Wolverhampton gurdwara making hair-friendly masks for bearded police officers
A Black Country gurdwara has teamed up with West Midlands Police to make specialist masks for employees with religious beards and facial hair.
The Guru Nanak Satsang Gurdwara in Wolverhampton has worked to help people across the city during the coronavirus pandemic through a range of services.
This has included providing 100 free meals a day for vulnerable families, picking up food deliveries for people in self-isolation and donating protective visors to surgeries and care homes.
And now the temple has started making protective equipment that police officers with facial hair can wear.
Ranjit Singh, wrestling and sports manager at the gurdwara, said the partnership had come about after he had heard of people with religious beards being taken off the frontline.
He said: "I was informed that officers with beard and turbans were being taken off the frontline as they didn't have the right protection in terms of PPE.
"We'd done some work with the police and crime commissioner before around knife and gun crime prevention, so the relationship started there, and they came to us about the PPE.
"We started talking to Bob Eccleston, who supplied us with the visors previously, and we started work to alter the facemasks to create something that fully covers a beard."
The masks were created by Mr Eccleston, with support from the Heart of England Community Foundation, who provided funding.
The gurdwara is now preparing to donate 200 masks to the National Police Sikh Association at a ceremony in Birmingham on Monday.
The masks will then be distributed to officers across the country, including forces in Greater Manchester, Leicestershire, Kent and West Midlands.
Mr Singh added: "It means a lot to be able to provide protection to officers across the country and it demonstrates the community spirit of the gurdwara as well.
"It's very rewarding to do something like this, something that fits the spirit of Sikhism and we know that people appreciate what we do, so it's great to be able to do this."
