Let's Celebrate more 5th Birthdays in Mozambique

Back in March, we previewed a pilot project that adds a new dimension to Ouro Negro: the Ouro Negro Hair Salon. We are happy to report that this project is now up and running in the cities of Maputo and Matola with our partners N'weti and Mozambique's Ministry of Health.

Many programs have health activists who go to communities to give talks, but the time that activists have with the population is very short. Often the time is also spent waiting for the meeting, rather than at the meeting itself, and the initiative lasts only as long as the programs last and support the activities. The Ouro Negro Hair Salon is part of a different approach: the salons are already set-up and hairdressers have a lot of time to spend with their clients, several times, throughout the year.

A baseline study undertaken by PCI Media showed that women spend between one hour and a half to three hours on a salon visit and talk about a range of topics from relationships to children, pregnancy, illnesses, shopping, fashion, food and TV and radio shows. Men talk about the same things, but spend much less time in the salon, with the exception of young people who tend to spend more time there.

Health and beauty go together naturally. Many salons are already engaging others to join the program. Three courses are offered to hairdressers. The first course on Entrepreneurship was offfered in September. Ten salons participated in the course. In five days the hairdressers analyzed their client base and offered services, learned about marketing, accounts, stock management, microcredit and formulated concrete action plans for the following month.

The second course, undertaken in the second week of October, focused on Professional Techniques, such as hair care, cutting, braiding, manicure, pedicure, make-up and massage. The course is managed by a famous Mozmbican hairdresser named Cadino.

The third training, Beauty and Health, will be held in November, and will be led by the Ministry of Health and health organization N'weti. The course will transfer knowledge about family planning, contraceptive methods, pregnancy, baby care, nutrition among other topics, and aims to empower hairdressers in health promotion and interpersonal communication. 

With the concept of the Ouro Negro Salon it is hoped that a sustainable network of safe spaces is created where customers of the salons not only leave feeling more beautiful but also healthier. The pilot program will run until the end of September 2019, at which time we expected to have gathered enough experiences to begin the expansion of the network.

For us, the Salão Ouro Negro fits in the concept Rede (network)- Radio – Bairro (community). We are creating Ouro Salão Ouro Negro for social networks and television, for radio and for real people. We are working on the Ouro Negro 360 concept, and no matter where people go, they always go get some Gold. "