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The Anne Frank Trust UK has praised a Taunton vicar because of his efforts in Manchester nine years ago.

He opened a refugee centre for those affected by the conflict in Kosovo and helped provide 65 people with food, shelter and support for three years.

Now Rev Bruce Thompson's latest project aims to improve race relations in Somerset in a campaign called 'What's the Difference?'

Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution

It involves people from different faiths visiting schools to talk about their beliefs and what their values are to young people around the county - objectives that are very much in line with Anne Frank Trust UK's work.

'Driven, enthused, and inspired'

Challenging injustice has always been the aim of Rev Bruce Thompson and in 1999 he put his beliefs into action after hearing of the plight of Kosovan Albanians.

After seeing bloodshed and turmoil in Kosovo he decided the best way to help survivors of the conflict would be on a long term basis in a meaningful way.

He opened a refugee centre rather than send over blankets, toys and clothing to the war-torn country which he felt was superficial.

“We were driven, enthused, and inspired to do it,” he said.

'Draining experience'

Eventually those needs gradually changed and luckily the support was there to help the victims, like government funded translators to help them express what they’d been through.

“It’s a draining experience if you’re working with people at the extremity of life, particularly people who have lost their homes, in some cases lost their families, lost their nation.

“They are living very far away in a strange place, they’re people who have never moved away more than an hour away from their village and suddenly find themselves in an alien culture,” he said.

'Massacre'

He recounted one story of an Albanian girl called Liria.

“The children had survived a massacre that had taken many members of their family. They were pulled off a pile of bodies after the massacre had taken place.

“One of the children, Liria, had in fact been pulled away from the pile of bodies just before they were buried. They thought she was actually dead.

“She returned to the survivors of her family some months after the war when they discovered her whereabouts.”

Some of the Kosovan Albanian youngsters at the centre were also the first children in history to testify at a war crimes tribunal about the massacres in Kosovo.

He is still in touch with some of the families, but points out that many of them have returned home – around a third of refugees did so six months after the war ended.

Tackling racism and intolerance

Now the Taunton vicar has turned his attention on helping people from all backgrounds celebrate their differences.

In 2006, he set up the Anne Frank exhibition, which attracted 10,000 visitors and he also organised survivors of the holocaust to visit schools around the county.

This September his campaign called ‘What’s the Difference?’ aims to tackle the problem of racism and intolerance in schools.

“Young people are receptive to multi-cultural, multi-faith issues.

“I think they have more inquiring minds, their mindset hasn’t already been formed, but they’re not completely oblivious.

“However there is still some racism, some prejudice within schools, and that is being dealt with very well I’m sure in all places by the various schools' staff and so on.

“There are wonderful resources available for dealing with greater awareness of difference which is vital as Somerset becomes more mobile, multi-faith and multicultural.”