Fact-finding trip to Pakistan

OFF to Pakistan . . . the young people and trip leaders

A GROUP of young Oldhamers are preparing to fly out to Pakistan on Monday on a week-long fact-finding mission.

The 19 to 25-year-olds who live, study or work in the borough are visiting Mirpur and Chakswari in Azad Kashmir to look at the community work their counterparts there are involved in.

They will then bring back ideas for their own projects here, while a return visit to Oldham will also take place next month.

The trip is funded by the British Council as part of its Active Citizens programme which gets young people to set up projects people want, and will get involved in, both in their local community and abroad.

A total of 15 people are going to Pakistan including University of Central Lancashire student Sinqobile Nxumalo (36) from Hathershaw. She said “I am very excited. I am looking forward to seeing how their projects are going compared to ours, what we can learn from them and their culture.

“I have never been to Pakistan before. I have always lived in the Asian community in Oldham so it will be nice to see how they live there.

“As a human rights students, I am also interested in that subject, especially women’s and children’s issues.”

Oldham’s Active Citizens project is one of a handful in the North-West. It is run by Voluntary Action Oldham which has linked up with University Campus Oldham (UCO), the charity Peacemaker and Positive Steps Oldham which provides a range of services for young people and adults.

As well as learning new individual and team skills, other aims are to improve communication, increase awareness of different cultures, provide a stronger sense of identity and help people to understand how their decisions impact on others.

Oldham already has links with Mirpur through the British Council’s school linking programme, Connecting Classrooms, while many people in the borough come from, or have family, in the area.

Last month Tim Wallis, senior lecturer in health and community at UCO, attended the Pan Asian Youth Symposium in Islamabad with Marium Saba (20) from Hathershaw and Joseph Walker (22) from New Moston.

It showcased Active Citizens projects from numeracy and literacy work in villages in Burma to raising awareness of the impact of early marriage on health in rural Pakistan.

There was also the opportunity to visit community projects in Mirpur and Chakswari.