Windsor & Maidenhead Community Forum receives £1,000 Louis Baylis Trust donation  

Ongoing support from the Louis Baylis Trust has contributed to the work of ‘one of the strongest interfaith groups in the UK’.

Windsor & Maidenhead Community Forum (WAMCF) has received £1,000 in the latest round of donations from the trust.

Its aim is ‘to strengthen understanding, mutual respect and trust between the different faiths within the Royal Borough’.

Chairman Karnail Pannu MBE, president of the Sikh Gurdwara in Rutland Road, founded WAMCF in 1981 with Fazan Awan, Dr Jonathan Romain, Peter Hudson and Dr Mike Bruton.

It is facilitated by officers who represent the core faiths Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Baha’i, Buddhism and Brahma Kumaris.

WAMFC interfaith co-

ordinator Paul Samuels said the forum is ‘needed now perhaps more than anytime in WAMCF’s history’.

He said: “WAMCF is all about building bridges between different faiths, cultural and racial backgrounds and developing greater understanding, mutual respect and trust between the public across the Royal Borough and those different groups.”

For the past three decades the forum, which also has its own women’s group, has organised sporting events, conferences, workshops, youth concerts, faith walks and interfaith dialogues.

The forum also hosts the WAMCF Annual Dinner & Diversity Exhibition at Maidenhead Town Hall which is what the grant will be spent on.

Paul said the event ‘has been vital in strengthening the trust and friendship of diverse groups across the Royal Borough’.

In 2017 WAMFC, Slough Faith Partnership and Windsor Humanists started the Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead Initiative (SWAMI).

SWAMI brings ‘communities closer together with each other and with the general public’ through street showcases featuring 25 community groups.

Paul said: “It has been through activities like these that WAMCF has been able to forge and sustain one of the strongest interfaith groups in the UK, and helped to strengthen community cohesion throughout the borough.

“We are enormously grateful to the Louis Baylis Charitable Trust for their great support over the years.”