The shop that wants to make life a piece of cake

Together’s confectionery store is the first run by and for people with intellectual disabilities and autism

October 24, 2017 12:28 am | Updated 12:28 am IST

Safe space  The shop allows the students to interact with the community around them, and develop communication skills.

Safe space The shop allows the students to interact with the community around them, and develop communication skills.

Mumbai: Splashes of red, ochre and green across a longish wall greet you at the end of a slope in Poonam Nagar, Andheri (East). A window opens out into a shelf stocked with a variety of cookies and cakes in decorative wraps, ready for the festive season. In the corner, a signboard reads, ‘The first shop managed by people with special needs.’

It’s late afternoon, and there is no one in the shop at the moment — on most other days, there is someone at the window during the day — but there’s a hum of activity inside, as children shuffle their bags and prepare to leave for the day. They have just concluded a Navratri party, and are winding down after a few hours of merriment.

The shop is attached to a vocational training centre for people with autism and intellectual disabilities between 14 and 30 years of age, including a commercial bakery certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The shop, which opened a few months ago, provides what Sangeetha Chakrapani, Founder of Together, which runs the centre and the shop, calls a “sheltered, meaningful employment opportunity” for the children.

Children with autism — called a spectrum disorder, because it affects children in a variety of ways — face challenges in communication and social interactions. And intellectual disability is characterised by below-average intelligence and a lack of day-to-day living skills.

Window of opportunity

“One of the ways I could look for employment for these students,” Ms. Chakrapani says, “was to go out into the world, knock on many doors and say, ‘Please give a chance to these students.’ It is possible today; there are many organisations far more receptive to working with people with disabilities than they used to be. But I decided, instead, to create another window of opportunity.”

Sangeetha Chakrapani with the children of Together.

Sangeetha Chakrapani with the children of Together.

The bakery has a chef, and a team of students works in different capacities depending on their skill-sets: some may bake, others pack, or label the products. The shop allows the students to interact with the community around them, and develop communication skills. “Even in the shop, we have students training in different areas,” Ms. Chakrapani says. “You have students, for example, who don’t interact with customers at all. They clean the shop, put up the display, while some explain the rate card, and maybe one or two handle the money.”

Simran Fanson, 19, enjoys managing the shop. She is usually at the counter for about 10 to 20 minutes before another student relieves her, but today, she has been sitting for half-an-hour and even sold some products to a group of women who attended the Navratri party. “We have triple-choco modaks, laddoos, cookies and cupcakes on sale,” she says, and breaks into a grin. “I want you to buy some too!” Her enthusiasm is infectious. “I feel good doing this. It’s no use sitting at home,” she says. She has completed her Class XII in Home Science through correspondence, and wants to help her father in his generators business . She also makes lamps and sells them in her Andheri West neighbourhood, besides helping her mother with cooking. Her best day so far? Independence Day, when she earned ₹1,500. “I gave everyone a treat from my first salary!”

Ms. Chakrapani sees Ms. Fanson playing a much larger role . “She was never inclined towards academics, and always wanted to learn skills. Teaching her the tasks is not an issue at all. I see her taking on a very big role, once she settles emotionally and understands responsibilities.”

A cooperative endeavour

In many ways, Ms. Chakrapani lives the project. She has four children, quadruplets, and two were diagnosed with autism. The kids are now 13. She would ask herself the question parents of children with disabilities must confront —what would their life be like after the parents passed on? — and that became the core of Together, which she founded four years ago.

“This is our programme in a nutshell,” she says. “We’ve tried to conceptualise what the hurdles are a person with autism is likely to cross from dawn to dusk. Right from the time you wake up in the morning to your basic physical needs — getting dressed, being able to say you’re not well, that you need some extra time in bed, you have your period, your back is hurting — it could be all the small things you and I take for granted.” This is especially important, as many children with autism are either non-verbal or have limited verbal capabilities, therefore the need to teach them to communicate their basic needs.

Ms. Chakrapani visited residential centres for people with disabilities and saw how they lived when they were in their 30s and 40s. “I saw there is a lot we need to teach that has nothing to do with academics. There is a huge area to be covered.” She calls herself a ‘co-worker’ at Together, which has a team of seven — four special educators, a parent, two support staff and herself — who attend to 15 children. “I’m very clear that none of us is perfect here: not the teachers, not I, not my students. And this world is not perfect. So we live with our imperfections, and we run this like a cooperative.”

The programme is divided into four parts: the kitchen, personal hygiene, how to manage free time, and work. Together opened the vocational centre last year, with one microwave oven and an oven-toaster-grill. It began operations last November. “We started slow. Not everyone could be involved in the bakery. So we decided to enter into paper plates, then paper bags, and then the shop.”

The vocational training is based on the premise that every human being needs to put in a minimum of five to six hours of work a day. The training depends on the area of work and the student’s skill set. A peer group is important because many people with intellectual disabilities sit at home doing nothing; “that hurts me no end,” she says, as her voice softens.

Another challenge is to create lifetime care facilities, which is a dream she and her husband wish to fulfil. “Even if they’re going to be in a supported environment, they need to have some skill set. So we have to push and push and push for greater independence on living skills, being able to adjust to people around them, understand basic communication, follow instructions, communicate requirements to people other than their parents.”

A beautiful journey

It’s still early days for the shop, with just word-of-mouth bringing customers in. The shop is open five days a week, which she hopes will soon be seven days. Ms. Chakrapani is hoping companies give them bulk orders. She also hopes to buy a food truck that will go from area to area with the students, selling their products, for which she needs finance.

She is careful to emphasise that Together does not rely on emotions. “We are here to create a product that gives customer satisfaction — if it is going to be on sympathy it will never last — and provide an engaging atmosphere in which people with disability can learn, earn, enjoy themselves, just like other people.” This is possible only through community support. “Our duty is to give something of value. Now we are waiting for the world to meet us half-way. That won’t come overnight. We have to keep at it.”

To most of us who have friends, regular jobs and families we interact with, it’s a perspective we can only imagine. Ms. Chakrapani, however, works with a much larger aim and when she speaks, the passion comes through. She always reminds parents — and herself — that they have to focus on the fact that it’s not their journey, but that of the children. “Somewhere we have to let go of our ego, our demands, our pride and our desires and concentrate on their journey. And make it a beautiful journey for them; give them a world that is safe. A world that accepts them and where they can engage.”

Together Foundation’s bakery sells muffins, teacakes, cupcakes, sugar-free products made without artificial sweeteners, oats-and-raisin cookies, chocolate cookies, and oreo pops, all eggless and vegetarian. Orders and business inquiries: +91-22-28398173/+91-9930358173 or togethersee@gmail.com

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