The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Rome restaurant serves up new attitude toward Down syndrome Posted: 16 Feb 2014 08:59 PM PST The neon-signed restaurant was set up in a suburb southeast of the Italian capital by the parents of children with disabilities, and it functions just like any other eatery – except 13 of its 18 employees are handicapped. "I love this room, monitoring it, making myself available, being in contact with people," said Simone, a 24-year-old who after a paid internship of 600 hours now has a permanent contract with Girasoli (Sunflowers). "And above all I just love being here," he said. When a group of women came in Simone deftly showed them to a table, clutching a few menus in his hand. "We heard good things about it so we wanted to come," said one woman, while her friend added: "Basically it's a normal restaurant – except the waiters are nice." As he tucked into an amatriciana pasta dish, 64-year-old teacher Giuseppe said: "When you come here for the first time, you have certain expectations but you quickly realise that there is no need to have them." The restaurant was set up in 2000 and is aimed at offering work to people with Down syndrome – a genetic disorder usually associated with physical growth delays and intellectual disability. "My waiters do their job and do it very well," said chief waiter Ugo Menghini, who is not handicapped, praising the efficiency and speed of his staff. "If I was to set up my own business, I wouldn't hesitate, I would hire people with Down syndrome." Like many businesses in Italy, the restaurant has been hit by the recession and was forced to shut for several months last year for restructuring and renovation. It is now being run by Consorzio Sintesi, a social co-operative association which specialises in giving jobs to disabled people and also manages three call-centres for the Italian mobile phone operator Wind. "The state pushes for assistance but we prefer professional training. Everything here is self-financed with no subsidies from the state," Enzo Rimicci, the head of the association, told AFP. "Every employee here manages to find their place based on their skills," Rimicci said, explaining for example how one staffer, Marco, was too shy to work with customers but proved to be "a real machine" in the kitchen. "Seen close up, no one is normal," he said, repeating an old Roman proverb that he likes. The restaurant's training is rigorous and out of the 13 employees with Down syndrome, nine are interns. When Girasoli is closed in the morning, another team comes in to make cookies and cakes for the evening customers. Anna, a 22-year-old waitress, came in even on her night off to have dinner with her parents. "For us, for her it's a great victory," said her father, Carlo, tearing up as he described his daughter's transformation since she started work. "Our daughter has gained autonomy. When she comes home from work, she is happy, proud of what she's done," he said, adding that Anna had also made progress "in how she relates to other people, in her language". A further sign of the restaurant's success is that another one is in the works. A new one is expected to open soon in Palermo in Sicily and Rimicci said there were even plans to turn the idea into a franchise and create many more outlets. – AFP, February 17, 2014. |
| Afghan ghost towns a symbol of lost hope Posted: 16 Feb 2014 05:33 PM PST Six years on, it has come to highlight the myriad obstacles facing development projects in the country and an exodus of residents has left it feeling like a ghost town. Located about an hour's drive north of Kabul, the settlement was constructed on a stretch of dry, rocky land allocated by the government to house 1,100 families driven out of their homeland during more than four decades of conflict. Opened in 2008, it was financed by the Australian government to the tune of $7.2 million (RM23.8 million), while the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) took the lead in building homes, schools, roads and water tanks. Today, visitors are greeted by rows of abandoned homes and empty streets as most of its residents have been driven out by a lack of running water, electricity and high commuting costs to Kabul, the nearest city. Residents also complained of "culturally inappropriate" homes which lacked outer walls for privacy, meaning women were confined to their houses as a result. Many of those who left have returned to slums and shelters in the capital they once fled. "In the first year, there was work, people were constructing houses," said 79-year-old Khoja Mohammad, who lived in Iran for 20 years but decided to return for what he hoped would be a better life. "But the following year when construction of houses was completed, people found themselves unemployed, so they started to leave. And now it is like a ghost town," he added. He said there were only about 500 families left in Aliceghan and the number was decreasing. Mohammad is one of the 5.7 million Afghans who had fled the civil war in their country, but returned with great hopes of a better life after the US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime in 2001. He and his relatives live with another family – around 20 people in total – spread across two small houses with four rooms. He says life is hard, especially this winter, with temperatures dropping to -20 degrees Celsius. In his home, blankets are piled up at the corner of a room that is transformed to bedroom at night. A car battery connected to a solar panel is placed on the edge of the window and used to light the room when it gets dark. "This is our only source of electricity," Mohammad said. The township is one of the 60 scattered settlements across the country built for the returning refugees. But "there were some weaknesses in implementing the strategy" Islamuddin Jurat spokesman of ministry of refugees and repatriation told AFP. "The towns were built but lack of coordination between other key ministries such as power and energy and others to provide them basic needs of life made the plan a failure," he said, adding that the government was only able to provide shelters for around 300,000 returnees. Antonia Paradela, a UNDP official, told AFP their plan to dig wells in the area has been delayed due to land disputes between the government and residents who claim that the land where the underground water source was located belonged to them. Barek Aub, a neighbouring township, is no better off. Women and children line up in front of the only school in the town with jugs and wheelbarrows to fetch water from the reservoir tanks at least twice a day. Each family is allowed only three barrels a day – enough only for cooking and drinking. "They had promised us running water, good life, jobs opportunities, but they did nothing for us," says Bashir Ahmad, a 45-year-old father of four who has lived in Barek Aub for the past six years. "95% of people here do not work, because the village is far from the city. Some go to Kabul city, but the money they earn can barely cover their transportation costs," Ahmed, who lost a leg during Afghan's civil war, said. He says he fears that village youth will "join the insurgency or fall into drugs" if the situation doesn't change. There are around 300 families living in Barek Aub and there are only two buses for both townships that shuttle between the towns and Kabul twice daily. Abdul Wakil, member of the US based Sozo International, one of the few organisations that still help the settlements, said: "We need to create jobs. Otherwise, I do not see how people can get out." With a presidential election due on April 5 and the future of Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw hanging in the balance, many residents are fearful. "We used to receive some aid especially during winter in the past, but for three years, the aid agencies have lost interest in us. And there is a big fear that if things go wrong in 2014 and foreign aid stops we will be totally forgotten," Ahmad says. – AFP, February 17, 2014. |
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