The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Bradford on Wednesday for a series of engagements to view “a number of projects which support the community in the diverse Yorkshire city,” according to the Royal Family website.
Upon arrival in Bradford, William and Kate met with businesses and employers to talk about youth employment before they undertook a walkabout in Centenary Square outside City Hall to meet with members of the public and learn more about life in the community.
Inside the meeting, William spoke with a young woman named Caitlund Roberts who works in STEM and told him about the stigma attached to women in that profession.
Prince William told her that “STEM is something we have been going around asking about a lot,” and asked her “How did you find the journey getting into it? Easy? Difficult? What more can be done?”
Meanwhile, Kate spoke about mental health with a young woman named Rosena Nawez. She was heard asking if it was easy to talk about mental health with her friends, while William asked her if there were mental health services in the city.
The Duke and Duchess then went outside to Centenary Square for a walkabout and spoke with a variety of people during that time. William was overheard talking about Aston Villa with one person, saying that their goalkeeper, Tom Heaton, had a “horrible injury.”
Kate chatted with primary school children who had gathered up at the barricade and accepted flowers from two young girls wearing bright pink “Welcome to Yorkshire” sweaters.
William spoke in sign language again, though he admitted that he only knew what he’d signed the day before at an Investiture Ceremony at Buckingham Palace—congratulations.
William and Kate then visited MyLahore, a restaurant chain with its flagship location in Bradford, that serves food inspired by the cuisine of Lahore, Pakistan, where the couple visited in October. The couple were hosted by CEO Asghar Ali and managing director Shakoor Ahmed.
In addition to learning about the charitable work MyLahore does, Their Royal Highnesses also met with Bradford College students in the kitchen who are studying under a kitchen apprenticeship scheme.
The royal couple seemed to have great fun mixing mango and kulfi milkshakes with the help of students. William called his mango laissi delicious and asked about how they sourced ingredients. The couple also spoke with British Olympic boxer Amir Kahn during their time at the restaurant.
Afterwards, the royal couple met with representatives from the UK Women’s Muslim Council and beneficiaries to talk about The Curry Circle, a project supported by MyLahore that provides “a hot two-course meal for people who are homeless or struggling to feed themselves,” per the Royal Family website.
On the UK Women’s Muslim Council website, they note that The Curry Circle has “supported 7,000 people” over the past 12 months, “and since starting over 40,000 people. Those who attend are from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, made up of 41.9%% white British, 12.5% Pakistani, African Caribbean 41.9%, Eastern European 2.3% and 3.7% other.”
Following their visit to MyLahore, William and Kate travelled to a Khidmat Centre to learn about projects by Near Neighbours and Better Start Bradford. There are several Khidmat Centres in West Yorkshire, all of which “help the most vulnerable members of the community from minority ethnic backgrounds,” per the Royal Family website.
Better Start Bradford showed the royals some of the 20 projects it supports, including the ‘Older Yet Wiser Project’, which works with grandparents who have child-care responsibilities and teaches them how to “enhance their relationship with their grandchildren whilst receiving up-to-date information on raising children in the 21st century.”
Jo Broadbent, a grandparent taking part in the workshop, told Hello! that “Kate obviously has a great interest in early years development, she’s quite knowledgeable about it, she referred to some of the tools and techniques we learnt about on the course. I asked how her children were. Kate said Louis had started to tell her ‘Mummy, I’m balancing’ and she said it was really nice to see him turning into a little boy from being a baby. She’s obviously very proud of her children.”
William and Kate also joined a ‘Little Dots’ session, which aims to use “music and play to support children’s social, emotional and physical development, while simultaneously supporting adult self-esteem.”
Kate picked up an 18-month-old named Sorayah Ahmad and began dancing with her. Her grandmother, Maryiam told Hello! that it was a special moment for the family, “I almost started crying, it was very, very emotional. Kate was joining in with the nursery rhymes and dancing with Sorayah.”
The Royal Family website highlighted the Duchess’s “longstanding work on the early years has highlighted the importance of supporting children and families during this seminal period of their lives, and the importance of all members of society in raising children,” as a reason for the visit to the Khidmat Centre.
For their final engagement of the day, William and Kate took part in a session with Near Neighbours, which “brings people together in communities across the UK that are religiously and ethnically diverse, so that they can get to know each other better, build relationships of trust, and collaborate together on initiatives that improve the local community that they live in.”
The Duke of Cambridge spoke about the need to move beyond challenges and deal with them, saying, “It’s sometimes trying to get people to understand that’s it’s okay to have these challenges. We just need to deal with them and we need to move forward rather than just be stuck in paralysis.”
