Volunteers offer grooming care to Hurricane Melissa victims

It started with a simple request for shampoo from a Hurricane Melissa victim who was forced to flee to the shelter at Petersfield High School in Westmoreland.

Four women made their way to the parish in the aftermath of the devastating Category 5 hurricane that made landfall on October 28, destroying Jamaica’s south-central and southwestern coasts, dismantling the economic, security and education systems along the coastal areas from Clarendon to St James.

The request was a light-bulb moment for the four women volunteers who all met through volunteer work and founded United4GoodJA.

“So it’s four ladies; myself, Shantel, or people call me Shani, Dawn, Jenny, and also Sham. All four of us volunteered with Humanity Over Vanity at the Petersfield High School shelter that first weekend after the hurricane. We spent three days down there providing relief aid and also assessing the situation, talking to people in the shelter and the communities and stuff,” Shantel Reynolds told The Gleaner.

Reynolds is the co-founder and outreach and events co-ordinator of the group of about 25 men and women who offered a different kind of care package.

“After speaking with the residents, we came up with a process where we were trying to do a needs assessment with people at the shelter. And I asked one of the ladies, ‘What is it that you’d like for us to do, for your stay to be a little bit more bearable here at the shelter?’ And she said to me, ‘Can you give me some shampoo?’ And it was like light bulbs at that moment. Okay, you are in this situation, but you still want to feel normal. You still want to groom yourself. You still want to feel like, you know, you still have that dignity. And that’s what sparked it,” Reynolds explained.

And that’s where it started.

“One day I just got up and decided that, you know what, I’m going to take on this initiative. I’m going to reach out to some hairdressers on Instagram. I’m going to reach out to some barbers. I’m going to reach out to who I know, and I’m going to put together a team and we’re going to have grooming days in the shelters and communities affected. So that’s how it came about. It was just a simple thought that people, even though you want, you need the necessities, you need food, you need shelter, you need clothing, but you still want to feel human,” she said.

Other requests were for deodorant and other personal care items, she said.

Based in Kingston, their operations are centred in Westmoreland, the parish most severely damaged by the hurricane.

“So that’s how we started out. And then we got volunteers to come on board for the grooming day. So our main work, which is the relief – bringing relief packages to cut-off communities, repairing roofs, providing clothing and stuff, so on and so forth – that’s still done by the main four, the four people in the core group. We still go out and do that, but we have volunteers for the grooming day.

The team of 25 volunteers, including hairstylists and barbers, worked together to restore dignity and a sense of normality for those facing hardship, she told The Gleaner.

“More than 260 haircare packages, supplied by donors including Benjamin’s Cosmetics, Soft Touch, Ashley Trading, and AFIMI, were also distributed,” she said.

Over the past two weeks, two grooming days were held – one at Williamsfield All-Age School, where more than 60 residents were serviced, and the second at the Petersfield High School shelter, where free grooming care to was provided to more than 80 men, women, and children.

The initiative supported families displaced by Hurricane Melissa and living in emergency shelters, providing free hair washing, styling, and barbering services to more than 80 residents.

Across these two events about 150 general care packages, including food, water, toiletries, clothing, and solar lights, were also distributed, as well as additional support items delivered directly to shelter residents and vulnerable families in the surrounding communities.

Their logistics, transportation, and volunteer sustenance are supported by the Jamaica Public Service Foundation, Trublu Foundation, and Change Forward Foundation.

She said United4GoodJA remains committed to uplifting vulnerable communities through practical support, compassion, and consistent engagement, and welcomes partnerships and media coverage to help expand this work.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com