‘I FEEL FRESH, I FEEL SHARP, I FEEL GOOD’
Former refugees pay it forward with timely holiday trims
Shawn Dooley ran a hand along his newly shorn temples and jawline and smiled.
Then he turned to thank barber Jamal Alattar for his painstaking work.
“I feel fresh, I feel sharp, I feel good,” Dooley, 43, said after getting out of Alattar’s chair as the non-profit Humans for Peace Institute turned the chapel at the Ottawa Mission, where he’s staying, into a barbershop Saturday.
“Before, I needed help,” said Alattar, 24, a barber both in his native Syria and in the three years since he came to Ottawa, where he also has a second job as a house painter.
“Now I help people.”
It was the second year for the event dubbed Refugees for Peace — Haircuts for Kindness from an organization that has held events ranging from auctioning off Syrian children’s art to benefit CHEO to a series of blood donor clinics, the next on Christmas Eve.
By the end of the event, supported by The Market’s Barber Shop on Dalhousie Street, the volunteers had done 70 cuts.
“We are a volunteer organization,” said founder Dr. Jamal Alsharif. “We are doing something to bring the community together.”
The aim, he said, is to put smiles on people’s faces, especially before the holidays.
“It’s a time for families,” he said, adding that for those who may spend it alone, “we want to give them the warm feeling that there is a big family around them.”
Volunteerism is a way to both give back to a country that’s helped them and to integrate into Canadian life. Many refugees benefited from the help of settlement volunteers and they want to pay it forward once they are on their feet in a new country.
“One of the most important values of Canadian society is volunteerism,” Alsharif said. “No matter if you are sick or healthy, man or woman, child or adult, you can volunteer and contribute to putting a smile on someone’s face.”
The son of refugees, he’d lived in countries around the world before settling in Canada and becoming, in the words of Volunteer Ottawa, a “super volunteer” who gives his time to a plethora of local events and founded Humans for Peace.
On Monday, the organization is rallying people to a blood donor drive at Canadian Blood Services — “we are celebrating Christmas by giving blood,” Alsharif said. Previous drives included one for Syrian-Canadians in April and another to celebrate Canada Day. In September, they organized volunteers to help tornado victims clean up.
While would-be clients, from a shaggy pink-haired youth to a senior in a wheelchair, waited for one of three busily snipping barbers, 11-year-old Adam Alsharif swept up the shower of hair as fast as it fell.
Dooley, who said he has been on the street for much of his life and is now staying at the mission with the goal of finding a permanent home, said that thanks to the Mission he’s not just surviving, but beginning to thrive. Self-care like a simple haircut is part of having dignity and hope, he said.
“It feels good — just in time for Christmas,” added different Shawn, a 32-year-old who did not want to give his last name, after getting a fresh beard trim and a razor-sharp haircut, his first in a year. He went to check out the results and came back grinning. “It’s uplifting to look in the mirror and see a significant change.”
It feels good — just in time for Christmas. It’s uplifting to look in the mirror and see a significant change.