With the opening of our new community center, we began to dream about what we could offer to the community. What in our own lives, creates a safe space of community and connection. A place to hear stories, and share lives. A place to instill identity, even in ways that may seem unlikely. A place that is non-threatening and that would open the door to other men in our village communities.
We began to talk to the few men in our community that we trust, asking them to dream for their own lives, and what they would like to see for their villages. The result, a barbershop.
Gabriel has been apart of our community for a little while now, with his wife and children attending our mamas group. Gabriels family has gone through heartache after heartache, leaving him the oldest male, and the only adult male at 26, in his family. Their family of over 40 lives just a few blocks from our La Peña base in a tiny 3 room cement block house. His sisters and wife run our community kitchen. They have become not only staff, but family to us.
Gabriel expressed the desire to become a barber, and we had just the place for him. We made connections with a barber just outside of town who agreed to train him, and just a couple weeks ago, were able to show him his new space, and gift him with his first pair of clippers.
Gabriel is also currently helping with our Marked Soccer team, and weekly serves at our La Peña base because in his words, “I believes in this next generation, and I believe that they need good role models in their life, and I can be that.”
