YOUTH workers from Pakistan visited Blackburn to learn more about services for young people in the UK.

In the first leg of an exchange visit,10 members of youth development projects from across Pakistan spent two days with award-winning young people's community group Blackburn Youth Action.

They will also visit youth projects in Bradford tomorrow as part of the trip, set up by the government's cultural exchange and education organisation, the British Council, in Pakistan.

As well as taking part in workshops and seminars with councillors, Blackburn College lecturers and councillors, the guests were taken ten-pin bowling, visited Blackburn Museum and had a tour of the cathedral.

The visit was planned for more than a year, and the two groups had exchanged ideas through video-conferencing.

Blackburn Youth Action will make a return visit later in the year, and youth development manager Amir Akber said he hoped the international partnership would continue to grow stronger.

The visitors said they faced major funding problems for their projects, with almost no money available from the government for youth work.

Shaehzadi Mehwish Geet Soomro, 24, a member of an all-female youth forum in Sindh, Pakistan, said her project aimed to empower young women with training centres to teach literacy and job skills.

She said: "There are a lot of difficulties, especially for girls and women and they aren't able to go out a lot. We set this up for women who want to make more of their lives.

"We were very happy to come here - it's our first visit to the UK and the people here are very friendly.

"It's a very good experience for me and when I go back to Pakistan I want to use my experiences here to improve the group there. It's been great to see all the work being done here and learn some new ways of doing things."

Mr Akber, from Blackburn Youth Action, said: "This is the first visit of its kind and the party is only coming here and to Bradford, so this shows that our project is flourishing both locally and on the international stage.

"It's a two-way learning process and I'm looking forward to developing it further in the future."