A sign of gratitude for everybody helping the communities out there

“I had material here at home, we thought had for long time lockdown, so I just started sew them and then people gave me buttons” said the early childhood teacher who even though was not working in the lockdown thought of doing this just for everybody who is working hard as frontline workers. It’s just a saver to pay up-forward for everybody who needs these masks says Meredith Stewart, who is based in Gisborne, and has handmade Aroha mask band. Aroha means love, affection in Māori language.

In conversation with Meredith, it was a pleasure to discover that this Aroha stems from a lady who discovered herself, “I got supported on my journey to understand what Sikhism was, what it was to be like Sikh? And the more I read the more I felt this was who I was, it made me feel sort of blissful in my heart center thinking this is who I am, and I found my missing part.” Jasnoor Kaur Khalsa (Sikh name of Meredith Stewart) says she is Amrithdhari and have received baptismal vows of the Khalsa, that is actually who I am, and this is my journey.

These mask bands created are super convenient especially for people who wear turban because when you wear turban, your ears get covered and it gets difficult to wear the normal mask, which has strings that get easily attach to the back of our ears. That is when from her personal designs which she thought were pretty useful, Meredith redeveloped the designs with elasticated fabric and buttons. This mask can easily be worn as a band. When you remove it from your face, for hygiene purposes it can remain dangling on your neck instead of lying on any other surface area.

Till date 80 masks have been made and distributed in Gisborne and Auckland, initially these masks were for the front-line workers as a gesture of gratitude for the hard work they have been doing to keep New Zealand safe and running in this pandemic, but now Meredith hopes to collaborate with community members to make the masks more accessible across New Zealand and anyone who needs them.

As her Sewa (selfless service in Sikhism), she sent a few of these mask bands to Takanini Gurudwara Kalgidhar Sahib for the essential workers, after getting appreciated for her work in Gisborne.

Meredith is more than happy to help anyone who is in need of these mask bands and at the same time she is hoping if some community members are at home with some spare time can come up collectively for making these mask bands.

You can contact her on 022 500 7286 or email at meredithstewart22.ms@gmail.com for more information on her hand made mask bands. - Vritti Parasher (Images supplied)