The youngest Councillor in Cumbernauld is among a group of ten young Christians and Muslims from across Scotland spending a week in Rwanda learning to build relationships across different races, religions and cultures.
Junaid Ashraf, Cumbernauld South councillor and an engineering student at the University of Glasgow, said: “All the participants come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds and the breadth of practiced religious diversity amongst both the faith groups I really think will make for a very interesting programme abroad.”
The Youth Leaders Programme was created by the Church of Scotland and Interfaith Scotland, and aims to educate them about the challenges facing each country and how faith groups are working together for peace.
While in the East African country, they will meet Christian and Muslim leaders, visit the Rwanda genocide memorial, spend a night with a host family and look at how Rwanda copes with the 160,000 refugees from other countries who have taken sanctuary there.