Yadel Home for Girls pampered by Shades of Elegance

For the past five years head of Shades of Elegance Beauty Salon and Spa Treacha Reid-McCalla has been empowering the lives of these girls in the form of proper grooming – done a quarterly basis throughout the year – and mentoring.

Reid-McCalla, who was raised by a single mom, said her self-appointed initiative came purely from the goodness of her heart.

“I don’t believe people must spread love once a year,” she told Old Harbour News while attending to one of the girls at her South Street location.

“I know not getting any love how it feels,” she continues. “When I met these girls for the first time I let them understand that their hair is their beauty. Once your hair is done you feel good. When I met them for the first time, their hair was a mess, it was horrible. So I sat down and ask myself ‘what difference can I make’. So obviously my purpose is to take care of their well-being, helping them to accept who they are for what they are.”

The fact that the girls are from broken homes and communities with poor social structures, makes it very challenging, but Reid-McCalla likes the fact that she’s able to “teach them and show them right from wrong and instill a little discipline in them because they lack discipline”.

From quiet early in the morning the Shades of Elegance head honcho and her staff were busy attending to the 22 girls from Yadel, a home for wards of state founded in 2011 by the New Testament Church in collaboration with the Jamaican government.

RELATED ARTICLE: How one Yadel girl is inspired by Shades of Elegance supremo

RELATED ARTICLE: The reason why Shades of Elegance boss Treacha Reid-McCalla supports the Yadel Home for Girls

It’s the big climax of every year the girls all look forward to and made possible by the kind support of  micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) such as OJ Koolers, Dong Dong Restaurant, KD’s Farm, Herflow (producers of menstrual supplies) and Antoinette’s Accessories.

Many of the girls have been around since the initiative started and have been inspired and wants to emulate Reid-McCalla.

“I have to now know what I am doing, watch my steps every day, watch what I say and do because these girls are watching because they want to be like me someday,” she said.

Janet Bennett is one of the caregivers who works at Yadel, located in Bannister approximately two miles north of Old Harbour town centre. Bennett has been employed to the facility for three years and has developed a close relationship with the girls. They have their difficult moments which made “me cry sometimes, but I will never give up on them.”

But the impact created by Shades of Elegance is immense, the caregiver said, as it touches the heart of each girl.

“She has done a great job for us,” Bennett said of Reid-McCalla’s act of goodwill. “The girls feel really good and they appreciate it. I feel good to know that somebody cares as it proves to the girls there are people out there who truly love them and care for them. We at Yadel alone cannot show them love, they need other people to show them love.”

It has been going for more than three years since Leonie Samuels took over as head of Yadel. She said this year felt extra special.

“Sometimes people will do things for us and it is so superficial. But when Shades of Elegance extend themselves you can feel the love from the bottom of her heart,” the Yadel house manager said in expressing gratitude during dinner, while pointing to the exceptional service extended to herself and the other caregivers.

As a policy the identity of the girls cannot be revealed. However, one 17-year-old, who doesn’t have a relationship with her mother and has never met her father, told Old Harbour News that being at Yadel “make me feel like how a real family should feel like”.

She looks forward going to Old Harbour’s premier salon and spa, saying each visit “makes me feel beautiful”.

Another 17-year-old, inspired by Reid-McCalla, is an aspiring cosmetological entrepreneur who one day hopes to achieve similar or greater status in the business.

“I’m interested in cosmetology because I want persons to feel beautiful about themselves and have confidence.

“What inspired me about her (Treacha Reid-McCalla) is how she takes her job very, very seriously. She works very hard and that inspires me because in the future I would like to become like her, have my own salon and everything. It also inspires me to see her reaching out and helping others,” said the Kingston resident who spent about three years at Yadel before recently returning home to live with her mother.