At 19-years-old, Oviah Setra O’Selmo was bursting with typical youthful optimism and ready to take on the world. Then a horrific accident left her without the use of both of her legs. The teenager, once the life of the party, sunk into a depression and became a shadow of herself.
It was 2007 and she was in the trailer of a pick-up driven by a sibling. The vehicle turned turtle due the condition of the road, which had just been graded, and O’Selmo was tossed from the trailer. She said she saw her relatives in pain and wanted to assist but realised that she could not get up. She was later told that she would never walk again.
“After my accident I didn’t think that I was beautiful. I didn’t think that I was worthy…,” O’Selmo told Stabroek Weekend during a recent interview in which she spoke openly about her depression following the accident.
Before the accident, she modelled and was involved in bodybuilding, swimming and cycling.
“Everything I used to do, so it was totally different for me when I couldn’t do all of that anymore. I almost committed suicide and for me that was wakeup call that everybody is doing so much for me and the least I can do is be there for them and show them I am okay,” she said.
It took two years but she eventually embraced a secret love, cosmetology, which she believes not only saved her but propelled her to a place where she is comfortable with her disability and, more importantly, she is now able to use it to inspire others.
O’Selmo, who was raised by Rastafarian parents and had been pushed to be “natural” and shy away from things like make-up while growing up, saw an advertisement for cosmetology classes. But that was not all she saw. She also saw an opportunity to fulfil a secret dream and to also challenge many persons, including her physician, who felt that she should be less active that she had been at the time. She decided to grab her opportunity and applied for the classes without her parents’ permission because she said she knew they would have prevented her. After she was accepted, they could not say no. She ended up finishing at the top of the class. “I came out successful and I decided that I wanted more… because I had a chemistry and physics background, certain things I used to question and the persons used to get a little annoyed because I was asking too many questions,” she said.
She later got her questions answered when she was involved in another programme in 2017 and now she is the one communicating that knowledge. She officially started her business in 2013 and over the years she has entered various competitions.
O’Selmo related that her journey has not been easy as she has struggled with the way she was treated as a person with a disability and she admitted that it could have broken her, but she remained strong as she wanted to be an inspiration to others.
“I had my challenges, manoeuvring around, shopping, all of that had its challenges but I dealt with that by building relationships with business owners and calling and they would get me what I needed. But as it relates to transportation, not everybody is very patient with me, fixing my chair and putting me in the car and all of that. They would exploit me, so exploitation is another issue, but it never stopped me,” she said.
In starting up her business there were also struggles, with the main one being her inability to properly manage her finances. She has since learnt to do so over time and it is among the things that she now teaches her own students.
A dream come true
As one of the trainers in the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP), which is intended to address crime and violence in society, O’Selmo is now in month four of a six-month contract that has seen her instructing 14 women from Linden. She is one of several trainers around the country who have been selected by the CSSP to provide “advanced methods of cosmetology training to the various groups identified as at-risk youth”.
From the feedback they trainees gave during a visit by this newspaper to the Amelia’s Ward location where the classes are being held, it is not just the theory and practical in cosmetology that they are learning as the self-esteem boost they have received appear to as rewarding as the knowledge.
For Keisha Bruce, a young woman who waited two years to get into the cosmetology programme even though she was being urged to pursue something else, it was like a dream come through and she could not have found a better teacher.
“I have always wanted to be a part of cosmetology. It is something I have dreamt of since I was a little girl. I applied two years ago [under another aspect of the programme] and I had to wait very long so when I got the call it was chaos in the house,” she said, still bubbling over with excitement.
O’Selmo is not new to teaching as she has done one-on-one classes for quite some time, but she did admit that she was initially a little intimidated by the class size. However, it was a challenge she was ready to take up. Her tutoring touches all aspects of cosmetology, which is more than hair or nail styling as some may think.
All of the participants hope to start their own businesses and succeeding in an entrepreneurial training aspect of the programme would see them being given grants upon completion. They all want to be their own bosses and according to them O’Selmo has been guiding them along that path.
CSSP Project Manager Dr Clement Henry explained that the entrepreneurship programme is linked to the cosmetology programme.
“This is the skilled training and the second phase will be the entrepreneurship programme. [They will receive] just about $312,000 [once] they complete the entrepreneurship programme. We also have a job readiness programme for those who want to proceed into employment. We teach them some of the job readiness skills so they could be employable at the end of the training,” Henry explained.
He said too that they also guide the participants to other opportunities, for example those linked to the Small Business Bureau and other agencies that are supportive of youths trying to start their own businesses or trying to find employment.
It was “growing concern with crime and violence in Guyana” and wanting to place citizen security and crime reduction “among the leading policy priorities of the national authorities” that saw the Guyana government, with the assistance of the Inter-American Development Bank, develop the CSSP, which focuses on the prevention and reduction of crime and violence.
It is hoped that the CSSP will contribute to reducing crime and violence “through a comprehensive approach that combines preventive strategies with institutional strengthening activities.”
The cosmetology programme, which has been held in regions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10, is one way they hope to achieve this goal.
“The purpose of this assignment is to provide technologically advanced methods of cosmetology training to the various groups identified as at-risk youth. The training sessions are to be based upon a Diploma in Cosmetology,” the programme description states.
Consultants will be expected to provide comprehensive guidance that can be easily followed and put into practice by the clients in attendance of each training session.
Chevon Spencer, another programme participant, has already gone several steps forward in establishing her own business as she explained that being forced out of employment as a hairdresser saw her starting to take clients to her home and she twinned this with buying and selling. She also decided to be receptive to what O’Selmo taught and admitted that even though she believed she was versed in the field she has learnt a lot in the past four months.
“She taught us a lot of things… She even got in-depth with us just so we could understand. If there is someone who is having problems with anything she would always say we have to help and she even encouraged us and had it not been for her little speech I would not have taken up the challenge of opening up my own salon,” she said of their tutor.
Spencer is renovating the space for her salon and she promises that it will be something different in Linden because “as I am looking to do big, I am not willing to stay small….” She already has a name for her business: ‘Tip to Toe Beauty.’
The students also participated in the recently completed Curl Fete and Spencer described it as an amazing opportunity even though there were some experiences that left bitter tastes in their mouths. However, she was unwilling to dwell on the negatives, preferring instead to say that they will be back next year as it allowed them to “showcase a lot of our creative sides, sides that we didn’t even know we had.
“Being here, I think is good for everyone and everyone will come out successful,” she said of the programme.
Another participant, Luqonda Embrack, has also begun to work on constructing a building for her own business and like the others she sang the praises of O’Selmo as she has been exposed to different fields of cosmetology when previously she only focused on hair and nails. “Now, I have learnt so much, I have learned massages, facials and make-up application…,” she said, while adding that she is allowed to explore and display her creative side.
‘I can do everything’
O’Selmo is not shy to sell herself. She said she can do everything when it comes to cosmetology and maybe it is because of her wide skillset that her students have given such good feedback. But even though she knew she had the knowledge, O’Selmo said she had to quickly work on developing skills to make her students want to come to class every day. “Now they not only want to come to class every day, they don’t even want to go home,” she said laughing.
They meet from 9 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday and she said they at times go over that time as there is a whole lot of theory to cover, some of which is very new to the students. She is nevertheless confident that the participants will all be successful and noted that they are so hungry for knowledge that they could complete the programme in less than six months.
On completion there will be a community programme where for two weeks they will give back to senior citizens in Linden and during that process, O’Selmo said, she would also have the opportunity to observe how they deal with clients. They can also gain new clients during that process.
She puts in many hours but O’Selmo said she would have it no other way as, according to her, adults who work must be tired and tiredness demonstrates that you have worked.
Her father has finally bought-in to his daughter’s choice of career and last year told her, “I am so proud of you. “ For her, those words were the sweetest she has heard.
“As it is right now, I just do what I love. I motivate people, I motivate myself…,” she shared, before adding that the accident happened for a bigger purpose as she now is more sensitive to other people’s feelings and “that was not me before the accident”. She hopes to one day open her own cosmetology school, which will be of standard that has “never been seen in Linden before.”
