TWENTY-three-year-old Ananias Stephen, a barber who is a single father from the village of Aishalton, Deep South Rupununi, says he is determined to work hard in an effort to change his fortunes to one of great success.

Ananias, who is a participant of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs flagship youth programme, the Hinterland Employment Youth Service (HEYS), operates a mobile barbershop in the village.

According to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Ananias says barbering has long been his passion and when the HEYS Programme was introduced at Aishalton, he made good on the opportunity.

“I doing this since I was twelve, but I didn’t had no tools you know, so when the HEYS come, I learnt plenty things and I see I could real get this thing going. So when I get my money, I went and buy my lil set-up and start doing my thing”,” he said.
He credited the longevity of his business to the tremendous support he has been receiving from the village noting that “I does cut plenty, plenty hair when is school time, everybody coming for me to cut dem hair, so I does be busy.”

When asked about the effects of the off-peak season on his business, Ananias said he usually makes adjustments to suit the times.“Is a mobile barbershop, so I does carry all this here in a bag to the front near my friend Adela who got the snackette in front, and I does cut people hair right there and sometimes people does call me and I go by dem, sometime three or four a week,” he said.

The single-father to two-year-old Delvan Stephen acknowledged that although it can be challenging at times, parents also support him. “I have my son, I got to take care of him but I get help from my mother and father. I live with them here and sometimes when the cutting lil slow, I does do carpentry work to bring the extra money you know,” he said. He said that “all this is for my son”.

Ananias, who was among twenty HEYS participants from the village, said he was grateful to the government for rolling out the social empowerment programme that seeks to empower young people all across the country.

He remains optimistic that, in a couple of years, he would be the proud owner of a comfortable barbershop with all its amenities.

He said would also like to be an example to other youths in the village as he challenged them to never give up, but thrive to achieve whatever they set out to achieve.
Ananais recently received his stimulus grant of $50,000 and, immediately, he purchased a complete barbering set and a backup power supply.

The HEYS Programme continues to empower indigenous youths all across the Hinterland with an investment of approximately $2.3Billion by the government. Numerous success stories have been told about the programme.