A PROJECT set up to tackle racism in Kirklees is being monitored by the Home Office and may be expanded across the country.

The Interfaith Centres Project, which celebrates its second anniversary next month, was created in March 2004 by members of the Huddersfield and North Kirklees Interfaith Councils.

It aimed to help people from different cultures understand each other's faiths - and focused especially on educating children.

The pilot project is being run through the offices of Kirklees Racial Equality Council.

Waseem Riaz, administration assistant at the Interfaith Centres Project, said: "The concept is to take religious education and teaching out of the classroom and give children a practical experience of faith in everyday life.

"It is interactive and better than children looking at a textbook in their classrooms."

It has been so successful that managers are now looking at running visits designed for professionals - such as police officers, teachers, prison staff and council workers.

The project involved setting up eight `faith centres' in Kirklees.

The centres are existing places of worship belonging to the five main religions prevalent in the area.

There are two Christian centres - the Minster Church of All Saints in Dewsbury and Huddersfield Parish Church.

There are also two Muslim centres - the Hanfia Institute in Lockwood and the Masjid-E-Noor centre in Batley.

The two Sikh centres are both in Huddersfield - the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha temple in Fartown and the Guru Nanak Sangat temple at Springwood.

The Hindu Society of Kirklees and Calderdale, on Zetland Street in Huddersfield, is also a centre.

The Vajrapani Buddhist Centre at Highfields is also on the list.

Schools arrange to visit the centres so that pupils can see how people's faith works in everyday life.

Members of the different faith centres have been trained to give guided tours to pupils.

Depending on the age of the visitors, the guides will deliver a different `learning package'.

There are special packages for infant school pupils, junior school pupils, secondary school pupils and youngsters in post-16 education.

Mr Riaz added: "This project gets to the heart of tackling racism.

"It is because people are ignorant of their neighbour's beliefs and cultures that people from all sides of the community experience racism.

"People do not want to live together simply because they do not understand each other."

For more information about the project, call 01484 540225 or you can visit www.inter faithkirklees.org.uk