Barbers unite to provide free haircuts
Children given new looks ahead of school term
With the start of a new school year just around the corner, parents are urgently getting their little ones ready for the first day back at school.
Guardians of Agape Love gathered their team of hairstylists and barbers and spent the week providing free haircuts, braiding and grooming to more than 700 children from Vergenoeg, Egoli and the surrounding areas last week.
According to Lanché Schultz of Guardians of Agape Love, the initiative was a huge success.
“The initiative was a massive success, where so many children came out and wanted to be part of it all. It was mostly the vulnerable children whose parents could not afford to pay.
“They didn’t just get any haircut, they got good quality haircuts. They could actually tell the barber what type of haircut they wanted that were suitable for school. We also cut their nails and gave them food.
“It was a full pamper experience,” Schultz said.
About 50 stylists volunteered their services and women from the community did plaits and braids for the girls and local barbers offered their time and equipment to cut the boys’ hair.
Parents also assisted with crowd control and providing the children with food and snacks throughout the day.
Peter van Sens, whose two grandsons received haircuts, expressed his gratitude.
”My grandchildren were so excited for this and myself, as a community member, appreciate the service for our children.
“Some people don’t have money to pay for haircuts and my hope is that this initiative continues. Parents have also been excited,” Van Sens said.
Schultz said some of the challenges were the lack of equipment and hair products that were needed.
“Luckily we had organisations like Helping
Those In Need who came in and provided us with what we needed. This was a great show of community upliftment. We all came together and it was a success,” Schultz said.
Guardians of Agape Love is a humanitarian organisation that has spent the last three years providing communities around East London with food, clothing, building materials and anything else they may need to help alleviate poverty.
“We are a well-known organisation and we have partnered with many local and international organisations to provide aid.
“This year we plan on setting up a community garden and providing community members with gardening skills and seedlings so they can sustain themselves. We also have a library project that we are working on with Kings College.
“We already have 2,000 books that we will be donating to primary school pupils,” Schultz said.