Faith Direct is an initiative organised by Wandsworth Council and the Wandsworth Multi-Faith Group, to increase young people's knowledge of the different faiths and beliefs practised in the borough, promote understanding, tolerance and respect and offer an open forum for dialogue. Fr Saju Mullasseril SDB, Chaplain at St John Bosco College Battersea, arranged for some of the students to take part in an event recently, and Lara from Year 10 talks about the impact it had on her.

Faith Direct was an amazing opportunity to learn about more than just my own religion. I now know that each faith has its own story from either very long ago or from more recently.

Understanding how believers from other faiths face life will help me, in the future, to be more understanding about other people's opinions and views.

When learning about Islam, one of my friends asked about the speaker's views on ISIS. He said that supporters of ISIS interpret the Qur'an in the wrong way and use this to back up their actions.

Overall, it was an amazing experience and I am now aware of religions that I was not aware of before. I am very grateful to Fr Saju for giving me this opportunity.