Nelly and her mother cooked traditional food from Zimbabwe

Christmas dinner was cooked for local school children on Wednesday by two Zimbabwean refugees.

The event was to promote understanding between people from different backgrounds living on the Caia Park estate in Wrexham.

In June 2003, the area was the focus of disturbances between some people on the estate and Iraqi Kurd refugees.

Riot police were called to help tackle the violent outbreak which followed friction between a number of Iraqis and longer-term residents of Caia Park.

Pupils from St Anne's are encouraged to learn about different cultures

As a result of the disturbances 51 people appeared in court, and jail sentences totalling more than 80 years were handed out.

However, Reverend Stan Walker, a local vicar, is among those who have said the disorder 17 months ago was not about race.

Rev Walker accepted his position at St Mark's Church in Caia Park on the day the disturbances occurred.

"I saw it on the news that evening.....I came back to see what was going on and I didn't see it as a racist incident at all," he said.

We're having a small celebration for people in Caia Park Dorothy Kaseke

"It was basically a domestic incident and there was no racism in it."

Reverend Walker said events like the Christmas get-together have helped forge closer links within the community.

"We have quite a large ethnic mix. People say we have asylum seekers and refugees. Well yes, but they live here and they're part of our community.

"If people grow up together colour seems to disappear. I don't see a real problem here - community integrates itself by playing together and eating together."

The children's Christmas lunch was organised by members of the Refugee and Asylum Seekers Support Group.

Zimbabweans Dorothy Kaseke and her daughter Nelly, who cooked the lunch, have lived in Caia Park for four years.

They said their feast of chicken and rice was their thank you for the way they have been treated.

"We're having a small celebration for people in Caia Park," said Dorothy.

Pupils sang carols as they waited for their food

"Making our own food, what we eat in our country, will help people understand about us," she added.

Her 31-year-old daughter Nelly said she has settled well in Wrexham.

"Everything is alright, they are friendly people and my children are settling well into school.

"My son came here without speaking any English and now he can speak English and a bit of Welsh," she added proudly.

Among the people sampling their feast were children from St Anne's primary school.

Head teacher Rachel Molyneux said the increase in children from outside the UK has made understanding different cultures vital.

"In the last three years 10% of our school community has become children who have English as an additional language. Up until that point we had no children from other countries at all," she said.

"We have little ones who arrive in the country on a Sunday and mum, dad and interpreter arrive on the Monday and the little child starts on a Tuesday.

"It's such a big culture shock to them that we try to make it as smooth as possible.

"It's very important for them to be treated as individuals but for them to get together as a group with children from different cultures and to have a common identity as well.

"[Pupils] don't see the differences," said Ms Molyneux.

"They see the similarities so they don't have a problem with the way different children speak or the way different children look, the fact that they may eat different foods or that they worship in a different place."