Project Dignity

21/12

Children has always been my passion and I come to realise that most of our children do not get to interact with disabled people. One incident which happens when I first started Dignity Kitchen was to find a group of young girls standing in front of my blind cashier giggling away and another incident of a boy staring at the my polio man as he was walking and when the polio man slip and fall, the boy ran away. I guess this has to do with the lack of exposure and interaction and that is where the idea come to start a program called "Children working with the Disabled"

Today we had out first launch of "Children working with the Disabled" We worked with an organisation called Janus Education, who groom young children to be writers. The company managed to get about 16 children of various age and what we do is to allow them to interact with the disabled in four work stations.

Station 1 - singing with sign language with the hearing impaired

Station 2 - making spring roll with the physical handicap

Station 3 - dessert decoration with the intellectually challenged

Station 4 - braille math challenge with the visually impaired

The children will go from one station to another, performing various tasks with the disabled at the same time interacting with the disabled. The program ends with lunch for the children with the disabled.

Today also see several newspaper coming over to visit and interview our students. This is great. We need the publicity.

"If the children of today learn to interact with the disabled, the adult of tomorrow will be comfortable working with the disabled"

Project Dignity

14/12

The success of Dignity Kitchen depends on the placement of its students.

The first interview was for the ex-con and the graduate with an Indian Restaurant, that did not turn out well as the expectation between the restaurant and the candidate is very far part, taking into consideration the student's background. At the end of the week, the two students got a trial period with one of the integrated resort in Singapore and we hope they settle and stay with the job.

For the unemployed and two hearing impaired, came the opportunity to start up a food stall in town. The deal was great-the funding is from a company director, Dignity Kitchen will help with the setting up and the start-up get a below market rate rental opportunity. Will leave the decision to the students. The issue here is the hearing impaired, they are not keen.

The Elderly student got an interview with Wendy's Fast Food restaurant this week and we hope too he gets the job.

We are a school, we are to train people and after training place them but to keep the school running we have to keep some of them. We are keeping Ms Single Mother / Mr Blind / Mr Cancer / Ms Partial Blind / Mr Polio

For the school to find job opportunity for the students is not difficult, the difficulty is managing the student's expectation. For people to have been out of work for some time you would have expect them to take the first job that comes along. This is not generally the case. They have either financial expectation that is unrealistic or the job scope does not meet with their status or outlook. I guess sometime is a question of how desperate you want the job.

15/12

Three of the most common statement I come across in the last few months are

"Why you do it?"

"Are you christian?"

"You must be rich"

As for the answers .....

After my answer if I do try to explain and their response is always the same...."You will go to heaven" :-)

18/12

Today a lady from Hong Kong propose the setting up of Dignity Kitchen in China.

When a concept is simple and practical, I believe people will buy into them. In history they are many such instances like fast food, instant noodle etc. I guess the concept of a hawker school for disabled is one of them.

The proposal is to build another version of Dignity Kitchen in Dongguan in South China but sponsor by Hong Kongers. I am keen as it is always been my vision to have the school in three countries in five years and Hong Kong is one of them (personal reason)

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?".......