Tuesday evening, the public will get the chance to find out more about the project when the students involved are at the Ace Centre, Nelson.

Richard said: “This will be an opportunity for people from Pendle to share their experiences and have some input into the website. But this will also be a great way of finding out what life’s like in Palestine, so we hope people come along.”

The student project follows the recent confirmation of the twinning between Pendle and the Palestinian town of Beit Leed.

Richard said: “It’s great to see that Pendle Council is serious about the decision to twin.

“We are grateful to all those people, including Pendle councillors of course, who support this twinning and can see the benefits it will bring.”

The Palestine/UK Student Project: Meet our Visitors event is at the ACE Centre on Tuesday from 7pm to 10pm and entry is free.