Sunday, January 16, 2011

Project Dignity

7/12

We have two issues that need some innovative thoughts.

The first is credit cards. The blind boy has been offered a job to work as a cashier in a restaurant. I was delighted. Then it dawn on me that in the restaurant you need to deal with credit cards and the blind boy is not able to differentiate the different type of cards.Operating the cashier machine will not be a problem but when you come to do the credit card billing, it may be difficult as the variation of cards and its machine is huge. The challenge is how to get a blind person to differentiate credit cards.

The second is communication. In my school there is hearing impaired and blind person. For example the blind is the cashier of one stall and looking for change. The customer just given him a big note and he has no small change. He approach the deaf/dumb of the other to ask for change to a $50 note to pay the customer. It was a struggle as the blind know the deaf/dumb is near his stall but is not able to get the attention of the deaf/dumb. When they do make contact, the deaf/dumb has to struggle to tell the blind what denomination of change do the blind wants........

How do a dumb and deaf person talks to a blind?

8/12

A man came to us today and wanted Dignity Kitchen to provide food for his foreign workers. The deal was cooked food for their foreign workers and the budget is $1.15 per day for 3 meals. The number of workers is 300 and can increase to 2000. This is a regular catering and possibilities of further expansion with the increase in construction projects.

Can it be done and still make a profit?

The answer is yes..

For a start you will need the facilities, a central kitchen with big pots and pans and a preparation area. (I am talking about doing it legally) The raw material is the tricky part. You need to get cheap rice bits from suppliers, vegetable will have to buy from Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market late in the afternoon. In a typical worker fare, it is a lot of rice, plenty of gravy and minimum vegetables plus some chutney pickles.

We cannot do it and do not want to do it.......

9/12
The most challenging Lunch treat for the elderly is when we take on Category 3 / 4 type of elderly. Those that are wheel bound and bedridden. The challenges was how to bring these Cat 3 / 4 elderly out of the home and them take them out for a city tour.

After some pondering we decided to do it afterall the objective of the program to to give these elderly a good time. This is the first time anyone every do it. First the transport, we were told that there was a special vehicle that transport these elder but it is expensive. The vehicle belongs to a handicap association and when we approach them they do not offer any discount and subject to their availability. Transport cost is $200 for the 2 hours trip.

There was 8 elderly and 10 helpers from the home, that was the extend of the logistics. When they arrived at Dignity Kitchen after a city tour, you can tell they were ecstatic. One of them told me that this is their first outing in a very long time. He will always be in bed...... waiting to die.....

Someone was telling us to prepare some meal in low salt and also in porridge. Surprising all the elderly wanted the real original stuff.......

By the time they go home, one of the elderly (one that was very quiet throughout the whole day and said "Can I come again?".......

2 comments:

Avinash Kadaba Sreenivasan- SP Jain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Avinash Kadaba Sreenivasan- SP Jain said...

First Issue:
1. The blind boy can ask the customer what type of card it is.
2. The blind boy can swipe the card in custom made machine which will speak out the type of card
3. Using brailey the blind boy can identify the first digit and differentiate based on the below codes.

* 3 - travel/entertainment cards (such as American Express and Diners Club)
* 4 - Visa
* 5 - MasterCard
* 6 - Discover Card

Second Issue:
Have a signalling mechanism by the blind boy to his counterpart deaf guy. Blind guy can tap on the deaf persons shoulder when he wants change. Once the deaf guy gets the tap he spreads his hand and gives it in the blind guys hand. The blind guy writes the number of the currency for which he needs change. The deaf guy takes the big note and gives the change.

I would love to give any solution to the problems you are facing.