As parents and guardians rushed to make last-minute preparations ahead of schools reopening next week, officers of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) launched an initiative in Port-of-Spain yesterday to ease students’ return by providing free haircuts to scores of young men and women.
In an effort to ensure students are properly groomed for the new school year, police officers collaborated with three barbers from High Performance Unisex Salon.
Together, they organised a free clinic, ‘Fades and Braids,’ on the Brian Lara Promenade to provide complimentary haircuts and hairstyles to ensure students are properly groomed and ready to greet the new term.
Making a surprise visit, much to the delight of the youngsters and elders present, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Operations, Junior Benjamin, prayed with them before getting them to affirm, “I will have an awesome attitude.”
Benjamin encouraged them to “dream big and go after it”, and shared that as a young man himself, he never knew he would one day become a senior officer.
“Dreams do come true if you believe in yourself and believe in a God that is able to help you,” he said.
He urged, “You can accomplish anything that you want in your life. Once you believe in your heart that you can do it, you can achieve it. Be the best you can at all times.”
Benjamin confirmed, “The idea is to really build that community engagement, build that level of trust and show that softer side of the police.”
He said they were also aiming to show that, “As the Police Service, we are not just about law enforcement but that we can engage with the young people.”
Even as hair was being cut and others braided, the DCP said the officers were taking time to speak into the lives of the students, “So they can understand that they have a future and that they can contribute to T&T in a positive way.”
Cpl Michel Flemming of the IATF Hearts and Minds explained that following community engagement, they were acutely aware that many people were facing difficulties in ensuring their children’s physical well-being ahead of Monday.
“We observed that due to tough economic times, a simple thing like cutting hair and grooming their kids was very difficult for some,” he said.
The initiative, he said, was meant to prepare the kids to return to school in a confident manner, ready to learn.
Flemming said while the police continued to battle the stigma that law enforcement was only negative, this was a “way of giving back and letting society know the police are here to help.”
Pressed to say where the funding for yesterday’s event had come from, Flemming said it was a pilot project, which had seen officers dipping into their own pockets, along with the support of the three civilian barbers who agreed to work from 10 am to 3 pm.
A female hairdresser operating her store along Charlotte Street stopped to commend the officers as she begged to be allowed to participate in the pop-up.
A 64-year-old Morvant woman who brought her two grandsons, aged eight and five, to get their hair cut praised the lawmen for the financial leg up.
She smiled broadly as she said, “I would have had to go and pay a $100 to cut the both of them head...but I get away this time!”
Grateful for the officers’ intervention, she appealed to them to do more to help the youths.
“I want to tell them they could do more thing to save these ones that coming up...before they end up going where the other people show them love and whatever and they end up in gangs,” she said.
She urged, “Talk to them, show them more love, try and keep them on the right road because it ain’t easy right now with these young people.”
Sharing the challenges she has to overcome daily as she fights to keep her grandsons safe and focused, the woman, who requested her name not be used, went on, She praised the officers, saying, “I glad that they could talk to them and put them on the right track. I glad they out here with them.”
On his way to orientation at St Francis Boys’ College, Belmont, with his mother, 12-year-old Jeremiah Amorali was excited to meet Benjamin and the other officers.
Stopping briefly to shake hands with the senior lawman, Amorali smiled broadly after Benjamin offered to let him hold his badge as he explained what it meant to serve and protect at the highest level.
Barber Christopher Joseph said he and his business associates chose to partner with the police as their way of giving back to the people.
Indicating, “It is not always about the money,” he said it felt really good to help and support the youngsters who were the leaders of tomorrow.
Joseph appealed to other business owners like himself to join the police in promoting such initiatives, which had the potential to change lives for the better.
