According to chief barber Lex Low, 30, organisers of national youth programme iM4U reached out to him to fund the programme after learning he was interested in helping underprivileged youth support themselves with proper life skills.
“Regardless of who they are. Drug addicts, ex-convicts, gangsters, they all can apply with us,” Low told FMT.
“We give them skills and opportunities to advance themselves in life.”
The criteria for potential applicants is simple: they should be aged from 17-30 years old, come from households with monthly incomes of less than RM4000 or single-parent families, have basic proficiency in Malay or English, and be “independent and able to manage their own time.”
The programme is not tied exclusively to Amplitude Barbershop, Lex explained, but held with Amplitude by virtue of convenience.
Although the Amplitude programme started two months ago, Lex has been helping underprivileged youth for the past three years.
He started working with the Dignity for Children Foundation in Sentul, an initiative founded by Elisha Satvinder and his wife Petrina Shee in 1999, that reaches out to the poor in Sentul.
It was at this time that Low proposed the idea of training the underprivileged to Satvinder, who gave him his blessing.
Today, Low regularly goes to the streets to give free haircuts, through which he occasionally connects with potential applicants for the programme.
“It’s how I connect with them. I’d be cutting their hair, learning about them, and then I’d offer to teach them if they’re interested,” Low said.
Low now works closely with Pitstop Community Cafe in downtown Kuala Lumpur, where the homeless are centralised.
“That cafe after 4pm every day serves food to the homeless. Regardless of who you are, if you’re hungry, you just queue,” Low said.
“I go there every Thursday, set up a small little space to teach some of the potential homeless. I now have about three students there.”
“It’s a simple skill, barbering. Nothing fancy. I bring my tools, train them there and then. The homeless get a free haircut, they get to learn, I get to teach – it works both ways.”
