Russians get a little help

7:00pm Thursday 11th May 2006

A DELEGATION of Russian diplomats has visited East Lancashire in a bid to learn about successful youth projects in the area.

The five high-ranking visitors from the Ministry of Education and Science were on a fact-finding mission and held meetings with the East Lancs Together (ELT) group, based in Accrington's Globe Centre.

It was a real honour and a privilege that they wanted to talk to us

anayat mohammad

Anayat Mohammad from ELT said the meetings saw the Russians asking about the work the group has completed to aid community relations across the region, particularly among the young.

He said: "The Russian officials said that they have always found it difficult to bring together the different ethnic groups across their country and they asked us a lot of questions about the work we do."

ELT was created by the Home Office in 2003 as a reaction to the 2001 Burnley riots.

Mr Mohammed added: "It was a real honour and a privilege that they wanted to talk to us and hear about how we are dealing with improving relations between young people from different communities in East Lancashire.

"It was an initial meeting and we expect to meet with them again in the future to discuss our work in more detail."

Among the topics of discussion were the success of the local youth councils and the anti-racism work with local football clubs.

The ELT has also been involved with local youth associations, arts teams and community festivals.

One of the delegation was Anton Loopukhin, a senior advisor to the Russian government and also president of the Association of Young Leaders of Russia.

He said the diplomats are hoping to develop a Youth Strategy for the Russian Federation. Their four-day visit to England was organised by the University of Central Lancashire.

Ian McHugh, director of ELT, added: "We were very pleased to have the opportunity to learn from our visitors and share with them some of our experience at East Lancs Together.

"I hope we gave our guests a fuller picture of all the valuable work that has been going on locally to improve relationships between young people from different communities and backgrounds."